Catalog vs Inventory: Individualized Inventory Enables Granular Listings by Channel

Catalog vs inventory

Your catalog describes what you sell. Your inventory records what you actually have and the condition of each item. The catalog points to stock by defining which items must be available when a listing is purchased.

Granularity sets your ceiling

The depth of your listings is limited by how granular your inventory is. With individualized inventory you can create highly specific product pages or keep things broad based on the needs of each sales channel.

Channel strategy

• General sales channel keep broad listings that pool similar items.
• Niche marketplace publish granular listings that surface exact models, sizes, or conditions.
• Map listings to shared stock so availability stays accurate everywhere.

High level SKUs still work

You can maintain aggregated SKUs and count unique items by ID without tracking every detail. When you need to showcase a single item you can spin up an item level listing that points to that ID.

Benefits

• Flexible merchandising across channels.
• No data duplication inventory remains the single source of truth.
• Faster operations with the option to go deep only when it pays.

Key steps

• Separate catalog management from inventory management.
• Choose the right granularity per channel.
• Link listings to inventory with clear rules for availability and substitution.

Build your catalog on top of individualized inventory to balance speed, control, and conversion. Go broad for reach, go granular for intent, and keep stock accurate across every channel.