Managing bundle inventory and fulfillment for stores with multiple locations
This article applies to Simple Bundles 2.0. If you're using Simple Bundles 1.0, refer to the article here.
Simple Bundles 2.0 supports multi-location inventory setups. This guide explains how bundle inventory is calculated and breaks down the differences between pooled inventory (optional), single-location fulfillment within multi-location stores, and how inventory behaves when using the Infinite Options bundle type in Simple Bundles 2.0.
How inventory works for Simple Bundle type
Location-based inventory method (by default)
Can my bundles use stock from only one location? Yes. Simple Bundles doesn't have its own location setting. It follows where your products are stocked in Shopify. For every bundle type (Simple Bundle, Infinite Options, and BYOB), stock the parent bundle product only at the location you want to use. Simple Bundles calculate the bundle's inventory at each location where the parent is stocked, using only the component stock at that location.
A bundle shows as available when at least one location where it's stocked has enough component stock to make it. Components don't need stock at every location.
For Infinite Options, there's one exception: option availability on the product page uses each component's total stock across all locations. See How inventory works for Infinite Options and BYOB below.
To control availability by country or region instead, see How to restrict bundle inventory location within Shopify Markets.
For Simple Bundles, the inventory for your bundles is determined by the availability of individual bundle items in each location. This requires that every location have all the necessary items to create a bundle, ensuring that the bundle's contents can all be shipped together from the same location.
Ensure that the bundle product variant has the "Track quantity" option enabled and configured across multiple locations in Shopify. Additionally, make sure that all items within the bundle also have the "Track quantity" option enabled and the correct quantities specified for all locations you want to track.
Pooled Inventory method
Pooled inventory is not enabled by default and isn't a setting you can toggle yourself in the app. If you'd like your store to calculate bundle availability using total stock across all locations instead of per-location stock, reach out to our support team to have it enabled for your account.
Pooled inventory calculates bundle availability using the total quantity of each component across all locations, no matter where they're stocked. With this method, the bundle’s inventory is calculated based on the total availability of its component items across all locations.
This approach provides greater flexibility when fulfilling orders, as it allows inventory from any location to contribute toward the bundle's availability.
Single-location bundle fulfillment and inventory for multi-location stores
To fulfill bundles from a single location, even when you're managing multiple store locations, ensure that the parent item is stocked exclusively at your preferred location. This approach will synchronize the inventory of the child items at this selected location with that of the parent item.
How inventory works for Infinite Options and BYOB
How it works:
- Bundle inventory: calculated separately for each location where the parent bundle is stocked, using only the component stock at that location. For Infinite Options, it's based on the best-stocked option at that location. For BYOB, it's the best-stocked item divided by the number of items in the pack.
- Option availability (Infinite Options): when an option is shown as sold out on the product page, that's based on each component's total stock across all of your Shopify locations.
- At checkout: cart transform splits the bundle into its components, so Shopify checks each component's stock like any other product. If a selected component isn't in stock at a location that fulfills online orders, the shopper can't complete checkout.
Because option availability uses total stock, an option can look available on the product page when its only stock is at a location that doesn't fulfill online orders, such as a retail store. Checkout will still block that option, so the order won't oversell, but the shopper only finds out at checkout.
Oversell protection
Oversell protection depends on cart transform. With cart transform on, the bundle is split into its components during checkout, so Shopify checks the stock of the exact components the shopper chose.
If cart transform is off and orders use the order editing fallback, the bundle goes through checkout as a single product. Shopify only checks the parent bundle's stock, and the components are added after the order is placed, so their stock isn't checked at checkout.
Managing bundle fulfillment locations for multi-location stores
To have an Infinite Options or BYOB bundle use stock from a single location:
- In your Shopify admin, open the parent bundle product.
- Under Inventory, keep only the location you want to use and remove the others.
Avoid removing locations from the component products themselves. That also changes where those products are stocked when they're sold on their own, including in-person sales through Shopify POS.
After checkout, Shopify routes each component to a location using your order routing rules. If a location shouldn't ship online orders at all, turn off Fulfill online orders from this location for it in Settings > Locations. For more help, see how to troubleshoot fulfillment issues for multi-location stores using Simple Bundles.