E-commerce Inventory Manager

A mid-size e-commerce operation selling 2,000+ SKUs across Shopify, Amazon, and wholesale manages inventory with spreadsheets and static reorder points. During Q4, they overstock slow movers and run out of bestsellers. Stockouts cost an estimated 8-12% of potential revenue; excess inventory ties up working capital.

Multi-channel selling compounds the problem: inventory allocated to Amazon FBA cannot easily be redirected to DTC orders. Promotional campaigns create demand spikes that static reorder points cannot anticipate. Returns from one channel affect availability on another.

Blue Yonder applies ML-based planning at enterprise scale, reporting 20% inventory cost reduction. Flieber and Inventory Planner have shown demand forecasting reduces stockouts for Shopify merchants. The gap is bringing these capabilities to mid-market merchants without supply chain planning teams.

This agent ingests historical sales data, current inventory, purchase orders, and channel-level metrics. It builds per-SKU demand forecasting models using gradient-boosted time-series methods accounting for seasonality, promotional calendars, day-of-week patterns, and trend shifts. Forecasts update daily.

Based on forecasts, it calculates optimal reorder points and quantities per SKU per warehouse, factoring in supplier lead times, minimum order quantities, and carrying costs. When a reorder trigger fires, it generates a PO draft for approval or auto-submits to pre-approved suppliers.

For multi-channel allocation, it monitors inventory across Shopify, Amazon Seller Central, and wholesale in real time. When a fast-mover trends toward stockout on one channel, it recommends inter-warehouse transfers before impact.