E-commerce and store · omnichannel
One stock, two availabilities
Armurerie-auxerre.com · Online and specialist in-store retail
01The context
Armurerie-auxerre.com sells online and in store, from Auxerre — a gun shop and shooting-sports retailer. A TEDIES customer since 2016, the business runs a Magento web shop, a traditional store driven by Sage 100, and its warehouses side by side. Orders arrive from both channels; the physical stock is the same.
02The problem
Omnichannel is not a synchronisation problem, it is an arbitration problem. The store and the web shop draw on the same stock but must not see the same availability — what is held for the shop floor is not sellable online. Purchasing is driven by the ERP while stock belongs to the warehouse. And a return may concern a whole batch or a single item identified by its serial number.
03What was put in place
TALK Logistique receives the orders from both channels: those from the Magento shop and those Sage 100 issues for the store. The ERP carries on driving purchasing and triggering receipts, but responsibility for stock stays with the WMS. A workflow engine configures the flows and the production steps station by station, with no bespoke development for each case.
04The result
Store availability and warehouse availability are distinct while resting on the same stock. Payments, returns and third-party carrier tracking are handled in the same chain. No channel waits for another to finish before knowing what it can sell.
Going further
What the workflow engine handles
Omnichannel plays out in the edge cases, not in the general diagram. These are configured, not developed:
- Separate availabilities — the same physical stock, two views. What is held for the store does not appear as sellable online.
- Payment handling, built into the production steps rather than dealt with afterwards.
- Full reverse logistics — from a simple set of products down to a single item identified by its serial number.
- Third-party carrier tracking numbers, DPD and Chronopost, fed back into the chain and passed on to the end customer.
Why the ERP keeps purchasing and the WMS keeps stock
This is the split that raises the most questions in omnichannel, and the most common answer is the wrong one: give stock to the ERP, since it already holds purchasing.
Here the ERP drives purchasing and triggers receipts; the WMS remains solely responsible for the state of stock. Each does what it does well, and there is only one source of truth about what is actually on the shelf or in the racking.