Wholesale Inventory Visibility That Stops the Guessing Games

Wholesale inventory visibility is one of those topics that brands only search for when something has already gone wrong. A retailer asks why a pallet is missing. A D2C order cannot ship because the system swears the item exists somewhere. A warehouse shrugs and says they will look around. Search trends show people asking why is my inventory never accurate or how do I track wholesale stock better, which usually means the warehouse is relying on hope instead of data.

If you have ever crossed your fingers before checking your inventory counts, you are not alone.

Why wholesale visibility breaks more often than D2C visibility

Wholesale inventory moves in larger chunks, through more touchpoints, and with more opportunities for misalignment. A pallet gets moved across the warehouse without being scanned. A case is pulled from a pallet but never recorded. A location gets reused before the WMS updates. All these small errors compound until the inventory picture becomes a fog rather than a map.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10, sees those problems long before a client can articulate them. "One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLs is inventory accuracy. Maybe their previous 3PL was not great at picking the orders accurately. So they were losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items." Lack of scanning is the root of almost every problem.

Why warehouses lose visibility

Most visibility failures happen because the system in use was never built for wholesale. Many 3PLs rely on tools meant for e-commerce. Those tools track items one at a time, not by pallets, lots, cases, or retail pack standards. When a brand scales into wholesale, the system cannot keep up. Staff resort to guessing, shouting across aisles, or running manual cycle counts.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO, explained the difference. "A bad WMS will not track inventory 100 percent. A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point you touch it." Partial tracking means partial truth.

Why slow communication kills visibility too

Even with good tools, visibility collapses when the 3PL responds slowly. Many providers use ticket queues where each update takes hours or days. Clients ask where their inventory is and get vague answers. Meanwhile retailers expect orders to ship with flawless accuracy.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience, sees how this delay creates panic. "At some 3PLs you get thrown into a ticketed queue, and you get different people replying every time. It can take days, if not weeks, to get a resolution." Wholesale does not allow that much time.

At G10, each merchant has one direct contact. "You call one person. That is it. And things get done," Joel said. That responsiveness is what visibility actually looks like in practice.

What real-time wholesale visibility requires

Accurate wholesale visibility requires three pillars: scanning, system logic, and operational discipline. Every inbound pallet must be scanned. Every movement must be logged. Locations must be updated instantly. The WMS must organize inventory by pallet, lot, and case. And the warehouse must follow the same playbook every single day.

Connor emphasized how much setup matters. "When we onboard a client who sells into places like Amazon or Walmart, the process changes depending on where they are selling. We work through all of their routing guide requirements and make sure the warehouse is ready before the first order ever drops." Visibility starts with planning, not rescuing.

How visibility holds up when pressures spike

Inventory visibility is tested when demand surges, when inbounds are late, and when retailers submit unexpected POs. That is when bad systems collapse under pressure.

Joel described how G10 handles those moments. A delayed Target shipment once arrived with no margin for error. "Our supervisor, warehouse manager, and several employees worked the entire day into the night, then came back at 5 a.m. to make sure we had the routing completed." Clear visibility made the turnaround possible.

He shared another moment when a client went viral overnight. "The client asked, Can you help us? And we said, Yeah, we gotcha. Then we sent a truck to the carrier at midnight." Inventory visibility made it possible to fulfill both wholesale and D2C under pressure.

The bottom line for wholesale brands

Wholesale inventory visibility is not a luxury. It is the foundation that prevents stockouts, oversells, and retailer penalties. When your warehouse tracks every movement, every unit, and every pallet, your orders move cleanly. When it does not, chaos takes over.

If you want wholesale visibility that protects your inventory and your retailer relationships, reach out to G10. You will get cleaner data, faster answers, and fewer surprises every time your inventory moves.