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Inventory

Updated May 26, 20262 min read

Use Carriyo's Inventory module to give Carriyo the stock visibility it needs for smart allocation and click-and-collect filtering. Your WMS, ERP, or commerce platform remains the source of truth. Carriyo holds an operational mirror, not a master record.

If you skip inventory entirely, Carriyo still works (orders allocate, shipments book, returns process), but several features operate blind. Allocation rules can't be inventory-aware, click-and-collect can't filter by stock, and reports lose the "available vs sold" lens.

Inventory & Catalog across the docs
Build with the API
Inventory API
Push stock events, query per-location balances, and reconcile against your master record.
Build with the API
Products API
Maintain the merchant catalog: SKUs, variants, dimensions, customs data.
Use from an LLM agent
Inventory MCP tools
Look up per-location stock from an agent for allocation and click-and-collect reasoning.
Use from an LLM agent
Products MCP tools
Read products and variants from an agent. Useful when narrating order content or stock decisions.

What Carriyo's inventory does

  • Per-location stock visibility. Track quantity-on-hand per SKU per location.
  • Inventory events. Events come in (adjustments, receipts, shipments out, returns in) and Carriyo updates the per-location position.
  • Reservations. When an order allocates, the chosen location reserves the stock until the shipment is fulfilled (or cancelled).
  • Inputs to allocation. Allocation rules can match on "location has stock", falling through to a different location when the primary is empty.
  • Click-and-Collect filtering. When a shopper picks collection-method, only stores with stock appear.
  • Stock reporting. Aggregate stock metrics, turnover by SKU, trapped inventory.

What it doesn't do

  • Master record. Carriyo doesn't replace your WMS or ERP. Inventory data flows in; Carriyo doesn't write back to your source.
  • Receiving / counting workflows. Stock counting, receiving POs, cycle counts: those are managed in your WMS. Carriyo consumes the resulting numbers.
  • Forecasting / reordering. Carriyo doesn't predict stock needs or trigger replenishment.

Data flow shapes

Two common shapes:

Push from your WMS / ERP

Your inventory system pushes events to Carriyo:

WMS / ERP  ──events──▶  Carriyo inventory  ──used by──▶  Allocation, Click-and-Collect, Reports

Events typically include receipts (stock arrived), shipments out (stock dispatched), adjustments (counts), transfers (stock moved between locations).

Pull / sync via connector

Connectors (Shopify, Magento, etc.) sync inventory on a schedule. The connector handles the push for you; Carriyo's data lags slightly behind the source but stays close enough for operational decisions.

Reservations

When an order allocates to a location, Carriyo reserves the quantity. Reservations:

  • Reduce available stock for subsequent allocation decisions.
  • Don't change quantity-on-hand. The parcel hasn't shipped yet; physical stock is still there.
  • Release on shipment. When the parcel ships out, quantity-on-hand decreases and the reservation clears.
  • Release on cancellation. When an order or fulfillment order is cancelled before booking, the reservation clears without affecting on-hand.

Reservations are why allocation can be inventory-aware without double-allocating: the second order looking for the same SKU sees available (on-hand minus reserved), not raw on-hand.

How it fits with other modules

  • Orders. Allocation rules can be inventory-aware.
  • Locations. Inventory is per-location.
  • Click and collect. Inventory drives store availability at checkout.
  • Products. SKUs in inventory map to product catalog entries.