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Retailer: supply chain visibility across legacy WMS islands

Problem

E-commerce promised omnichannel fulfillment, but inventory lived in three WMS generations and a spreadsheet archipelago. Promising a SKU in stock was sometimes a polite fiction.

Constraints

Peak promotional calendars, thin margin pressure, and DC automation that could not stop for schema debates. Store associates needed simple “trust this number” signals.

Approach

We implemented a canonical inventory service fed by near-real-time events from each WMS and POS adjustments. Availability rules became explicit code with tests—not tribal knowledge in a commerce platform admin UI.

Rollout

Region-by-region activation with shadow availability: customers still saw legacy answers until error rates and latency met SLOs. Dark stores and outlets went first where blast radius was smaller.

Risks mitigated

• Oversell: pessimistic thresholds during uncertainty windows
• Latency spikes: caching strategy tied to SKU volatility classes
• Org conflict: single product owner for “ATP truth” across channels

Outcomes (illustrative)

Oversell cancellations in pilot regions dropped sharply compared to control regions. Customer service tickets citing “wrong inventory” followed a similar curve.

Lessons

Omnichannel is a data ownership problem first. Once ownership was explicit, engineering choices got easier.