How does Zoro manage inventory visibility for 13M+ SKUs across a network of 20k+ supplier partners?

Zoro offers millions of items to small and medium businesses across a broad range of industries. To build this “endless aisle” of business supplies, Zoro partners with suppliers across the United States. Zoro takes responsibility for listing the supplier’s items for sale on Zoro.com, driving traffic to these items through paid and owned marketing channels, taking orders for these items through Zoro.com, and communicating with customers throughout the order and fulfillment processes. In exchange, suppliers are responsible for providing accurate product data to Zoro and ensuring that customers receive the items they ordered quickly and without issues.

As Zoro began to accelerate assortment growth in 2018 and began to onboard suppliers at a more rapid rate, it was clear that Zoro’s technological foundations would be unable to keep pace with the scale of growth.