What is a Channel?

In Luminous, a Channel is the bridge between a sales or fulfillment source and your inventory. Every sales order that comes into Luminous is tied to a channel, which controls:

  • Where orders come from (e.g. Shopify, EDI, TrackStar, WooCommerce, manual entry)
  • Where fulfilled orders are sent (e.g. a 3PL, a warehouse group)
  • How inventory levels are pushed back to your storefront or integration
  • How fulfillment orders are automatically generated from incoming sales orders

Channel Types

When you create a channel you must choose one of three types:

TypeWhat it does
Sales ChannelRepresents an order source (e.g. your Shopify store, an EDI trading partner). Handles pulling orders in, pushing stock levels out, and triggering fulfillment order creation.
Fulfillment ChannelRepresents an order destination (e.g. a 3PL warehouse). Handles pushing fulfillment orders out to an integration and receiving shipment updates back.
End to End ChannelCombines both — the channel both receives orders and routes them to fulfillment directly. Includes the stock-push capabilities of a Sales Channel.

How to Create a Channel

  1. In the left navigation, go to Manage → Channels.
  2. Click Create in the top-right corner.
  3. (Optional) Use the Prepopulate from channel field to copy settings from an existing channel as a starting point.
  4. Select a Channel Type (see table above).
  5. Enter a Channel Label — this is the display name used throughout the platform.
  6. Optionally add a Description and Tags to help organize your channels.
  7. Fill in the type-specific sections described below, then click Save.

Sales Channel Settings

Basic Options

  • Is Internal Sales Channel — marks the channel as an internal point-of-sale channel (not a connected integration).
  • Is Customer Specific — hides the channel from the default channels list; used to map a specific customer's SKUs to Luminous SKUs. Attach the channel to a CRM contact.
  • Default CRM Company — when set, every order from this channel is automatically linked to the chosen CRM company. Useful for B2B retailers placing orders via EDI so that payment terms and billing defaults flow through to invoices automatically.

Order Source

Toggle on PULL Sales Orders to have Luminous automatically import orders from an external platform.

  • Pull Orders From — select the app integration account to pull from (Shopify, EDI, TrackStar, etc.).
  • OMS Store — if the integration supports multiple stores, pick the specific store to attach to this channel.
  • Automatically Push Fulfillment Updates to Order Source — when an order ships in Luminous, send tracking/shipment data back to the source platform.
  • Ignore Channel Shipments and Create Internal Shipments on Status Change — creates a shipment internally when an order is marked shipped but no shipment came from the source (e.g. for in-store pickup via WooCommerce).
  • Order Currency — set an incoming currency if orders arrive in a currency other than your base currency. Amounts are converted for reporting while original amounts are preserved.
  • Save contact to CRM from orders — automatically creates or updates a CRM contact from the order's customer information. You can set the Client Type and Tags applied to auto-created contacts.
  • Shopify only: Put orders on hold if payment hasn't been fully captured — holds orders in Luminous until payment is complete.
  • Filter Incoming Orders — set one or more filters so that only matching orders are attached to this channel.

Push Inventory Stocks and Costs

When pull orders is enabled, you can also push stock levels back to the integration:

  • Push Stock to Integration — sends available inventory quantities to the connected platform on a schedule or trigger.
    • Include Incoming Stocks as Sellable — counts in-transit stock when calculating sellable quantity.
    • Push Incoming Stocks from Supplier Purchase Orders — includes PO-based incoming stock.
    • Advanced configuration — customize the sellable quantity formula by choosing which stock fields to add or deduct.
  • Push Costs to Integration — sends unit cost or landed cost to the integration.
  • Push to Integration Account / Inventory Location — choose which connected account (and optionally which inventory location) receives the stock/cost updates.
  • Warehouse Group — scope the stock push to a specific warehouse group.
  • Enable Scheduled Push Stock — configure a time-based schedule for stock pushes.

Auto Fulfillment

Controls how fulfillment orders are created from incoming sales orders:

  • Always Create Fulfillment Orders Even When No Stock is Available — override the global setting for this channel.
  • Always Create Fulfillment Orders for Future Ship Dates — create fulfillment orders for items with a future estimated ship date even when there is no on-hand stock.
  • Combine Identical SKU Line Items — merge line items with the same SKU, lot, and UOM into a single line.
  • Split auto created fulfillment orders by... — split fulfillment orders by a field such as Estimated Ship Date.
  • Enable Channel Override for Auto-Generation Trigger — set a channel-specific trigger (Immediate, Scheduled at a daily time, or Manual) instead of following the global setting. When Immediate is chosen, you can also set a delay in minutes (5–120) before fulfillment orders are generated.

Fulfillment Channel Settings

Basic Options

  • Warehouse Group — the warehouse group this fulfillment channel ships from.

Order Destination

Toggle on Push Orders to Integration to send fulfillment orders to a 3PL or WMS.

  • Push Orders To — select the destination app integration account.
  • OMS Store — if applicable, select the store within the integration.
  • Mapping Type — choose Basic Mapping (configure field mappings directly on the channel) or Advanced Mapping (select a pre-built Integration Mapping for more complex transformations).
  • Default Push Order Shipping Method — the default shipping method sent to the integration.

Auto Push Settings

Controls when fulfillment orders are automatically sent to the integration:

  • Disabled — orders must be pushed manually.
  • Immediate — push automatically after a configurable delay (in minutes).
  • Pick-n-Pack — push when a picklist reaches a selected status.
  • Wave — process orders on a schedule (every 5, 15, 20, or 30 minutes, hourly, or at custom daily times) with a daily cap and processing priority. Supports progressive preorder rollout to spread capacity across a time window.

Fulfillment Restrictions

Limit which orders can route to this fulfillment channel based on order attributes such as ship-to country. Leave empty to apply no restrictions.

Dropship / Special Order

Enable this section to use the channel for dropship or special order fulfillment:

  • Select the Supplier who will fulfill the orders.
  • Choose PO delivery type: Ship to Customer or Ship to Store.
  • Inventory not tracked — makes warehouse group optional and skips inventory deduction.
  • Auto-send PO email to supplier — emails the purchase order to the supplier automatically when it is created.

Note: Products must have a supplier SKU mapping for the selected supplier to be eligible for dropship routing on this channel.

Product Mapping

After creating a channel, you can map external product SKUs (from the connected platform) to your Luminous SKUs. From the Channels list page, click Product Mapping to manage these mappings across all channels in one place.

Tips

  • You can have multiple channels of each type — for example, one Sales Channel per Shopify store or EDI trading partner.
  • Use Tags on channels to organize and filter them in the channels list.
  • When creating a new channel with similar settings to an existing one, use Prepopulate from channel to copy the configuration as a starting point.