Purchase order routing
Purchase orders are reviewed and routed per retailer.
Allocating Stock Between DTC and Wholesale
A store order and your own website both want the same size run. Decide who gets what before the shortfall, not during it.
Two Customers, One Shelf
Once a brand sells to stores, every style has two demands on it: your direct customers, who buy one unit at a time, and wholesale accounts, who order in size ratios with ship windows. When stock is tight, somebody gets shorted. Allocation is deciding who, in advance.
Size ratios
Stores often order prepacks, a set ratio of sizes per carton, that may not match what your site sells.Ship windows
Purchase orders carry start and cancel dates. Miss them and the order can be cancelled or charged back.Margin differences
A direct sale and a wholesale unit earn different amounts, and that should shape the rule.Timing
Wholesale orders are placed months ahead. DTC demand shows up week by week.
Why it gets hard in apparel:
Write the Rule Before the Shortfall
The worst time to decide allocation is the afternoon a purchase order needs units your site is also selling. Set the rule per style in advance:
| Rule | How it works | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Reserve for wholesale | Units for each open PO are held back from DTC as soon as the PO is confirmed | Store relationships matter more than a few direct sales |
| DTC first | Wholesale ships from what is left after a DTC buffer | The style is a direct best seller and wholesale is secondary |
| Split by size | Each size has a wholesale share and a DTC share | Store ratios and your site’s size mix differ a lot |
| Separate production | Wholesale units are produced and received as their own run | Large retail programs with fixed quantities |
Whichever rule you choose, write it down and share it with your account manager. A rule that lives in one person’s head breaks the week they are out.
Prepacks and Size Ratios
A prepack is a carton with a fixed mix, for example one small, two medium, two large and one extra large. Stores like them because they reorder by the carton. They take sizes out of your pool in a ratio that may not match your direct demand, which can strand the edges or starve the middle.
Before agreeing to a prepack, compare its ratio with your direct sales by size. If they differ, plan the wholesale quantity as its own production, or agree on open-stock ordering with the store.
Pack-out rules such as prepacks, size ratios, folding and carton limits should go to the warehouse with the purchase order. See apparel wholesale and retail fulfillment.
Ship Windows Drive the Calendar
A purchase order has a start date before which it cannot ship and a cancel date after which the store can refuse it. Retail chargebacks usually come from routing and labeling detail, and from shipping outside the window.
- Send the PO and the retailer’s routing guide as soon as the order is confirmed.
- Confirm which inventory is committed to it under your allocation rule.
- Schedule the pack-out ahead of the start date so labels, cartons and pallets are ready.
- Ship inside the window with an advance shipping notice.
OC3PL’s retail service covers purchase order review and routing, retail-compliant and GS1 labels, ASN processing, EDI for major retailers and palletized shipping. Weekly reporting includes a fulfillment and service-level review so compliance issues surface early. See retail chargebacks for the usual causes.
Running Both From One Building
Direct-to-consumer orders and wholesale purchase orders ship from the same warehouse and the same inventory at OC3PL, so allocation is a rule in one system rather than a transfer between two. Retail and wholesale clients go live in under seven business days once integration and purchase order sync are complete.
Your account manager works on site at our Anaheim fulfillment center, in the same building as your inventory. When something is urgent you call and talk to a person who can walk to the shelf and fix it. Call anytime. We are here. We got you.
When Stock Runs Short Anyway
Even with a rule, some weeks there is not enough. Have a short decision list ready so nobody has to invent one under pressure.
- Which purchase orders can ship partial, and which must ship complete.
- Which stores accept substitutions, such as a different color.
- How much of your direct buffer you are willing to release to wholesale.
- When to ask a store to move its ship window instead of shorting it.
- Who on your team makes the call, and how fast.
Tell your account manager as soon as you know a shortfall is coming. A partial or delayed shipment that the store agreed to in advance is a conversation. One it discovers at its dock is a chargeback.
After the season, compare what each channel sold by size with what you allocated. That comparison is the best input for next season’s split, and for whether a prepack ratio still makes sense.
What OC3PL Handles on the Wholesale Side
Alongside your direct orders, from the same stock.
Retail-compliant labels
Retail-compliant and GS1 labels, prepared to the retailer’s routing guide.
ASNs and EDI
Advance shipping notices and EDI integrations for major retailers.
Palletized freight
Cartons packed, labeled and palletized for store and distribution-center deliveries.
Common Questions
It depends on the style and the account. Many brands reserve stock for confirmed purchase orders and protect a buffer for their best direct sellers. Decide per style, in writing, before stock gets tight.
A carton with a fixed ratio of sizes that a store orders as one unit. Compare its ratio with your own direct sales by size before you agree to it.
Yes. At OC3PL direct orders and wholesale purchase orders ship from the same warehouse and the same inventory.
Share the routing guide early, ship inside the PO window, and label and pack exactly as the retailer specifies. Weekly service-level reviews surface issues early.
Retail and wholesale clients go live in under seven business days once integration and purchase order sync are complete.
Talk to the store before the ship window. Agree on a partial shipment, a substitution or a new date, and tell your account manager so the pack-out matches what was agreed.
Related Reading
More detail, in OC3PL’s own guides.
High-Volume Apparel Fulfillment at OC3PL
The overview: what we handle, how a garment moves through the building, and every apparel guide.
Retail & Wholesale Fulfillment Solutions
OC3PL offers B2B order fulfillment, retail compliance, palletized shipping, and integrations built for wholesale and multi-channel DTC operations.
Wholesale and B2B Order Fulfillment
Shipping wholesale purchase orders and DTC from one warehouse: retail-compliant labeling, ASN processing, EDI, palletized shipping, and Faire orders syncing as B2B.
Faire Fulfillment: Wholesale That Ships Like Parcels
Faire orders are wholesale, but Faire does not support pallet, expedited or overnight shipping. What that means for a brand running Faire alongside retail purchase orders.
Apparel Wholesale & Retail Fulfillment | DTC + B2B
Apparel wholesale and retail fulfillment from the same inventory as your DTC orders: PO routing, GS1 labels, ASNs, EDI and palletized freight.
Surf Brand Fulfillment | Apparel & Accessories 3PL
Fulfillment for surf brands from Orange County: boardshorts, tees, hats and accessories for DTC, surf shops and retail, through every season.
Multichannel Fulfillment From One Inventory Pool
Running a storefront and two marketplaces from one stock pool: how allocation works, what breaks when you split inventory per channel, and what to confirm before you do.
Talk to Us About Wholesale
Send us your monthly order volume, SKU count and where you sell. You will get a line-item quote, and a person on site you can call.