The Best Distribution Inventory Management Software
Distributors outgrowing spreadsheets and QuickBooks need inventory software built around purchasing, order fulfillment, and replenishment. We compared the best systems for wholesalers, ecommerce sellers, and 3PLs.
- Can function as a light MRP system
- Integrates with QuickBooks
- Competative entry-level pricing
- Intuitive user interface with logical navigation
- Several different automation options to streamline workflows like eCommerce and order processing
- Real-time inventory tracking and order processing
- Integrates with QuickBooks Online, ShipStation, and Shopify
- Affordable pricing for SMBs
- Mobile app for warehouse inventory management
We consulted our advanced review methodology to rank the top products on the market today.
- Fishbowl Inventory: Best for Consumer Goods
- Cin7 Core: Best for Wholesale Distributors
- SOS Inventory: Best QuickBooks Online Add-On
- Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager: Best for 3PLs
- Finale Inventory: Best for eCommerce Distributors
- Infoplus: Best for Building Material Distributors
- Acctivate Inventory Management: Best for Food and Beverage
- HandiFox: Best Mobile App
- NorthStar WMS: Best for Multi-Warehouse Distribution
Fishbowl Inventory - Best for Consumer Goods
Fishbowl offers strong multi-location inventory tracking for consumer goods B2B distributors. All stock is managed on a centralized database to track quantities on hand, committed, and available at every location. This allows you to manage and transfer inventory between warehouses or fulfillment centers in real time. It’s really effective for distributors dealing with high SKU counts and fluctuating demand due to seasonality or promotions.
Additionally, Fishbowl lets you configure automated reorder points and restock triggers. This helps maintain visibility across the supply chain so you can decrease manual workflows. And if you rely on timely delivery, this level of automation gives you consistent product availability to get your shipments where they need to be faster. It even has tools for handling perishable goods, like lot and serial tracking.
Fishbowl combines inventory control, warehouse management, and order management on one platform for midsize operations. However, you’ll need to use QuickBooks or Xero for your accounting. Also, the system can have a steep learning curve for new users, and may be difficult to navigate for some.
Read our full profile on Fishbowl Inventory for key features and pricing details.
Cin7 Core - Best for Wholesale Distributors
Cin7 Core’s B2B Portal add-on lets distributors build a personalized catalog that gives wholesale accounts a personalized ordering experience. Each customer logs in to a branded portal and sees a catalog tailored to them from the products and bundles they carry to the sizes and colors they order.
Cin7’s pricing controls make the portal useful for distributors with many wholesale accounts. You can set up multiple pricing tiers and assign them to customer groups or individual accounts so customers can see their own prices when they log in. The portal also enforces order minimums and quantity multiples, which require buyers to order in cases or packs rather than single units, and allows customers to view past orders in a few clicks.
Beyond the portal, Cin7 tracks inventory across an unlimited number of warehouse locations and integrates with popular ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and Amazon. Inventory is synced across all channels for omnichannel wholesalers or distributors with D2C and B2B customers. Additionally, Cin7 offers a point-of-sale add-on for wholesalers with showrooms or retail operations.
We generally recommend Cin7 Core to growing distributors who need more advanced inventory than QuickBooks or require a wholesale customer portal. Pricing starts at $349/month for the basics with add-ons and higher-tier plans for advanced features and higher order volumes.
For more information on Cin7 Core, read our full review.
SOS Inventory - Best QuickBooks Online Add-On
SOS Inventory is built specifically for distributors using QuickBooks Online, adding order management and warehouse inventory tracking without replacing your accounting system. Small distributors and wholesalers can keep invoicing and financials where they are and move inventory management to SOS without entering data twice.
Unlike QuickBooks Online, you can use SOS to create sales orders that commit stock to a customer, track back orders, and generate pick tickets and packing slips in just a few clicks. SOS also handles partial shipments, so if an order goes out short, the remaining quantity stays open rather than sitting in a spreadsheet. And like most of the systems on this list, SOS handles inventory across multiple locations so you can transfer products between warehouses or shelves.
SOS Inventory also handles the purchasing side of inventory management, assigning each item individual reorder points and maximum stock levels. You can add items to a reorder list and generate purchase orders in batches with suggested quantities. On the Pro plan, SOS can also automatically calculate reorder points.
We recommend SOS Inventory to distributors that already run QuickBooks Online and have outgrown its basic inventory tracking. We also like SOS’s pricing starting at $70/month, which is great for small teams who aren’t ready for an ERP or enterprise system but are stuck doing manual workarounds. That said, for any complex distribution or warehouse operations, we would suggest looking at Cin7 Core or other options on this list.
Read our full profile on SOS Inventory for pros, cons, and key features.
Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager - Best for 3PLs
Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager’s picking and packing feature can help you reduce time and errors in fulfilling orders for 3PLs. By batching, you can assign your team to collect multiple orders simultaneously based on similar SKUs or locations within the warehouse.
Extensiv integrates barcode scanning and pick-to-light systems to guide team members to the correct items. Once they pick the items, they can move to packing stations. The software automatically generates packing lists for each order, ensuring that each item’s quantity and condition meet the customer’s requirements.
You can monitor the packing process in real-time, tracking the progress of each order. Once complete, the software integrates with the carrier system to automatically generate shipping labels, ensuring the orders are dispatched quickly and correctly. This can help save time and reduce human error, improving order accuracy.
However, while Extensiv is highly functional, certain 3PLs with very unique needs may find the dashboard, reporting, and custom workflows somewhat limited compared to other, more flexible platforms. If you’re searching for a highly customizable solution, visit our best 3PL software roundup for more options.
Read our full review for more information on Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager.
Finale Inventory - Best for eCommerce Distributors
Finale Inventory provides eCommerce brands and distributors selling online a centralized inventory hub that keeps stock counts in sync across all sales channels. When an order comes in from online marketplaces like Shopify, eBay, or Walmart, Finale updates available quantities on the other channels, which helps prevent overselling products that are running low.
For distributors selling on Amazon, Finale tracks FBA inventory alongside your own warehouse stock. You can follow the inbound shipments to Amazon, reconcile lost inventory, and monitor storage fees all without leaving your Finale dashboard. Since eCommerce brands often list the same product under different SKUs or kits depending on where or how they are sold, Finale’s SKU aliases let each marketplace or product bundle retain its own SKU while pointing back to a single product.
Instead of relying on fixed reorder points, Finale suggests reorders and stock transfers based on combined sales across all your channels and each supplier’s lead times. That way, a product selling fast on Amazon but slowly on Shopify gets reordered based on its true total demand.
Finale is best for distributors and brands with a high volume of eCommerce and marketplace selling, especially Amazon sellers managing FBA alongside a warehouse. Finale works with most accounting and ERP systems with base pricing starting at 499/month.
For more information on Finale Inventory, read our full review.
Infoplus - Best for Building Material Distributors
Infoplus’s flexible warehouse setup allows you to manage multiple warehouses or locations, assigning specific products or types of inventory to different facilities based on demand, proximity to customers, or handling needs, such as high-value or temperature-sensitive items.
When setting up a warehouse, you can define the layout and allocate inventory to various locations within the building. For example, you can set up a zone for heavy construction materials like cement and another zone for lighter materials such as insulation. The system can direct workers to pick and pack orders based on your warehouse layout, ensuring efficiency.
You can also set customizable rules for inventory handling at each location. This includes setting up automated workflows for receiving, picking, packing, and shipping based on the warehouse’s capabilities and the type of materials.
The flexible warehouse setup provides options for creating and managing bins, shelves, and pallets within the building. This allows you to optimize storage by organizing materials based on size, weight, or other factors. This feature also supports cross-docking for efficient material flow, where goods are received and immediately shipped out without long-term storage, which can be beneficial if you have high-turnover materials like cement or construction aggregates.
Acctivate Inventory Management - Best for Food and Beverage
Acctivate’s lot and serial number traceability feature tracks products through every stage of their life cycle, from production to delivery. This capability provides real-time visibility into every item within the warehouse, ensuring compliance and efficient inventory handling.
Acctivate will scan and assign lot or serial numbers to the products when you receive inventory, based on the vendor’s information or manually entered details. For example, if you receive a shipment of fruit juices, each batch will contain a unique lot number that can track its manufacturing date, ingredients, and expiry date.
Whenever a worker makes a sale, the system records the lot number of the product sold, ensuring traceability in case of complaints or recalls. If a customer reports an issue with one of the juices, Acctivate can help you quickly identify which batch the product came from. You can check the lot number in the system and immediately initiate a recall process for that specific batch. The database will also alert you when a batch is approaching its expiration date or if there are any stock discrepancies through reports, dashboards, and workflow task lists, helping you avoid selling expired or defective products.
Acctivate links directly with QuickBooks Online and Desktop, making it a good, affordable solution if that’s your current accounting software. If not, you may want to consider other affordable food distribution systems, such as Food Connex.
For more information on Acctivate, read our full review.
HandiFox - Best Mobile App
HandiFox a simple inventory management app for tracking stock and products across different locations using mobile devices. This includes locating inventory in real time across multiple warehouses, retail outlets, or client sites to ensure that you maintain accurate stock levels and reduce the chance of stockouts or overstocks.
For example, maybe you have two storehouses in different cities. One warehouse in City A is running low on a popular product, while the other in City B has a surplus. Using HandiFox, you can quickly check stock levels and initiate a transfer from City B to City A. The immediate updates ensure that inventory levels are adjusted immediately in both locations.
The mobile app also allows you to perform stock counts at each facility and update the system while on the go. The inventory data is continuously synced for all locations, ensuring that the master database reflects accurate levels at each point, regardless of where the update occurs.
HandiFox generates area-specific reports that allow you to analyze stock levels, sales, and inventory turnover for each location. This can help you identify trends and forecast needs for each facility.
For more information on HandiFox, read our full review.
NorthStar WMS - Best for Multi-Warehouse Distribution
NorthStar WMS is a solid fit for companies operating across several inventory environments. You can set specific purchasing, invoicing, and returns workflows for each facility. In particular, the Order Manager module acts as an intelligent allocation engine, and it’s pretty simple to configure this for each legal entity.
You can choose from two different settings:
- Auto Mode: Auto-assigns stock to orders based on predefined rules (like location priority, expiration, etc.)
- Manual Mode: Fine-tune or override allocation down to the lot or serial number level.
This takes the guesswork out of fulfillment across multiple sites. Plus, within each entity, NorthStar lets you customize:
- Zoning: Divides warehouses by volume, staff assignment, temperature, or SKU speed.
- Cubing: Optimizes item placement based on space usage.
- Directed put-away: Auto-suggests best storage locations.
NorthStar WMS starts roughly at $1,000/month, though you’ll need a custom quote for exact pricing. You can choose from on-premise or cloud-based deployment. We generally recommend this distribution inventory software for mid-level distributors with 50 to 500 employees.
Read our full review of NorthStar WMS here.
What is Distribution Inventory Management Software?
Distribution inventory management software helps wholesalers and distributors track stock from the moment it’s ordered from suppliers to when it ships to customers. It covers purchasing, receiving, storage, order fulfillment, and replenishment, often across multiple warehouses and sales channels. Many of these systems build on standard inventory management systems and add the tools distributors need, such as customer-specific pricing, lot tracking, and purchasing based on demand.
Key Features
The core features of distribution inventory software include order management, inventory tracking, and purchasing:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Inventory Tracking | Tracks stock levels, locations, and status to help prevent stockouts and overstock. |
| Order Management | Manages sales orders from entry through picking, packing, and shipping, including backorders and partial shipments. |
| Purchasing and Reordering | Sets reorder points by item or location and suggests purchase orders based on sales and supplier lead times. |
| Lot and Serial Tracking | Records lot numbers, serial numbers, and expiration dates so you can trace products and respond quickly to recalls. |
| B2B Ordering and Customer Pricing | Applies price tiers by customer or customer group, and some systems offer online portals where wholesale accounts place their own orders. |
| Warehouse Management | Organizes storage locations, bins, and zones, and guides picking and put-away. |
| Multi-Location Support | Manages inventory across multiple warehouses and supports transfers between them. |
| Demand Forecasting | Uses sales history to predict future demand, and some systems now use AI to recommend reorder quantities. |
| Barcode Scanning | Speeds up receiving, picking, and cycle counts with handheld or mobile scanners. |
| Integration Capabilities | Connects with accounting software, ecommerce platforms, shipping carriers, and ERP systems. |
Benefits
Wholesale inventory management software enhances several processes, including stock level and supply chain management. Here are a few of the key benefits:
- Improved Inventory Accuracy: Reduces errors associated with manual counting and record-keeping, providing accurate real-time data.
- Optimized Storage: Analyzes sales trends and inventory levels to optimize product placement within the warehouse and improve the overall use of storage space.
- Reduced Costs: Minimizes costs associated with overstocking and holding unsold inventory; reduces stockout losses.
- Analytics and Reporting: Gives valuable insights into inventory trends, sales patterns, and customer preferences, enabling more informed decision-making.
- Supply Chain Visibility: Provides transparency in every stage of the distribution process, from order entry to delivery, helping to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
- Regulatory Compliance: Maintains records compliant with industry regulations and standards for sectors like pharmaceuticals and food services.
How to Choose Inventory Software
Start With Your Current Software
Your accounting or ERP system shapes your shortlist more than any feature list. If you run on QuickBooks or Xero and inventory tracking is the main problem, systems like SOS Inventory, Acctivate, and Fishbowl will offer what you need. If you’re also outgrowing your financials, purchasing, or multi-entity reporting, an all-in-one distribution ERP may make more sense than adding another system. Already on an ERP? Check what its inventory module covers first, then look at a warehouse management system like NorthStar WMS or Extensiv that integrates with rather than replacing it.
Match How You Sell
Where your orders come from decides which tools you’ll use every day:
- Wholesale accounts: Distributors selling to retailers and businesses need customer-specific price tiers, order minimums, and a way for accounts to reorder without calling in. B2B ordering portals, like the ones in Cin7 Core and Extensiv, let customers place orders and review inventory themselves.
- Ecommerce and marketplaces: Selling on Amazon, Shopify, eBay, or Walmart means stock has to stay in sync across every channel to avoid overselling. Amazon sellers should also look for FBA inventory tracking as a key feature.
- Showrooms and retail distributors: Distributors with in-person sales need a point-of-sale tied to the same inventory as their wholesale orders, so counter sales don’t throw off warehouse counts.
- Multiple channels: If you sell wholesale, online, and in person, prioritize a single stock pool shared across every channel and reporting that shows where each sale came from.
Match What You Distribute
Your products set your tracking requirements:
- Food and beverage: Perishable products need lot numbers and expiration dates recorded at receiving and tied to each shipment, so you can trace and pull a bad batch quickly. This is often required by regulatory standards like FSMA 204.
- Pharmaceutical and medical supplies: Pharma distributors face DSCSA requirements for tracing products through the supply chain, which goes beyond standard lot tracking. Confirm DSCSA support directly with any vendor before buying.
- Industrial and Equipment Distributors: Industrial distributors often carry thousands of SKUs with uneven demand. Reorder points by location, purchasing suggestions, and fast barcode lookups tend to matter most.
- Consumer goods: High SKU counts, seasonal demand, and promotions call for automated reorder points and visibility across locations, which a system like Fishbowl offers.
- Building materials and bulky goods: Heavy, oversized products need warehouse zones and storage rules that account for size and weight. Systems with zoning and cubing, like NorthStar WMS, handle this better than basic inventory tools.
Size Up Your Warehouse
A single warehouse with a small team can usually get by with mobile scanning, bin locations, and cycle counts, which tools like HandiFox and SOS Inventory cover without much setup. Multiple warehouses or high order volume call for a full warehouse management system with allocation rules, zoning, and directed put-away. 3PLs are more unique and need billing rules and inventory control tied to each client’s storage and transactions.
Set a Realistic Budget
The subscription is only part of the cost. Lower plan tiers often leave out features like lot tracking or automated reorder points, so confirm what’s included in the plan you’re quoted. Implementation, training, and warehouse hardware, such as barcode scanners, can also add significant upfront costs. See our pricing guide below to compare starting costs.
Pricing Guide
Distribution inventory warehouse management systems can cost as little as $50/month to over $10,000/month for enterprise deployments. Prices will vary depending on the number of users and whether you require additional features.
- Entry-Level Software: $2,000-$10,000/year for up to 25 employees
- Mid-Tier Systems: $10,000-$50,000/year for up to 150 employees
- High-Tier Software: $50,000-$100,000/year for up to 500 employees
- Enterprise-Level Systems: Over $150,000/year for more than 500 employees
| Software | Deployment Options | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|
| Fishbowl Inventory | Cloud or On-Premise | $229/month |
| Cin7 Core | Cloud | $349/month |
| SOS Inventory | Cloud | $69.95/month |
| Extensiv | Cloud | Custom quote |
| Finale Inventory | Cloud | $499/month |
| Infoplus | Cloud | $395/month |
| Acctivate | Cloud or On-Premise | Custom quote |
| HandiFox | Cloud or On-Premise | $49/month |
| NorthStar WMS | Cloud or On-Premise | $1,000/month |
