Distribution runs on inventory accuracy, fulfillment speed, and margin visibility. The ERP questions that matter are about warehouse structure, landed cost, and how orders actually get routed.
How you model warehouses, bins, and virtual locations determines what you can do later. Consolidating multiple physical sites, running a virtual warehouse for a 3PL or drop ship supplier, and separating owned from consigned stock all need to be designed before go-live. Changing warehouse structure after you have transaction history is one of the harder retrofits in ERP.
If duty, freight, and tariffs are not landing on the item, your cost of goods is understated and your margin by product is fiction. For importers this is not a nicety. It is the difference between knowing which lines make money and guessing.
Most distributors run a mix. The order needs to know which path it is taking, the customer needs a credible promise date, and the accounting needs to reflect who owned the goods and when. Routing logic that lives in someone's head does not survive volume growth.
If you sell into larger retailers, EDI is not optional and compliance failures cost real money in chargebacks. The integration needs to handle the document set your partners actually require, and someone needs to own the error queue.
NetSuite implementation and consulting, WMS and 3PL integration, Celigo and custom integrations, and recovery work when a distribution rollout has stalled on inventory accuracy.
It should allocate to the item so cost of goods reflects true cost. The allocation basis matters, and getting it wrong distorts every margin report you run.
Yes. The design question is how you model the 3PL: as a location, a virtual warehouse, or outside the system with periodic reconciliation. Each has tradeoffs.
It depends on pick complexity and volume. NetSuite handles straightforward warehouse operations natively. High-volume or complex picking usually justifies a dedicated WMS with an integration.
Inventory accuracy, almost always traceable to warehouse structure decisions made quickly at the start of the project.
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