A container can be physically inside the warehouse while the inventory is still unavailable to fulfil orders. Quantities need to be checked. Differences need to be investigated. Products need to be located correctly. Batch, serial or expiry data may need recording before stock can be released.
Arrived, received, counted, reconciled, put away, available — the stock is only sellable at the end of that sequence, not the start.
Receiving information and booking details are prepared before the delivery arrives.
Goods are unloaded and matched to the relevant inbound reference.
Received quantities are compared against the expected data.
Differences, damage or missing information are separated for review, not mixed into sellable stock.
Batch, serial or expiry data is captured where the product requires it.
Inventory is moved into the appropriate warehouse location.
Reconciled inventory becomes available to the fulfilment operation.
Timing depends on the shipment and the data that arrives with it. Stow does not promise instant availability; it commits to surfacing what is holding stock back quickly.
Grouped by the job it does, from stock arriving to the numbers staying honest.
A discrepancy is not just a warehouse number problem. It becomes oversells, cancelled orders, delayed fulfilment, customer-service work, and wrong replenishment and purchasing decisions downstream.
Every operation has discrepancies. What matters is whether they are surfaced and reconciled deliberately, or discovered when a customer's order cannot be filled.
Received stock has to reach a known location in the right storage profile before picking can rely on it. Stock without a location is stock nobody can promise. Putaway is the step that turns "it is here somewhere" into "it is in aisle 04, bay 12, and it is available".
How stock is identified changes how it is stored, picked and rotated. This matters most in sectors like supplements, beauty, food and electronics.
Used where products are grouped by production run or receipt, so a batch can be traced and rotated together.
Used where individual units need unique identification, such as serial or IMEI numbers on electronics.
Used where inventory is managed against date information, so ageing stock is visible before it becomes a problem.
First Expired, First Out: the stock nearest to its expiry is picked first, where the agreed workflow requires it.
Rather than waiting for a single annual stocktake, selected inventory is physically checked as the operation runs. Differences are investigated, system quantity is reconciled, and movement history is reviewed where it helps.
A recurring discrepancy on the same SKU or location usually points to a process issue worth fixing, not just a number to correct.
Physical stock, available stock, allocated stock, orders, returns and exceptions are not the same number. The useful question a live view answers is a decision: can this be sold, does it need replenishing, is an order at risk, and is returned inventory available again?
That is why inventory control sits directly upstream of the ecommerce fulfilment workflow: fulfilment can only promise what the warehouse can actually back.
Three stages, one chain. Get the middle one wrong and the other two cannot save it.
Warehousing sits between freight forwarding and ecommerce fulfilment. It is the stage that decides whether the other two run smoothly.
Storage is priced per pallet, per month, and you pay for the space stock actually occupies. The drivers below move the number; you can model it on the pricing page.
UK stock serves UK fulfilment; EU stock in the Poland operation serves EU fulfilment. Splitting inventory across both can shorten outbound shipping routes and delivery times and cut cross-border friction, but it also doubles the operational surface. It is worth doing only where it earns its keep.
Not every brand should duplicate inventory across both markets. This is an operational placement decision, not tax advice, and Stow works through it with you rather than assuming the answer.
A calm, accurate stockroom is not a problem to solve. It usually becomes one when several of these appear together:
Outsourcing is not automatically the answer. If space and accuracy are under control, in-house storage can be perfectly sound. When you are weighing it up, it helps to compare running it in-house against a 3PL.
How stock reaches the warehouse in the first place, before any of this begins.
Read →What accurate, available inventory is for: turning stock into dispatched orders.
Read →Storage per pallet, goods-in and the rest of the fulfilment invoice, modelled.
Read →Where batch, serial, expiry and FEFO control actually matter, by sector.
Read →It is the operation that keeps what the system says in line with what is physically on the shelf: receiving stock, recording where it is and what condition it is in, counting it, investigating differences, and releasing it as available to sell. Accurate inventory is what makes fulfilment reliable.
Incoming stock is unloaded, matched to its inbound reference, counted against what was expected, and checked for condition. Differences are separated for review, batch or serial data is recorded where needed, and the stock is put away into a location before it becomes available.
Received means the goods are physically in the warehouse. Available means they have been counted, reconciled, put away and released, so an order can actually be picked against them. Stock can be received without yet being available.
Yes. Stock can be tracked by batch or lot where products are grouped by production or receipt, and by serial or IMEI number where individual units need unique identification, such as electronics. This supports traceability and stock rotation.
First Expired, First Out: the stock closest to its expiry date is picked first. It is used for products managed against expiry dates, such as food, drink, supplements and cosmetics, where the agreed workflow requires it.
When system and physical quantities differ, the affected stock is held, movement history and nearby locations are reviewed, the available quantity is reconciled, and the outcome is recorded. Recurring discrepancies can point to a process issue worth fixing rather than a one-off miscount.
Yes. Stow runs a UK warehouse and an EU warehouse in Poland. You can hold stock in one or both, depending on where your customers are and how you sell.
Fulfilment can only pick what the warehouse has accurately received and released. Warehousing keeps the inventory accurate and available; ecommerce fulfilment turns that available stock into dispatched orders.
Your pallet or unit profile, SKU count, inbound pattern, order volume and any batch, serial, expiry or special-handling requirements. We'll review the warehouse and fulfilment work involved.
Discuss your storage requirements →