One inventory pool. DTC and wholesale.
Splitting stock between a DTC warehouse and a wholesale one is how brands end up out of stock in both.
A brand that sells both ways usually ends up holding stock twice: some for the website, some for stockists, and no clear view of either. It is the fastest route to being out of stock in one channel while sitting on the same product in the other.
The alternative is one pool of inventory that ships two ways. Single parcels to your customers, cartons to your stockists, drawn from the same stock and counted once.
Why two pools go wrong
- Your website sells out while the same SKU sits allocated to a wholesale order that has not been confirmed
- Stocktakes stop reconciling because two systems each hold part of the truth
- A stockist reorder cannot be filled without pulling stock you have already promised to DTC
- You are paying storage in two places for the same range
How one pool works
Your stock sits in one place and is counted once. When a DTC order arrives it is picked as a single parcel. When a stockist orders, the same SKUs are picked into cartons instead.
The difference between the two is the pick instruction and the packing, not the inventory. That is the whole point: you stop managing two stock positions and start managing one.
What a wholesale order involves
You send the order
Quantities per SKU and the delivery address. Wholesale orders arrive as instructions from you rather than through a store connection, because that is how most brands actually receive them.
Picked into cartons
Same stock, different unit. Picked to your carton quantities and counted against the order before sealing.
Packed and labelled
Cartons are packed for transit rather than presentation, with the labelling your stockist requires.
Dispatched
On the carrier or freight service the order calls for, which is usually not the same one your single parcels go on.
What to confirm before you commit
Retailer requirements vary and some are specific: carton labelling formats, delivery booking portals, pallet configurations, advance shipping notices. Which of these apply depends entirely on who your stockists are.
Bring the requirements you have been given to the quote conversation rather than assuming they are standard. Anything that depends on a third party's system or a carrier's service is confirmed as part of your rate card, not assumed.
How it is charged
Wholesale is usually cheaper per unit and more expensive per order than DTC, because you are moving more units in fewer picks. A carton of twenty-four units is one pick line, not twenty-four.
Storage does not change: the same pool costs the same to hold regardless of which channel it eventually ships through. That is the saving, and it is the reason one pool tends to cost less than two.
Common questions
- Can the same stock serve both DTC and wholesale?
- Yes, and that is the recommended way to run it. One pool, counted once, picked differently depending on where the order is going. Holding separate stock for each channel is what causes most of the problems brands come to us with.
- How do wholesale orders reach you?
- You send them, with quantities per SKU and the delivery address. Most Australian brands receive wholesale orders by email or through a B2B portal rather than through their storefront, so that is how they reach the warehouse.
- Can you meet a specific retailer's labelling requirements?
- Bring the requirements to the quote conversation. Some are straightforward and some depend on the retailer's own systems or booking portals. We will tell you which of yours we can handle directly and which need a third party, rather than agreeing to everything and finding out later.
- Is wholesale priced differently?
- Yes. Fewer picks for more units means a different cost shape from single-parcel DTC, and both are set out in your rate card so you can see what each channel actually costs you.
Not sure what your fulfilment would actually cost?
Work out a realistic range first, then get a quote based on your real numbers.