Shopify inventory setup after Stocky means getting the foundation right before you lean on anything built on top of it: the products, variants, SKUs, locations, inventory tracking, and quantities that a buy list, a purchase order, or a planning routine all read from. As you move your inventory work off Stocky and into Shopify, those records are what every later decision depends on, and a reorder is only as trustworthy as the setup underneath it. The goal here is to keep you from rebuilding workflows on unclear or stale data, so the work is to check the structure, confirm the counts you can rely on, and connect that setup to the buying decisions that depend on it. Stocky will not be available after August 31, 2026, and its records do not arrive in Shopify already organized, so treat this as a setup you verify rather than a switch you flip. Here is what to check before you rebuild.
What Shopify inventory setup should cover after Stocky
Inventory setup is the foundation layer, not a one-time import. It covers five things in order: the catalog structure that holds your stock, the inventory tracking that makes a count mean something, the quantities you actually trust, the supplier details that sit beside inventory rather than inside it, and the connection from all of that to your buying workflows. The reason to treat it as a layer is that the two systems do not line up on their own. Shopify has said that some Stocky-specific features might work differently or might not yet be available in Shopify, so plan to set up and verify field by field instead of expecting a finished configuration to appear. If you want the whole migration sequenced rather than just the inventory foundation, a Stocky migration setup checklist puts the prep steps in order, and the Stocky shutdown timeline lays out the dates this work runs against.
Start with products, variants, SKUs, and locations
Quantities attach to variants at locations, so the catalog structure has to be right before a single count means anything. Product details live in the Shopify product CSV, which can import products into a store and export them from it: titles, handles, vendors, SKUs, variant options, prices, and costs. Confirm that every product and variant you sell exists in Shopify with the SKU you expect, because a count has nowhere correct to land if the variant behind it is missing or renamed. Locations are the other half of the key: the inventory CSV uses the Handle, Location, and Option1 Value columns, plus Option2 and Option3 Value for products with more than one option, to identify the product variant and the location a quantity belongs to, so every place you hold stock needs to exist in Shopify with the exact name you will reference. Settle products, variants, SKUs, and locations first, and the rest of the setup has a solid frame to attach to. For the field-by-field mapping from a Stocky export into these columns, the Stocky CSV migration guide walks the structure, and the wider readiness pass before the cutover is the subject of preparing Shopify inventory before the Stocky sunset.
Check inventory tracking before trusting quantities
A quantity is only useful if Shopify is actually tracking it, so confirm the counts before you build anything on them. Shopify inventory CSV files can export current inventory quantities and update quantities for products in each location, which gives you a way to see what Shopify currently holds against what you expect. When you bring counts in, the format matters: prefer the All states export, which includes separate rows for each location with columns for all inventory states and provides protection against accidental overwrites on import, and keep both the On hand (current) and On hand (new) columns so Shopify runs a safety validation that prevents accidental overwrites when the current value in your file does not match what is in Shopify. The point of this step is trust: once you can see each location’s counts and know the safety check is on, the quantities under your workflows are ones you can rely on. The recurring version of this, once you are live, is the inventory replenishment workflow after Stocky. Before you trust those counts in a buy list, a Shopify inventory audit after Stocky reviews them against your reports and records.
Review inventory CSV fields before importing or rebuilding
Before you import a file or rebuild a workflow on it, read it as a draft rather than a finished import. The most useful question at this stage is not only whether a field is formatted correctly but whether the data is worth carrying forward at all. Shopify’s inventory reports summarize past sales and current stock to help you decide which products to prioritize when restocking, and they are not automatic reorder recommendations and do not calculate reorder quantities, so a slow seller you were about to set up again is often one to review rather than refill, which a dead stock after Stocky pass helps you catch. Pair that judgement with a field-level pass over each file, splitting product attributes from quantity data and spot-checking that SKUs and location names still match before anything writes against a live count. That file-by-file review is its own task, covered in the Stocky CSV cleanup guide, and what to pull out of Stocky in the first place is the subject of exporting Stocky data before the sunset.
Separate supplier notes from inventory setup
Supplier information belongs beside your inventory setup, not inside it, because it does not travel as inventory data. Suppliers can’t be exported from Stocky, so there is no supplier file to import and nothing to map into an inventory CSV; the supplier details you keep are notes you capture by hand. Shopify suppliers are created in the admin when you create a purchase order, so a clean spreadsheet of your active suppliers, with contact, currency, and terms, is reference material you re-enter as you write each first order, not a record you upload. Keeping supplier notes out of your product and quantity files keeps both sides clean: the inventory setup stays about variants, locations, and counts, while the supplier list holds the context you will need when the buying workflow starts.
Connect inventory setup to buy lists and purchase orders
Inventory setup earns its keep at the moment you start buying, because every order reads from the records you just checked. A buy list only points at the right products when the SKUs and on-hand figures behind it are accurate, which is why a buy list after Stocky is more reliable on a clean setup. When a buy decision becomes an order, it lands in a native record: a Shopify purchase order records the products, their costs, and the quantities ordered from a supplier. The difference between a flexible working list and that order of record is the CSV versus PDF purchase orders comparison, and what native purchase orders cover after Stocky is set out in purchase orders after Stocky. Deciding what to reorder, when, and how much is the work of reorder planning after Stocky, so a setup you trust feeds straight into a buying routine you can trust.
What to leave as a manual note instead of an import
Not everything from Stocky has a home in your Shopify inventory setup, and the honest move is to leave some of it as a note. Historical Stocky data, including old purchase orders and stocktakes, won’t automatically move into Shopify, and there is no path to import that history as a file, so old orders are archival reference you keep rather than re-key. The same applies to anything you exported for the record: records you want to keep must be exported manually using Stocky’s built-in reports while the app is still running, and once they are out, they live as notes and archives beside Shopify, not inside it. Sorting each leftover into either a Shopify field or a manual note keeps the setup clean instead of cluttered with data that has no native place, and it is the same decision a Stocky migration checklist makes for the full move.
Shopify inventory setup checklist after Stocky
Run this short review so the setup stays deliberate rather than a rushed rebuild. Confirm the products, variants, and SKUs you sell exist in Shopify, and that every location you count stock at is set up with the exact name you will use. Check that Shopify is tracking the quantities you care about, and bring counts in with the All states export and the On hand columns so the safety validation runs. Decide what is worth carrying forward before you rebuild a workflow on it, rather than setting up every old count again. Keep supplier details as notes for re-entry, since they are not importable. Leave historical orders and reports as archives rather than re-keyed records. One deadline frames the whole job: Stocky will not be available after August 31, 2026, so finish the setup with time to validate it. For the wider tooling choice once your inventory is set up, see what to use after Stocky.
Limitations
Setting up your Shopify inventory after Stocky is a review habit, not a Shopify feature and not a service, and this guide does not cover every workflow Stocky used to support. It does not create Shopify purchase orders, it does not import Stocky purchase orders, and it does not create a Stocky supplier CSV, because suppliers cannot be exported from Stocky at all. It is not a one-click migration, and none of it is demand forecasting; the choices you make about each record are judgement calls a person reviews, not steps to run blindly. It is not accounting, tax, legal, or financial advice. It does not replace your own review of each record, and Shopify’s inventory records, purchase orders, suppliers, and reports still need source-backed checks against your own store. For the one slice where supplier reliability is the heart of the work, the existing kijun app is one option, scoped honestly: it builds 0-100 supplier scorecards from purchase orders recorded in kijun, on supported supplier and vendor records, and it does not forecast demand or reorder for you. See how supplier scorecards work after Stocky.
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against cited sources through kijun’s editorial workflow. Last updated: 2026-06-30.
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