Strategic Inventory Management: When & How to Split Your Stock
Published: 14 April 2025
Most merchants start with a single warehouse. It’s simple, straightforward, and gets the job done when you’re processing your first few hundred orders a month.
But what happens when international orders start trickling in? When your US customers wait three weeks while UK buyers receive packages in two days? Or when a viral TikTok success drives thousands of international orders overnight?
We see these tipping points at J&J all the time. Companies reach a stage where shipping from one location becomes a bottleneck.
Truthfully, this is a great problem to have – it means your business is growing! Solving it will truly level up your operations and set the scene for smooth expansion.
For any brand with international ambitions, the question isn’t whether you’ll eventually need to split your inventory – it’s when to make the move and how to implement it effectively.
That’s what we’ll cover here – diving into the nuances of when and how to split your stock.
In this article
Recognize These Tipping Points? It Might Be Time to Split Your Stock!
Most brands don’t plan for multi-site fulfillment — they grow into it. But certain signals start to pop up as international demand builds. If any of these sound familiar, it could be time to rethink your inventory strategy:
- Are international customers waiting weeks while domestic ones get next-day delivery? This mismatch can kill conversion rates and hurt brand perception in new markets.
- Are shipping costs starting to eat into 20 – 30% of your margins? When international fulfillment becomes one of your biggest expenses, you’re funding growth with unsustainable overhead.
- Did a viral moment flood you with overseas orders – and expose your fulfillment limits? A spike in demand is great, but if you can’t deliver quickly, you risk turning first-time buyers into one-time buyers.
- Is your customer service team bogged down with shipping-related inquiries?
Long delivery times, tracking issues, and customs delays are symptoms of a strained system. - Are you seeing consistent demand in a specific region – but struggling to compete with local brands? Fast, affordable delivery is often the deciding factor at checkout. If you can’t match it, you’re losing out.
- Do certain SKUs perform well in specific regions, but you can’t keep them in stock there? Localising your inventory makes it easier to meet regional demand without overstocking globally.
- Are you turning down marketing opportunities because your logistics can’t support the promise? Promos based on delivery speed, e.g. spend over X for free premium delivery, only work when your fulfillment can back them up.
If you’re nodding along to any of these, you’re likely at (or heading towards) a natural inflection point. Splitting your stock can be a gradual process – but getting ahead of these pain points can set you up for smoother, smarter growth.
The Benefits of Splitting Your Inventory
If you’re considering splitting your inventory across multiple locations, you’re likely feeling the growing pains of international success. It’s one thing to ship the occasional package overseas, but quite another to efficiently serve a growing global customer base from a single warehouse.
We can divide the advantages of multi-site fulfillment into two broad categories: operational efficiency and customer experience.
| Operational Benefits | Customer Benefits |
|---|---|
| Shipping costs drop by 30 – 66% (Based on our case studies) | Lower cart abandonment due to better shipping options |
| Delivery times improve by 5 – 14 days (Based on our case studies) | Local delivery expectations are met – or exceeded |
| Fewer lost or delayed packages (thanks to fewer border crossings) | More products become impulse-buyable rather than long-considered |
| Smoother warehouse operations and fewer fulfillment bottlenecks | Lower volume of shipping-related customer service inquiries |
| Inventory positioned closer to demand reduces stockouts and delays | Packaging and messaging can be tailored by region |
| Tech-driven routing reduces manual oversight and fulfillment errors | Opens the door to marketing levers like next-day delivery promotions |
How to Split Your Stock Effectively
Knowing the benefits of multi-site fulfillment is one thing – actually doing it is another challenge entirely.
While the process will differ somewhat for every brand, their products, sales patterns, strategies, etc, let’s break down the three fundamental steps to splitting inventory:
Let the Data Guide You
Before you start shipping inventory around the globe, you need to know where your customers are and what they’re buying. Data exists so we don’t always have to trust our gut.
Here’s what to assess:
- Pull your last 6-12 months of orders and identify where your customers cluster geographically
- Map these clusters against potential warehouse locations – how much faster could you deliver?
- Look at your bestsellers by region – these should move to multi-site distribution first
- Consider product bulk and value – heavy, lower-value items benefit most from local fulfillment
- Check for seasonal patterns that might affect where you need stock throughout the year
- Run the numbers on how splitting specific products affects your bottom line
As noted, the process varies. Some J&J clients saw explosive regional growth off the back of viral marketing campaigns – when your US orders surge by 1000%+ overnight, splitting some stock to a US fulfillment center might be an obvious move. Other times, it’s less dramatic: stock is split proactively based on insights uncovered during detailed planning for a regional marketing push.
Choosing the Right Tech Stack
The technology connecting your stores to your warehouses can make or break multi-site fulfillment. Without solid systems, you’ll drown in spreadsheets and watch errors multiply.
Your tech stack needs to handle:
- Real-time stock levels across all locations, so you never oversell
- Smart order routing that automatically picks the right fulfillment center for each order
- Seamless integration with your eCommerce platform (no manual order copying!)
- Alerts when stock runs low at specific locations
- Reporting that brings all your locations together in one view
- Flexibility to handle different packaging or shipping rules by region
The key point is that excellent technology makes running five warehouses feel as straightforward as running one.
Common Challenges (And How to Overcome Them)
Even with perfect planning, you’ll face some practical challenges when setting up multi-site fulfillment. Watch out for:
- Cash flow impact – you’ll need more inventory upfront to stock multiple locations
- Quality consistency – how will you ensure the same standards everywhere?
- Customs paperwork and international shipping requirements
- What happens when someone returns something to the “wrong” warehouse?
- Tax headaches from holding stock in different countries or states
- Longer lead times to replenish international locations
None of these are deal-breakers, but they need thinking through. Taking the leap to multi-site fulfillment means committing to international growth and investing ahead of demand.
For businesses with global ambitions, it’s an investment that pays off time and again – a launchpad to an exciting new era for your brand!
How J&J Makes Multi-Site Fulfillment Work
If you’re ready to explore multi-site fulfillment, you’ll need a partner with the right infrastructure, technology, and expertize to make it work. We’ve been helping merchants grow since 2010 — from bedroom startups to global names shipping thousands of orders a day.
Our strategies are built from the ground up to support merchants that want to expand internationally without the hassle and complexity of setting it all up DIY.
Our Global Network
We’ve built our warehouses in strategic locations around the world to give you maximum reach with minimum shipping times:
- Northampton, UK: Our central UK hub with excellent connections to Europe
- Venlo, Netherlands: Positioned in Europe’s logistics goldilocks zone for post-Brexit EU fulfillment
- Columbus, Ohio: Our US East Coast facility provides 1-3 day shipping to major US population centers
- Las Vegas, Nevada: Just 50 miles from California, efficiently serving western US states
- Toronto, Canada: Eliminating cross-border shipping complexities for the Canadian market
- Brisbane, Australia: Access to the Oceania region with dramatically reduced shipping times
You can place your inventory exactly where it needs to be, and you don’t need to commit to all locations at once – most clients start with one additional site and grow from there.
ControlPort™: Our Secret Weapon
ControlPort™ is our award-winning technology platform – a single source of truth for your logistics operations. ControlPort™ shows every product in every warehouse, how fast they’re selling, and where they’re shipping to.
Once the sales start rolling in, ControlPort™ highlights trends in regional demand and helps you anticipate where stock will be needed next, so you’re not caught short-handed or overstocked.
It connects with all major eCommerce platforms, ensuring data is shared in real-time between your store and our warehouses. This is top-tier logistics and sales intelligence – built to fuel smarter decisions both domestically and internationally.
How Our Clients Win with Multi-Site Fulfillment
When brands place inventory closer to their customers, the results are real — faster delivery, lower costs, and serious growth. Here are some success stories from our own case studies:
| Brand | Challenge → Result | Client Insight |
|---|---|---|
| Whites Beaconsfield | Overwhelmed by viral US demand, slow shipping from UK → Activated Ohio site, cut shipping costs by 66% and sped up delivery by 11 days | “J&J helped us save costs on carriers, speed of delivery, and bump our US expansion targets by six months.” – James Pryor, COO |
| Dotty Dungarees | Needed to expand into the US without slow delivery or high costs → Used Columbus hub and integrated with Shopify for smooth US fulfillment | “We genuinely wouldn’t have been able to expand into America without J&J.” – Alice Goldsmith, Co-founder |
| Dr Squatch | International delivery was taking up to 28 days and hurting profitability → Activated UK, EU, and AU sites to offer 1–5 day delivery worldwide | “J&J’s regional expertize has helped us improve service and reduce shipping costs exponentially.” – Jason Welsh, Senior Fulfillment Manager |
| Karta Bottle | US market share stuck at 5% due to overseas shipping limitations → Activated US fulfillment center and scaled to 55% US market share | “Previous to J&J, my market share in the US was around 5%. Since I started using the US Fulfillment Center, it’s increased to 55%.” – Pete Anwyll, Founder |
The Next Steps
In the simplest terms, splitting your inventory is a prerequisite to expansion. It delivers a win-win-win: lower costs for your business, faster deliveries for your customers, and a scalable platform for international growth.
While once viewed as an immensely complex task, it’s far more straightforward than many anticipate, provided you work with the right 3PL partner.
At J&J, we’re built for brands that are ready to grow beyond borders. With 98% of orders shipped the same day and 99.9% pick-and-pack accuracy, we give you the operational confidence to scale — and the tech to stay in control.
So, if single-site fulfillment is starting to limit your reach, now’s the time to explore a strategy designed for international success. Our expert team will help you assess the right locations, tech setup, and rollout plan so you can expand without growing pains.
Get in touch to see how J&J can support your brand’s next phase of international growth.
This is part 5 of our series on fulfilment centre strategy. You can read the rest of the series here:
- Single vs Multi-Site Fulfillment: What’s the Best Strategy For You?
- The Business Case for Multi-Site Fulfillment
- How to Develop an Effective Fulfillment Center Location Strategy
- How Fulfillment Software Enables Multi-Location Fulfillment
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