Inventory Visibility Platform: Turning Counts Into Confidence Across Every Channel

Inventory uncertainty is the quiet killer of growth

An inventory visibility platform matters because most brands do not lose money in one dramatic explosion. They lose it in small, repeated mistakes: oversells, stockouts, mispicks, delayed replenishment, and time wasted reconciling numbers that never match. Research shows that as brands add sales channels and expand catalogs, inventory accuracy becomes harder to maintain without stronger visibility.

Many brands come to G10 after living with inventory data they could not rely on. They had numbers, but they did not have confidence. They could not tell what was actually available, what was reserved, what was damaged, and what was sitting in a location nobody remembered. An inventory visibility platform replaces guesswork with proof and makes decisions easier.

As Maureen Milligan said, "Most of the customers who come to us from another 3PL, their challenges have always been access to their data, order accuracy and efficiency, and basically just meeting the committed requirements. So we've seen a lot of people come disillusioned by their last 3PL, where their orders weren't getting fulfilled in time, their inventory accuracy was not there, and they were not able to satisfy customer orders." Inventory visibility is the foundation of fixing those issues because inaccurate inventory data breaks promises before the order is ever picked.

A platform must capture inventory movement in real time

An inventory visibility platform is only useful if it reflects reality as reality changes. If inventory updates happen after the fact, the platform becomes a history lesson instead of a decision tool. Real time movement tracking is what allows brands to commit inventory confidently across channels.

Bryan Wright described the level of tracking that supports real time visibility when he said, "Absolutely. We have portals that show you the data. We have history that shows you all of that tracking. It shows the product landed on the dock at 8 o'clock. At 8:10, John picked it up and took it to location XYZ, and at 10 o'clock, we picked two items off of that pellet in the location 1, 2, 3, 4, order, you know, ABC, and at 11 o'clock, we packed it, we put it in this box and put this label number on it, and all the way through the process onto the truck and to the customer." An inventory visibility platform relies on the same type of timestamped history, but applied to every unit from receiving to shipment.

Scan-based workflows make inventory visibility believable

Inventory visibility platforms fail when the warehouse process is not disciplined. If inventory moves without scans, the platform cannot know what happened, and the data turns into a best guess. Scan-based execution is how you keep the platform honest.

As Connor Perkins said, "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper. You can lose a lot of money in this industry by you know having people ship stuff wrong, or store it wrong, and now it's lost somewhere. So having a 3PL and WMS that is 100% scan-based is crucial." Scan-based work is what allows an inventory visibility platform to show accurate counts and accurate locations.

Connor also said, "One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLSs is inventory accuracy; maybe their previous 3PL wasn't great at picking the orders accurately. So they were losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items." Inventory visibility platforms help reduce these errors because accurate location data supports better picks, and transaction history supports faster root-cause analysis.

Visibility must include location, status, and change history

An inventory visibility platform should not only show how many units you have. It should show where they are, what status they are in, and how that status changed. Research shows brands struggle when they cannot separate available inventory from reserved, damaged, quarantined, or inbound inventory. The platform should make those distinctions visible because each one affects what you can promise.

Change history matters, too. When counts drift, you need to see why. Was there a receiving variance. Was there a cycle count adjustment. Was a unit moved to a different location. Was a return processed incorrectly. An inventory visibility platform becomes valuable when it can answer these questions quickly.

A portal makes the platform usable without extra work

Visibility is not helpful if you have to ask someone for it. Brands want direct access to their inventory story. A portal that surfaces real time data is the practical interface that turns the platform into something teams actually use.

As Maureen said, "We're in the last stages of developing a new portal that will give customers real-time visibility to their on-time order fulfillment, inventory accuracy, and even inventory levels so that they can monitor those things directly in our systems." That is exactly what an inventory visibility platform should provide: a way to monitor accuracy and inventory levels directly, without delay.

She added, "A lot of the 3PL customer expectations are that order fulfillment is happening extremely timely, that our inventory is accurate, that we're able to execute on their orders very quickly, and get them shipped the same day. So what these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility." Inventory visibility becomes meaningful when it is immediate and consistent.

Reporting turns visibility into operational control

An inventory visibility platform should support reporting that helps you improve, not just observe. Reporting can reveal which SKUs are driving variances, which locations generate the most adjustments, and which inbound workflows tend to create receiving discrepancies. Research shows that teams improve faster when they can measure problems precisely.

As Connor said, "Our clients get best-in-class visibility and transparency. They can see their daily orders, they can see KPIs, and they can see historical transactions. They can look at a daily level or go into the more granular version where they're looking at transactional history on an item." Transaction history is the heart of inventory visibility because it shows how the inventory changed.

He also said, "You have easy access to reporting and you can export to Excel, or really any format that you like you know directly from our WMS portal." Easy reporting makes it practical to audit inventory changes and validate improvements.

A visibility platform reduces stockouts, oversells, and emergency replenishment

When inventory is accurate and visible, brands can plan. They can replenish before a stockout. They can avoid overselling. They can prioritize inbound receiving based on what will run out first. These outcomes protect revenue and protect customer experience.

As Maureen said, "We will take in your inbounds, we will get them received and reported back to you within our SLAs, and oftentimes more quickly than what we contracted for. We will ship your orders out the day they're required. And our inventory accuracy is generally right there at that 99.7% that we agreed. So that's one of the areas where we really do excel, and where we've been able to win business." A visibility platform helps brands see that accuracy and rely on it.

Visibility rebuilds confidence after bad data

Brands often switch 3PLs because inventory data stopped being believable. That is a brutal moment because every sales channel depends on inventory truth. An inventory visibility platform rebuilds confidence by making inventory movement traceable and accessible.

As Maureen said, "For customers who have come to us from a bad 3PL relationship, they experience relief. They're suddenly seeing their business scaling, that the data supports what we agreed to, and then the trust begins to build." Inventory visibility is a major reason that relief happens because inventory truth makes planning possible again.

Inventory visibility platforms are now essential

As ecommerce becomes more complex, inventory visibility becomes more important. An inventory visibility platform requires real time movement tracking, scan-based execution, a portal that exposes counts and history, and reporting that supports continuous improvement.

As Connor said, "This is one of our strengths. G10 is on the cutting edge for this kind of transparency and feedback for clients." If your brand wants fewer stockouts, fewer oversells, and fewer time-wasting reconciliation cycles, improving inventory visibility is a practical step.

If you want to see what an inventory visibility platform looks like when every unit movement is captured and visible in real time, ask for a walkthrough that maps your current inventory challenges to a clearer, more reliable visibility model.