Intelligent routing: How it works

The purpose of Intelligent routing is summed up in one sentence: let's sell the product that can be sold on our own channel without paying commission to the marketplace ourselves; if we miss a sale, let's also sell it on the marketplace. This article explains how the system achieves this. Usage of the screens is covered in each tab's own article; for a start see Intelligent routing.

What does the system look at?

The system performs a decision round approximately every 15 minutes. In each round, it looks at products within your published rule sets that are fast-selling on our own channel (website and mobile app) and have stock on the marketplace. For each product and each marketplace, it asks two questions:

1. Will this stock run out on our own channel? Based on the sales speed on our own channel and the stock we have, it calculates the probability that the stock will run out within the number of days selected in the rule set on our own channel.
2. Is selling on our own channel more profitable? Using the deductions you entered in the channel profitability tab (commission, payment, shipping, returns) and the average purchase rate, it compares what remains from a sale on each channel. You do not enter the sales price; the system uses the average sales price of each channel over the last 28 days. If the product has not sold on our own channel in the last 28 days, it uses the product's sales price and takes the same price for the marketplace; in this case, the profit difference arises only from commission and expenses. Thus, the two channels are compared at the same price and our own channel does not appear more profitable.

If both answers are "yes" and the difference exceeds the thresholds in your rule set, the product is allocated to our own channel. The result is always only the maximum quantity shown on the marketplace: physical stock, reservations, and safety stock rules remain unchanged.

The system does not touch products that do not sell fast enough; these products remain on the marketplace as is.

Three decisions

At the end of each round, one of the following three decisions is made for each product and marketplace:

If information is missing, the system always errs on the safe side and does not reduce the marketplace. If profitability or purchase rate is not entered, sales data is outdated, the product's sales history is less than 7 days, or the price is unknown (no priced sales in the last 28 days and no backup price information available), the decision is "Balanced." The Why? window in the Decisions tab explains each decision in a simple sentence and shows where to complete missing information. → Decisions

Three operating modes

Whether the decision is applied to the marketplace is determined by the rule set's operating mode. It is selected when publishing and can be changed later with Change operating mode.

Regardless of the operating mode, decisions that reopen to the marketplace do not require approval: selling on the marketplace is always safer than missing a sale. When you switch to "Watch, do not apply," limits applied to the marketplace are removed in the next decision round. → Rule sets

How is the limit reflected on the marketplace?

When the decision "Allocated to our own channel" is applied, a limit (maximum quantity to be shown) is set for that product and marketplace.

• The quantity sent to the marketplace is the smaller of the channel stock and the limit. If the channel stock is already below the limit, you will see no change on the marketplace.
• Reduction is gradual: in one round, it changes by at most the "Maximum change per update" rate in the rule set.
• The safety limits in the rule set are always preserved: minimum quantity to remain on the marketplace and maximum stock that can be reserved. Thus, the product does not disappear from the marketplace.
• A decision is not reversed before the waiting period in the rule set expires; the product is not repeatedly reduced and reopened.
• Writing the limit to the marketplace takes a few minutes in the background. Then the marketplace's stock update processing time is added. If "Send stock to marketplace" is off in your store, the system cannot change the quantity shown on the marketplace; the Summary tab indicates this.
• You can see what the marketplace currently sees in Decisions › Currently limited products view and in the Inventory › Channel Stocks screen's Shown on marketplace column. For channels fed from multiple stock pools, the quantity is an estimate.

Reopening to marketplace

Sales of a product allocated to our own channel continue to be monitored. After the limit is applied to the marketplace, the system monitors sales on our own channel for at least 4 hours; if actual sales fall below the expected sales by the rate selected in the rule set and the system is confident this difference is not random, it gradually reopens the product to the marketplace. If sales after allocation cannot be read for a long time, the system errs on the safe side and gradually reopens.

A fully reopened product is not reduced again for a while; thus, the product does not oscillate. If the "Reopen to marketplace if sales fall below expected" setting in the rule set is off, this check does not run.

Security measures

Intelligent routing is designed to not miss sales in case of malfunction or incorrect data:

• Limit lifetime is 45 minutes. Each limit is renewed every decision round. If the system stops, limits are not renewed and expire automatically within 45 minutes; the marketplace sees normal stock again. Expired limits are cleared by a separate Safety check process. If this line is red in Summary (not run for the last 15 minutes), notify your administrator immediately; no suggestions can be approved during this time.
• Emergency stop. The Emergency stop button at the top of the page stops decision generation, cancels pending approvals, and removes all limits on the marketplace. Your rule sets and past decisions are not deleted. When restarted, removed limits do not return automatically; the system makes new decisions for each product. → Summary
• Automatic apply throttle. In "Apply automatically" mode, there is a limit on the number of new restrictions that can be automatically approved in one round and in the last 24 hours. If exceeded, automatic approval is paused for 24 hours: new restrictions wait for your approval, reopenings continue. The pause end time is shown in Summary and in the banner at the top of the page.
• Reopening when sales fall below expected. As explained above; does not require approval.
• No reduction with missing or outdated data. If profitability, purchase rate, or price is unknown, sales data has not been updated for 3 hours, or our own channel or marketplace channel is not defined, the system does not reduce the marketplace.
• Manual intervention. You can immediately remove the restriction of a single product from Decisions › Currently limited products; that product will not be reduced again for 24 hours.

Timeframes

Related articles

• Intelligent routing — getting started and initial setup
• Rule sets — protection levels, safety limits, operating modes
• Channel profitability — information needed for profit comparison
• Decisions — decisions, approvals, and limited products
• Summary — system status, emergency stop
• Frequently asked questions