INV3NTORY vs inFlow Inventory
inFlow Inventory is a mature, well-regarded system aimed at wholesalers, distributors, and B2B sellers — purchase orders, sales orders, invoicing, pick-pack-ship, even a B2B showroom portal. For a business that sells by the pallet and invoices customers on terms, it’s a strong fit.
A retail shop sells by the single can, hundreds of times a day, to customers who pay at a till. That difference in rhythm is what separates these two products. Here’s the honest side-by-side.
| inFlow | INV3NTORY | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Wholesale, distribution & B2B — orders and invoicing | UK retail shops with a till |
| Stock updates automatically when something sells in-store | Retail tills aren’t the focus; stock moves with orders and invoices | Yes — syncs with Square, Zettle, Lightspeed & EPOS Now |
| Sales orders, invoicing & B2B portal | Yes — core strengths | No — not what it’s for |
| Purchase orders & supplier management | Yes — deep | Reorder suggestions and a simple order list, built from till sales |
| Margins, waste & dead stock for retail | General inventory reporting | Built around exactly these, per product and category |
| Setup & learning curve | A full order-management system — expect configuration | Most shops live within an hour |
| Works on a phone behind the till | Desktop-first with mobile apps | Designed phone-first for the counter |
| Pricing market | Priced in USD, tiered by users and orders | Priced in GBP for UK shops, flat monthly |
Where inFlow genuinely wins
If you sell to other businesses — wholesale cases out the back, invoices on 30-day terms, a rep taking orders — inFlow’s sales orders, purchase orders, and B2B portal are exactly the right tools, and INV3NTORY doesn’t attempt them. Distributors and hybrid wholesale operations should look at inFlow first.
Why retail shops find it the wrong shape
Order-management systems think in documents: a sales order, an invoice, a shipment. A shop thinks in beeps: a customer bought a meal deal and the stock just changed. Wiring a till into a document-shaped system is possible but always feels bolted on. INV3NTORY starts from the till instead — every sale moves the count, and everything else (alerts, margins, reorder lists, waste) is built on top of that live number.
There’s also the time budget. A wholesaler has office hours and a desk. A shopkeeper has the gap between two customers, standing up, on a phone. The product is shaped around that.
Switching from inFlow
Export your products from inFlow as CSV and import them into INV3NTORY in minutes — names, barcodes, costs, prices, and quantities come across. Connect your till once and you’re live the same day, with full CSV export whenever you want it.
Common questions
I run a shop but also do some wholesale. Which fits?
If wholesale is occasional (a few cases to a local café), INV3NTORY handles it as normal stock movements. If wholesale means invoices, terms, and reps, inFlow’s order tools will matter more than till sync.
Can I import my inFlow data?
Yes. Export your product list from inFlow as CSV and import it directly — names, barcodes, prices, cost prices, and quantities in one go.
Does INV3NTORY do purchase orders?
It builds reorder suggestions from live till sales and turns them into a simple order list you can use at the cash & carry or send to a supplier. It deliberately doesn’t do formal PO documents, approvals, or invoicing.