Two Channels,
One Committed Stock Position.
Replacement of a premium homeware storefront marketplace connector with an order management system holding a single committed inventory position across D2C and marketplace.
15
min
Inventory Sync Interval, From Hourly
2
Channels On One Committed Stock Position
40
%
Catalogue Moved From Static Buffers To Targeted Rules
Client Profile
Premium Homeware Brand
~£30m revenue · ~23k orders/m at peak
Own D2C storefront plus one marketplace channel.
Around £110 AOV, with long lead times on imported lines.
Single 3PL, UK.
Marketplace accounts for roughly a quarter of order volume.
The Challenge
Stock was synced to the marketplace by the storefront’s native connector on an hourly push. Between pushes both channels sold against a position neither could see moving, and on fast-selling lines the same unit was committed twice. The brand cancelled the later order, refunded, and absorbed the marketplace’s cancellation metric.
Cancellation rate is a channel-level risk rather than a per-order cost. The account sat close enough to the marketplace’s threshold that a heavy trading week put visibility and buy-box position in question, and the team managed it by throttling: holding a share of each line back from the marketplace so the connector could not oversell it.
Static marketplace buffers had gradually been applied to roughly 40% of the catalogue. On imported lines with long replenishment lead times, stock held back from the marketplace reduced the inventory available to that channel, even where the underlying oversell risk was low.
Why EQ50 DIGITAL
The connector vendor’s position was that hourly sync was working as designed, and the marketplace’s was that cancellation rate is the seller’s responsibility. Both were correct. The gap was that no central system managed committed inventory and channel allocation across the two channels.
The remit was to select an order management system on fit and total cost, define the allocation model across channels, build and test the integration to the storefront, the marketplace and the 3PL, and take it live without a trading break.
The OMS manages the committed inventory position, channel allocation rules and cross-channel order flow. The 3PL holds stock, pick and despatch.
EQ50 DIGITAL owns the platform selection, allocation design and integration across the storefront, marketplace, OMS and 3PL.
The EQ50 DIGITAL Approach
01
Clarify the business priorities
Ecommerce, Operations and Finance set the order: stop overselling, release the buffer back into sale, and keep the marketplace account clear of its cancellation threshold through peak.
Finance set the constraint that shaped the build. Any release of buffer stock had to be gradual and reversible, because a mistake at peak on an imported line could not be replenished inside the season.
02
Diagnose and scope
Six months of order, cancellation and stock data were pulled to establish where oversells actually originated. They concentrated in a narrow band of fast-selling lines during promotional periods, not across the catalogue, which meant the buffer was sized for a risk most SKUs did not carry.
Vendor selection ran across three OMS platforms, scored on allocation model, marketplace integration maturity, 3PL connectivity, and three-year cost including per-order fees.
03
Design the solution
The OMS holds one committed inventory position.
The OMS became the source of truth for committed inventory. Orders from both channels update the position as they are received, while more frequent marketplace updates and targeted allocation rules materially reduce the window in which the same stock can be sold twice.
Allocation is set by rule rather than by held-back stock. Fast-moving lines carry a small reserve against marketplace demand during promotional windows; the rest of the catalogue is sold from the open pool. Broad static buffers were replaced by targeted allocation rules that could vary by product, channel and promotional period.
Marketplace availability updates run at roughly fifteen-minute intervals, supported by the central committed position and targeted allocation rules. Together, these controls materially reduce oversell risk compared with the previous hourly connector.
Orders from both channels flow to the 3PL in a single format, with channel identity carried through so despatch confirmations return to the right system.
04
Deliver the change
The OMS was integrated to the storefront and the marketplace via their respective APIs, and to the 3PL’s order intake and despatch confirmation endpoints.
The 3PL received a revised intake specification covering both channels. Its pick and pack process was unchanged; what changed was the order source and the confirmation route.
Buffer release was staged rather than switched. The OMS was validated in shadow mode against live orders and stock movements before taking over inventory commitment. Buffer release was then staged by product group, beginning with lower-risk lines.
D2C was cut over first so the integration could be proven before introducing change to the marketplace account carrying the greater platform-performance risk.
Key Decisions & Trade-Offs
A committed position rather than a faster sync.
Shortening the connector’s sync interval was the cheaper fix and was tested first. It reduced oversells without removing them, because the failure is concurrent commitment rather than stale data, and no interval short of real time closes it.
The OMS addresses the underlying commitment gap and materially reduces the failure risk, but introduces an additional system that the brand owns and pays for per order.
Allocation by rule rather than by held-back stock.
Keeping a physical buffer would have been simpler and needed no allocation logic. It was rejected because held-back stock on long-lead imported lines is working capital earning nothing.
Rules provide more targeted protection while allowing more inventory to remain available across the channels.
Marketplace cut over second.
Leading with the marketplace would have addressed the penalty risk sooner. It was rejected because a fault on that channel carries a cancellation metric the brand could not afford to move while the account sat near its threshold.
Running D2C first delayed the outcome that mattered most by about a month.
The Outcomes
Committed Centrally
Orders update a single committed inventory position as they are received, materially reducing concurrent-sale risk across channels.
Buffer Released
Broad static buffers were progressively released, with targeted reserves retained only where the trading risk justified them.
Rules, Not Reserves
Channel protection is now controlled through configurable allocation rules for higher-risk lines and promotional periods.
Hourly → ~15 min
Marketplace sync interval tightened as a safety net behind the committed position.
Clear of Threshold
Marketplace cancellation rate moved away from the level that put account visibility at risk, measured across the first full quarter after cutover.
The Handover
The client owns the OMS licence and configuration, the allocation rules including the promotional reserves, and the channel integration settings.
EQ50 DIGITAL handed over the integration documentation, the allocation model with the reasoning behind each rule, and a runbook supporting the future onboarding of additional channels or fulfilment nodes.