Locations, Barcodes and Stock Counts
Stock in Several Places, Barcodes to Count It
Once stock lives in more than one place, typing numbers stops working. Mercayo keeps a count per location, moves stock between them with transfers, prints your barcode labels, and lets your team count a shelf with a phone camera or a scanner.
- In every plan
- Free for 14 days
Kosha is a demo store on Mercayo. Its products, orders and customers are sample data.
In short
What It Does
Locations
Add the places you keep stock: a warehouse, a shop, a partner. Each keeps its own count. One of them is your online location: checkout holds stock there, and what shoppers can buy is that location's stock, not the sum of every place. Stock elsewhere reaches shoppers through a transfer. MAKE ONLINE LOCATION moves the role. A location is never deleted (its history names it): ARCHIVE it when it is empty. How many locations you may have depends on your plan.
Transfers
A transfer moves stock from one location to another: draft, SEND (the units leave; refused when fewer are free than you send), then RECEIVE in parts, typed or scanned, until everything has arrived, or FINISH to close it with a shortfall recorded. Every unit moved is in the stock history, which filters by location. PRINT LABELS prints one label per unit of a transfer.
Stock Counts
Start a count for a location and scan or type what is on the shelf. A scan finds its product by barcode or SKU; the same scan sent twice counts once, and UNDO takes one off. Counts are blind to start with: the people counting do not see the expected number. REVIEW shows expected and difference; APPLY sets each counted shelf (one entry in the history saying who and which count), and can set everything nobody counted to zero for a full count.
Scanning
- Barcode scanners (USB or Bluetooth, in keyboard mode) work anywhere on the screen: fast keys ending with Enter are a scan, and a person typing is never mistaken for one.
- The camera: press CAMERA on a phone or laptop; the browser's own barcode reader is used where it exists, and Mercayo's small reader (Code 128 and EAN-13/UPC-A) elsewhere. A beep says found or not found.
Codes and Labels
GENERATE CODES fills a SKU and a barcode only where a variant has none (SKUs from words such as KSH-CANDYSTRIP-IP15, or a running number; barcodes as EAN-13 numbers for use inside your store), with a preview first and UNDO for an hour; barcodes from your makers are never replaced. Labels prints chosen variants (up to 2,000 labels) on A4 sheets of 24 or 40, or a 50 × 25 mm roll, with the barcode, the product, the variant and, if you like, the price and MRP.
The Inventory Spreadsheet
EXPORT one row per variant and location (on hand, held, available), and IMPORT the same file with a count or a change filled in; the preview names every problem row before anything is applied.
For your store
Why It Matters
A brand that sells online and from a shop, or keeps a warehouse and a home stockroom, needs to know what is where, or it oversells online while the shop's shelf is full. Counting by scanning is faster and far more accurate than typing, and labels you print yourself make every product scannable even when your makers did not barcode it.
Blind counts and a reason on every change give you a stock history you can trust when the numbers do not add up.
Step by step
How It Works
Add Your Locations
In Inventory → Locations, add each place you keep stock and choose your online location.
Give Products Codes and Print Labels
Select variants, GENERATE CODES (preview, then apply), and print labels on your sheet or roll.
Move Stock With a Transfer
Create a transfer, SEND it, and RECEIVE it at the other end by scanning or typing.
Count a Shelf
Start a stock count, scan with a scanner or the camera, REVIEW the differences and APPLY.
Work in a Spreadsheet When You Prefer
EXPORT the inventory, fill in counts or changes, and IMPORT with a preview.
Your shoppers
What Your Shoppers See
Shoppers see the stock of your online location: accurate, and never sold twice.
Settings
Settings You Control
All are under Settings → Admin and Reports → Inventory.
Mercayo
Mercayo's Controls
How many locations a store may have comes with its plan, set by Mercayo. Every move of stock (transfers, counts, imports, adjustments) is checked by the database, written to the stock history with who did it, and never takes a shelf below what orders already hold.
Limits today
Good to Know Before You Start
- One online location sells to shoppers; splitting one order across several locations is not built.
- In-store barcodes are for your own use; they are not GTINs and are never sent as such in product feeds.
- Labels print through the browser's print, not as a PDF.
- The number of locations depends on your plan.
Questions
About Locations, Barcodes and Stock Counts
Do I need a barcode scanner?
No. A phone or laptop camera works; a USB or Bluetooth scanner in keyboard mode is faster for big counts.
Will generating codes overwrite my barcodes?
No. Codes are filled only where a variant has none, and makers' barcodes are never replaced. UNDO works for an hour.
What does blind count mean?
The people counting do not see the number the system expects, so they count what is really there. REVIEW shows the differences before anything is applied.
Can shoppers buy stock from my shop location?
Shoppers buy from your online location. Move stock there with a transfer, or make another place your online location.
Can I adjust stock from a spreadsheet?
Yes. Export, fill in counts or changes, and import; the preview lists every problem before anything changes.
Related
Related Features
- InventorySee on hand, held for orders and available for every variant, adjust with a reason, read the full stock history, and never sell what you do not have.
- ProductsA fast product list with a health strip, saved views and bulk changes you can undo, and an editor for options, variants, photos, descriptions and SEO.
- Back in Stock and Pre-OrdersShoppers ask to be told when a sold-out item returns and get one message when it does; pre-orders sell with a ship-by date; your team hears when stock runs low.
- Admin on Your PhoneEvery admin screen works on a phone: a bottom bar with your main screens, a More sheet with the rest, cards instead of tables, and touch and hold to select.
More in Admin on Your Phone: Orders · Products · Inventory · Import and Export · Collections and Categories · Order Alerts · Customers · Admin on Your Phone · Search and Command Palette · Setup Guide and Launch · Sample Data · Contact Inbox · Notification Credits · Plans and Billing · Draft Orders · Catalogue Tools · Media Library · Installable Admin
Try It on Your Own Store
Every feature is in every plan, free for 14 days.