If you used to plan inventory in Stocky, the move into the Shopify admin is a starting point rather than the finish line. This guide is for Shopify merchants, small operations teams, and founders who handled purchase orders, transfers, and restocking in Stocky and now need a repeatable way to decide what to reorder, how much context to gather first, and when to act. It is an operational replenishment planning workflow built from Shopify’s inventory reports, purchase orders, and transfers. It is not demand forecasting, and the reports it uses do not produce forecasts or reorder quantities.
Why replenishment planning matters after Stocky
Stocky will not be available after August 31, 2026, and it was removed from the Shopify App Store on February 2, 2026, so inventory tasks like purchase orders and transfers are now handled in the Shopify admin instead. That shift is documented in Shopify’s transition guidance, and a step-by-step move is covered in the Stocky migration checklist.
Replenishment planning is the work that comes next. It means deciding what to restock, looking at how products are moving and how long current stock is likely to last, and placing reorders or transfers before you run short. With Stocky retiring, you run that work using Shopify’s own tools: the inventory reports for context, purchase orders for what you buy from suppliers, and transfers for moving stock between locations. For the decision layer that sits in front of those tools — what to reorder, when, and how much — see reorder planning after Stocky.
A few framing notes before the workflow. This is operational planning, not demand forecasting. The reports below summarize past sales and current stock and produce analysis or estimates. They do not predict future demand, and they do not tell you the exact quantity to order. Your judgment, supplier lead times, and category knowledge fill in the gaps.
What Shopify inventory reports can tell you
Shopify’s inventory reports help you analyze and understand inventory decisions, such as which products to prioritize when restocking, by summarizing past sales and current stock. They are not automatic reorder recommendations, and they do not calculate reorder quantities for you.
Three reports do most of the heavy lifting in a replenishment routine:
- ABC product analysis, which grades variants by their share of past revenue.
- Products by sell-through rate, which shows how much of your stock sold during a period you choose.
- Days of inventory remaining, which estimates how long current stock will last at recent sales rates.
Each one analyzes past data and produces either an analysis or an estimate. None of them is a demand forecast, and none of them tells you how many units to reorder. Treat them as context that informs the decision you make, not a decision the system makes for you.
The rest of this guide walks through each report, then connects them to the act of reordering from a supplier or transferring stock between locations.
Use ABC product analysis to prioritize what to restock
ABC product analysis gives each product variant a grade based on the percentage of your revenue that the variant contributed over the last 28 days. The window is fixed: A-grade variants together account for 80% of revenue, B-grade variants 15%, and C-grade variants the remaining 5%. The grades describe each variant’s share of past revenue. They are not a prediction of future demand.
For replenishment, this is your prioritization layer. A items are the variants most worth protecting from stockouts, because running out of them has the biggest revenue impact in the period the report covers. B items deserve steady attention. C items earn less of your time and capital, since over-investing in them ties up working capital that A items would use better.
A practical way to use ABC:
- Start your review with A-grade variants and make sure each one is covered for the lead time you expect from its supplier.
- Sanity-check B-grade variants for anything trending up.
- For C-grade variants, ask whether you need to reorder at all, or whether you can let stock run down.
For a deeper walkthrough of how the report is structured and how to read it, see Shopify ABC analysis after Stocky.
Use sell-through rate to see what is moving
The products by sell-through rate report shows what percentage of your total inventory you sold during a selected time period. The formula is the total quantity of items sold divided by the total quantity of items sold plus the total quantity of items still in inventory.
Unlike ABC’s fixed 28-day window, the period in this report is selectable. That matters because it lets you compare two stretches: a recent window against a longer baseline, for example, to see whether a product is moving faster or slower than usual. A higher sell-through over a recent period suggests stock is leaving the shelves quickly relative to what was on hand. A low sell-through over the same period suggests the opposite.
Sell-through rate is a read on movement, not a reorder instruction. It does not say how many units to buy. What it does, paired with ABC, is help you separate “A item that is also selling through quickly” (clear priority for reordering soon) from “A item that is selling through slowly” (priority because of revenue, but no rush). It also flags C items that are moving faster than their revenue grade suggests, which is sometimes a sign to keep watching.
For a closer look at how to set windows and read the numbers, see Shopify sell-through rate after Stocky.
Use days of inventory remaining to estimate timing
Days of inventory remaining is an estimate of how long your inventory will last based on average sales rates. It is calculated as the ending quantity divided by the average quantity sold per day. If the average quantity sold per day is zero, the result is N/A. If the ending quantity is negative, it is shown as 0.
This is your timing layer. ABC tells you which variants matter most by revenue share. Sell-through tells you how fast stock is leaving. Days of inventory remaining gives you a rough horizon: at recent sales rates, roughly how long until you run out. Turning that horizon into a firm action line means setting a reorder point for each item; see reorder points after Stocky.
It is an estimate, not a forecast and not an automatic reorder trigger. If sales rates change, the estimate will be off. Read it with that in mind, and read it alongside lead times. An A-grade variant with a short days-of-inventory-remaining figure and a long supplier lead time is a candidate to reorder sooner. A C-grade variant with a very long days-of-inventory-remaining figure may be a candidate to let run down before buying more. N/A values point to variants with no recent sales activity in the window, which is its own signal worth checking.
For more on reading the report and the edge cases, see Shopify days of inventory remaining after Stocky.
Reorder from suppliers or transfer between locations
Once you know what to prioritize and how soon to act, the next decision is how to act. Shopify gives you two distinct tools, and it helps to keep them clearly separated.
A Shopify purchase order lets you record and manage what you order from a supplier, including the products, quantities, prices, payment terms, and an estimated arrival date. You enter those details manually. The purchase order is the record of what you ordered from a supplier and the place where you track that order through to arrival.
Inventory transfers let you move and track inventory between your store locations, or to and from external locations such as suppliers. A transfer is the movement and tracking of goods between locations.
The conceptual line:
- A purchase order is the record of what you ordered from a supplier.
- A transfer is the movement of goods between locations, which can include your own locations or external ones like suppliers.
They are not interchangeable. A transfer is not a reorder, and a purchase order is not a transfer. In a replenishment routine, you typically reach for a purchase order when you need new stock from a supplier, and for a transfer when you have stock somewhere already and need to move it to where it will sell. The two often coexist in the same week.
For a side-by-side breakdown of when to use each one, see Reorder vs transfer inventory after Stocky.
Review supplier performance before you reorder
Because Shopify purchase orders record what you ordered from each supplier and let you track and manage those orders, the purchase order history itself is a record of how each supplier has performed for you. Before placing a reorder, it is worth a short look back.
Keep this review qualitative and focused on plain factors you already see in the order history:
- Did past orders from this supplier arrive close to the estimated arrival dates you entered?
- Were quantities and products on past orders consistent with what you actually received?
- Has anything about working with this supplier changed recently?
A simple habit is to skim the last few purchase orders for a supplier before opening a new one, and to make small notes in your own records when something goes well or poorly. Over time those notes become a fuller picture of reliability and delivery without needing a separate scoring system.
The point of this step is small but real. Reordering from a supplier whose past orders have been steady is a different decision from reordering from one whose past orders have slipped. The history is already there in your purchase orders. Use it.
Build your replenishment workflow and next steps
Putting the pieces together, a recurring replenishment routine looks like this:
- Prioritize with ABC product analysis. Start from A-grade variants and work down. Remember the grades reflect each variant’s share of revenue over a fixed 28-day window, not a prediction.
- Check movement with sell-through rate. Pick a recent period and, when useful, compare it against a longer one to see whether items are speeding up or slowing down.
- Estimate timing with days of inventory remaining. Read the estimates alongside your supplier lead times to see which items need attention sooner.
- Decide between a purchase order and a transfer. If you need new stock from a supplier, create a purchase order. If you already have stock at another location, create a transfer.
- Review supplier history first. Before placing a purchase order, glance back at past orders with that supplier and factor what you see into the decision.
A few habits make this routine more useful over time:
- Set a cadence. A recurring weekly or biweekly review keeps the work small and prevents surprise stockouts. Match the cadence to your fastest-moving products and your typical lead times.
- Keep short notes. A line or two next to each review about why you reordered (or didn’t), and what actually happened, builds a pattern you can read later.
- Re-read the reports together, not separately. ABC, sell-through, and days of inventory remaining are most useful side by side. One number alone rarely tells the full story.
- Treat estimates as estimates. The reports analyze past data. Your judgment about seasonality, promotions, and supplier behavior is what turns that analysis into a decision.
Limitations
Kijun is not a full Stocky replacement. It does not forecast demand, recommend reorder quantities, provide low-stock alerts, manage inventory transfers, or replace Shopify’s native inventory reports and workflows.
Use kijun to review supplier performance before your next reorder, based on supported supplier and vendor records and purchase orders recorded in kijun. Review suppliers before your next reorder.
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against cited sources through kijun’s editorial workflow. Last updated: 2026-05-27.
Stocky and Shopify are trademarks of Shopify Inc. kijun is not affiliated with or endorsed by Shopify.