[TanyaBrown]

Greetings;

I am wondering how Ikea's website gets the numbers for its online inventory checks, and whether stores may have merchandise that isn't stored in the warehouse which is getting counted as inventory.

Twice, one week apart, I have gone to the store in East Palo Alto looking for birch veneer Galant file drawer units. Each time, the online stock check has assured me that they're in stock, both on the days I went and the days I checked in between. However, when I've gotten to the warehouse, there haven't been any available. Even the pallets boxes would normally be stacked on are gone.

It isn't surprising to run into this once; as the website says, stock numbers are constantly changing. However, it is a little surprising to run into it twice. Even if, say, a shipment had just gotten in and was counted as inventory but hadn't yet made it to the floor, I'd expect that over the course of a week, it would appear in the warehouse. I'd also expect the item to show "out of stock" at some point after stock has been depleted. It makes the online stock check less than useful.

Is anyone familiar with how Ikea stores and the website arrive at their stock status?

Kind regards -

[DesignDiva]

Hi tanya and welcome to IKEAFans!

The online inventory is fairly useless...they'll show they have things in stock they really don't, and things that show as out of stock really are in. One IKEAn told me that the inventory count goes to zero when they have less than 10 of the item...that makes no sense to me at all, but the bottom line is, don't rely on the online inventory at all. You have to actually go to the store. "Less than useful" for sure.

[TanyaBrown]

Thank you Eva; the reply is much appreciated.

I sort of understand why they have the inventory count show zero when actual inventory is less than ten. That's a small enough inventory that it could conceivably get bought up by the time someone drove to the store, so corporate probably wants to play it conservative.

However, showing positive inventory when something isn't on the shelf is kind of odd, particularly considering that they probably have one heck of an ERP/inventory tracking system. I doubt that, say, there are major problems with untracked shrinkage due to people walking out with filing cabinets stuffed under their coats.

Regardless, so be it.

[splatgirl]

When I've mentioned at the store that I checked the inventory online, they've just laughed...

[Macks13]

Unfortunately, the online inventory is just computers talking to computers. I highly recommend calling your local store to check before making the drive. Talking to a person who works with the inventory totally trumps anything online.