---
name: domain-ecommerce-inventory-management-1003dce00efa
description: |
  Inventory management for e-commerce: WMS integration (warehouse management systems), dropshipping,
  3PL (ShipBob, Flexport), demand forecasting, lot/batch tracking, inventory valuation (FIFO/LIFO/
  weighted average), cycle counting, stock tracking (available, reserved, committed), multi-location
  inventory, backorder handling, reservation patterns, stock alerts, and inventory sync across channels.
allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash
---

# Inventory Management

## When to use
- Designing stock quantity models (available/reserved/committed) and append-only ledger patterns
- Integrating with WMS platforms (ShipHero, NetSuite WMS) or 3PL providers (ShipBob, Flexport)
- Evaluating dropshipping vs. 3PL vs. in-house fulfillment for a new product line
- Building or improving demand forecasting and automated replenishment
- Implementing lot/batch/serial number tracking and expiration management
- Choosing and implementing inventory valuation method (FIFO, LIFO, WAC)
- Setting up multi-location routing, inter-location transfers, or multi-channel inventory sync

## Core principles
1. **Append-only ledger is the source of truth** — never mutate stock counts directly; replay entries for audit
2. **Atomic DB operations prevent overselling** — `UPDATE WHERE available > 0`; return row count; skip the SELECT
3. **Soft reserve expires, hard reserve holds** — cart TTL (15 min) soft; payment confirmed converts to hard
4. **Safety stock is not a guess** — Z-score × stddev of demand during lead time; recalculate per SKU seasonally
5. **One source of truth, push to channels** — centralized inventory with per-channel buffer stock; never let channels self-manage

## Reference Files
- `references/stock-tracking-wms.md` — quantity types, ledger pattern, atomic updates, WMS platforms and integration, location modeling, picking strategies
- `references/dropshipping-3pl-forecasting.md` — dropshipping model and platforms, 3PL providers and integration, in-house vs. 3PL comparison, demand forecasting methods and tools
- `references/lot-tracking-valuation-cycle-counting.md` — lot/batch/serial tracking, expiration and recall management, FIFO/LIFO/WAC/specific ID valuation, cycle counting process and metrics
- `references/multi-location-reservations-sync.md` — multi-location routing (DOM), inter-location transfers, backorder/preorder, soft/hard reservation implementation, stock alerts, reorder automation, multi-channel sync


---
Source attribution: rnavarych
Original project: https://github.com/rnavarych/alpha-engineer/blob/c5b74102c7fd584af3d344ba7c331a7bbec3c729/plugins/domains/domain-ecommerce/skills/inventory-management/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Raman Navarych

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.



# Mega AI Hub resource metadata

Creator / publisher: rnavarych
Original project: https://github.com/rnavarych/alpha-engineer/blob/c5b74102c7fd584af3d344ba7c331a7bbec3c729/plugins/domains/domain-ecommerce/skills/inventory-management/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Marketing, Operations, Sales
Roles: Business Development, Growth Marketer, Operations Manager, Product Marketer, Supply Chain Manager
Specialties: Specialty not specified
Tools: 3Pl, Wms
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: 47ca9c5fd31818a0c942e3240de681848746f61b4672b4deca3b43eee24b8315