Three strategies control how price and quantity are sourced and sent to your sales channel. Choose the one that matches how your suppliers and warehouses are structured.
Multi-Location
What it does
Maps each fulfillment source to a specific channel location and sends inventory quantity per location. Price is derived from a cost strategy you configure (lowest, average, or highest cost across all locations), and a single price is sent to your sales channel based on that calculation. Pricing markups are then applied on top.
Who should select this
- Merchants operating multiple physical warehouses or fulfillment centers
- Sellers who want their sales channel to have per-location visibility into stock levels
- Sellers where location-aware inventory routing matters for fulfillment speed or cost
Best Source
What it does
Automatically evaluates all your suppliers for each product and selects the best one based on rules you configure, factoring in cost, quantity availability, and supplier priority. Price and quantity are sourced from the single winning supplier.
Price: Comes from the winning supplier for that product, based on your cost strategy and priority rules.
Quantity: Comes from the winning supplier or a sum of all eligible supplier quantities. Setting quantity minimums per supplier ensures sources with low stock are skipped before the listing goes OOS, keeping it live.
Who should select this
- Merchants with overlapping supplier catalogs, where multiple suppliers carry the same products
- Sellers who mix warehouse inventory and dropship suppliers for the same products
- Merchants who want automated supplier selection with fallback logic rather than manual management
- Sellers who want to prioritize their warehouse inventory first, falling back to dropship when OOS
Tip: use the “Use warehouse first, then lowest cost” option and set quantity minimums per source to maximize listing uptime and control which supplier wins.
Single Vendor
What it does
Maps each product directly to a specific supplier. Price and quantity come from that supplier, with no automated selection or fallback logic.
Price: Comes directly from the mapped supplier for each product.
Quantity: Comes directly from the mapped supplier. If that supplier goes OOS, the listing goes OOS until they restock.
Who should select this
- Merchants whose suppliers carry distinct, non-overlapping catalogs
- Sellers with dedicated dropship suppliers per product and no overlap between them
- Merchants who want explicit, manual control over which supplier drives each listing
Coming from a legacy setup?
Single Vendor is the closest match to what you’re used to and can be repurposed beyond its name. It works the same way but might require aggregation configuration at the product level, which you’re likely already familiar with.
That said, if your setup has grown with more suppliers, more overlap, or products that could be fulfilled from multiple sources, it’s worth considering Best Source. Here’s why:
- Automated supplier selection means fewer manual updates when availability changes
- Priority rules and quantity minimums let you control which supplier wins and keep listings live longer
- The “warehouse first” pricing and quantity option is unique to Best Source, a common fulfillment preference
- Handles supplier overlap gracefully. If one source goes OOS, the next best takes over automatically
- Reduces ongoing maintenance as your supplier catalog grows or changes