Inventory management is better with Luminous
Managing siloed inventory data across warehouses, channels, and platforms makes you want to yank your hair out. Luckily, there’s a solution. Luminous is a central inventory management hub that gives you a clear view of everything. It helps you avoid stockouts, optimize purchasing, and replenish stock to the right levels across your entire distribution network.
Sync all your sales channels and storage locations
Never go out of stock
Gain visibility across all entire distribution points
Account for pending orders and POs
Gain insights to fuel your growth
Take Luminous for a test drive.
Some questions, some answers
Here are our most frequently asked questionsWhat is inventory management software?
Inventory management software is a tool that helps businesses track, control, and optimize their inventory levels. But not all inventory management solutions are built the same.
Luminous offers all the nuts and bolts of a traditional multichannel inventory system, but with features specifically built for the modern 3PL and ecommerce brand, including:
- Wholesale Management: Luminous supports brands expanding into wholesale, from order capture to fulfillment.
- Embedded EDI: Luminous offers embedded EDI flow, integrating directly with big box retail operations within our system and automating this process to fit seamlessly within the current ecommerce ecosystem.
- Multi-Warehouse Forecasting and Replenishment: Our system provides the most streamlined process for managing inventory from factory to 3PL to FBA, ensuring stock control across multiple locations.
I’m a subscription brand that struggles to allocate inventory for orders planned in the future. How does Luminous solve this?
Luminous scrapes your future committed orders on a cadence that we set during onboarding. This way you won’t oversell by not accounting for future committed subscription orders.
I’m a brand that sells on Amazon but has trouble replenishing inventory because I have so many products. How does Luminous handle this flow?
Luminous isolates your Amazon data to let you know when you should replenish each of your products and how much you should replenish. We take into account things like buffers for your days on hand, what sales velocity is used to calculate your days on hand, and much more. We also take into account the bigger picture of how much you have incoming, in your warehouse or 3PL currently, and whatever else you have going on in your operations.
I sell primarily on Amazon. Can Luminous help me know how much inventory I’m holding at FBA?
We have a live integration with Amazon that let’s you view Amazon as if it’s another warehouse that holds inventory and has its own sales data. This helps you have a more seamless replenishment flow.
I need to see my inventory totals across 3 different 3PL’s. How can Luminous help me manage all of my products and inventory?
Luminous was built to handle warehouse operations or simply plug into your 3PL/Co-packer’s tech. Many of our customers can see inventory totals across their 3PL, different FBA stores, and their own warehouse.
I need inventory to be marked as “committed” or allocated when a sales order has been placed but not yet shipped. How does Luminous handle this inventory?
As soon as an order comes into Luminous and the skus are mapped to an inventoried item, it will go into ‘pending’. The pending number is not included in the ‘available’ inventory that gets pushed to your sales channels. You can also add buffers if you are still concerned about overselling.
On my subscription orders, I want to automatically split an order if an item is out of stock. How does Luminous handle this?
Luminous can set automation logic that does this. This is a common problem in subscription businesses as it relates to inventory/order data that we solve very well.
I need to understand who is transferring and receiving inventory within my warehouse. Can Luminous show me who is accountable for this?
Luminous logs all of the action/transactions done at a user level within your warehouse. You can easily check at a product level or a bin level.
I do a lot of production with components with specific lots. Can I create a new lot for the finished product? This helps me with tracking the products’ components/expiration dates.
Yes, we can trace a finished good back to the lot ID of the components.
I don’t want to rip out my order management system in order to implement Luminous. Can I just keep using my OMS/Shipping software and Luminous auto depletes inventory?
Yes, Luminous sits ontop of popular OMS’s in the market specifically so you can get to value quickly. We can sit ontop of tools like ShipStation and provide value with inventory and forecasting very quickly.
Does Luminous have an actual pick/pack module where it will guide my warehouse workers to the bins?
Luminous has an extremely flexible pick/pack module that can guide the warehouse workers through a picking flow on tablet. We also support QC verification at the end of the process to guarantee that you are shipping out the correct items.
Can Luminous handle fractional quantities for products measured in weight, volume, etc. in assembly orders?
Yes, we can support fractional quantities in any unit of measure.
Can I receive multiple line items from different PO’s at once?
Yes, you can receive multiple line items from different PO’s at once. This is especially important for customers who don’t track the splitting of their shipments within POs.
I write wholesale invoices on Quickbooks but this does not account for inventory. How does Luminous solve this?
If you’re a brand that writes invoices in QBO to manage your wholesale orders, Luminous will replace this flow. We automatically generate an invoice that is pushed to Quickbooks and we can even push your wholesale order to a 3PL or to your own warehouse (if you do in-house fulfillment). We do all the boring stuff that accounts for your inventory is accounted for.
I have a cash and carry side of my business, how can I make sure that my inventory system handles this?
Luminous can handle this directly with our invoicing flow. This will flow into your warehouse and deplete inventory however you need it to. We also support payment collection. If you need something more robust as an actual POS we integrate with Lightspeed and Shopify POS.
I have a small storefront in the front of my warehouse. I use Shopify POS. Does Luminous handle this?
Yes, Luminous can actually integrate with Shopify POS and pull the orders into your normal warehouse flow from your POS.
I need to see inventory numbers across my Amazon stores in the US, UK, and EU, AU. How does Luminous show me all of these inventory totals?
Luminous will give you live totals of all of your different stores. You will be able to see how much inventory you have in each of these marketplaces as well as what is ‘incoming’.
I frequently purchase raw goods which then go to a manufacturer. I want to track this inventory from supplier to manufacturer to 3PL. How can Luminous help?
Luminous can plug into the existing tech at all of these checkpoints. However, if these parties don’t have technology that tracks inventory, you’re still able to log all of the orders and logs at each checkpoint. For example, you can log purchase orders to your suppliers that ship-to your manufacture, log assembly/work orders on behalf of your manufacture that turn into finished goods, then transfer the finished goods to your 3PL.
Tracking inventory by bin in my Google Sheet is so difficult. Is there an easy way to transfer bin to bin and do cycle counts?
Luminous’s UI to transfer inventory is dead simple. You can simply scan a bin, click transfer, and scan the bin it is transferring to.
I need an easy way to count in the warehouse. I’d like to just scan a bin, put in the new count, and the inventory is automatically adjusted. Can Luminous do this?
Luminous has a counting application that allows you to do just this: scan the bin, input what you counted (with the assistance of an embedded calculator), and then save your adjustment entry.
Does Luminous have a packing flow after picking?
The packing flow for Luminous gives the user the ability to see all of the order information, print out shipping labels (if you haven’t already), and qc scan all of the individual items. You can also turn off this flow if you think it slows you down. We also support bulk scanning for wholesale orders.
Can you print the labels out at the beginning or the end of the fulfillment flow?
You can do either. It depends on what flow works best for your warehouse.
I use the ‘kit’ functionality instead of actually manufacturing a bundle. Can Luminous display components on a pick list but only display the kit name/sku on the packing slip?
Yes, we have the ability to display either components OR just the kit sku. Some customers want to display the component breakdown while others want to ONLY display the kit sku/title. We support either on your packing slips.
I like to purchase in a different unit than what I sell in. Does Luminous allow me to purchase in different units than I sell in?
Yes, you can purchase in one unit of measure and sell in a completely different one. You can even sell in different units of measure for your DTC vs wholesale channels.
I sell a lot of bundles but have a hard time managing this in my OMS. How does Luminous solve this issue?
Luminous is the fastest system on the market for keeping track of virtual stock for your bundles and kits. We make it dead simple to build bundles and keep track of your available, pending, and on-hand. We calculate the virtual stock less than every minute and push back to your sales channels. Most systems caculate virtual stock every 15 minutes which causes overselling.
There’s no way for me to get automatically notified when inventory should be re-ordered. Can Luminous send me notifications so I don’t run out of stock?
Luminous does a couple different types of notifications. We have an entire page dedicated to see what products you need to replenish and how much you should replenish. In addition to that we scrape the system once a day and send you a list of products that you need to keep an eye out for replenishment.
I constantly oversell due to how my inventory system currently handles bundles/kits. They do virtual stock that resyncs and pushes every 15 minutes. This is a massive pain. How does Luminous make sure I don’t oversell on my kits/bundles?
Luminous is the fastest system on the market for keeping track of virtual stock for your bundles and kits. We make it dead simple to build bundles and keep track of your available, pending, and on-hand. We calculate the virtual stock less than every minute and push back to your sales channels. Most systems caculate virtual stock every 15 minutes which causes overselling.
How do I know when a product should be an assembly item or a kit/virtual stock unit?
What are the pros and cons of each? It totally depends on what you prioritize in your operations. If you want to be reactive and have as little upkeep as possible then you should do virtual stock. If you want maximum visibility and control then you can put your products through an assembly or a work order to generate the on-hand stock. At the end of the day, we show you each way you can handle this and let you choose.
Does Luminous have an easy way of tracking my lots, like expiration and manufacturing dates?
Yes, Luminous supports lot tracking. You can input an expiration date and a lot ID.
Our warehouse team rarely receives one PO all at once. Can I partially receive into my warehouse?
Luminous’s purchasing→ receiving flow is the most flexible on the market. You can move any line item across any PO/shipment into a receiving flow with one button.
I like to still allow people to purchase a product that is incoming (pre orders). How does Luminous handle this?
Luminous handles pre-orders by allowing you to take your incoming number and mark it as available for sale. This means incoming purchase order quantities are able to be sold for companies that do presells or drops.
I want to see inventory levels broken down by product and warehouse on any historical date. Can we do this?
Yes, you can see the breakdown of historical totals by product at any historical date.
I want to audit the history of all of my inventory transactions for a product. Can I do this?
Yes, you can see the audit history of every single transaction for an individual product.
I have the options to sell cartons/sleeves on my shopify site. Can Luminous map the unit of measure to the shopify store so I can sell cartons/sleeves/individuals at the same time?
Yes, we support as many different units of measure as you need on your sales channels. They will automatically map to the correct quantity (case/sleeve/individual).