Guides
Inventory planning, explained
Practical guides with the formulas and worked examples behind good forecasting, purchasing and reporting decisions.
Safety stock and reorder points: the formulas and when to use them
The standard safety stock formula, how to calculate a reorder point, and a simpler buffer-days approach for teams without demand variability data.
· 7 min read
PlanningWhy stockouts make your sales velocity lie
Days with no stock to sell pull average daily sales down and lead to under-ordering. Here's how to adjust for them, with a worked example.
· 5 min read
WarehouseFEFO in practice: lot numbers, expiry dates and what to record
What first-expired, first-out means, how it differs from FIFO, and the minimum information to capture so expiring stock never surprises you.
· 5 min read
PurchasingMoving off Stocky: a practical migration checklist
What to export, what to set up first, and how to run your first buying cycle in a new system without losing purchase history or supplier details.
· 6 min read
3PLHow 3PLs can give clients real-time inventory visibility
The options 3PLs use to share stock and order information with client brands, from emailed reports to client workspaces, and the isolation questions to ask.
· 6 min read
PurchasingRaw-material planning from bills of materials: a guide for makers
How brands that make their own products turn sales forecasts into raw-material and packaging orders using bills of materials, batch sizes, scrap allowances and lead times.
· 7 min read
3PLInventory planning as a 3PL service: how to offer it to client brands
How 3PLs can turn the stock and order data they already hold into stockout warnings, inbound planning and capacity forecasts for client brands, and where to draw the line.
· 5 min read
PlanningStockouts and lost sales: how to measure them and why they poison your sales history
How to estimate the sales you lost while out of stock, how stockouts quietly lower future forecasts, and the metrics that show what availability is really costing you.
· 7 min read
ShopifyBundles and kits on Shopify: planning component demand
How bundles, kits and multipacks affect inventory planning on Shopify, how to calculate component demand and bundle availability, and the common mistakes that cause hidden stockouts.
· 6 min read
GrowthAI agents for inventory planning: what works today, and how MCP fits
What AI assistants can and can't do for inventory planning in 2026, how the Model Context Protocol connects them to your data, and safe patterns like read-only tools and drafts-only writes.
· 6 min read
PlanningDemand planning vs forecasting: overrides, last year plus growth and S&OP-lite for DTC
The difference between a statistical forecast and a demand plan, how to override well, when last year plus growth works, and a monthly planning cadence for small DTC teams.
· 6 min read
PurchasingOpen-to-buy: how to buy inventory to a budget when cash is tight
What open-to-buy is, how to calculate it, and how to decide which purchase orders to fund first when your reorder suggestions cost more than you can spend.
· 6 min read
ReportsInventory turnover, days of inventory and GMROI, with worked numbers
How to calculate inventory turnover, days inventory outstanding and gross margin return on inventory, why average inventory matters, and how to read them together.
· 6 min read
PlanningWhy static reorder points fail, and what to use instead
Fixed min/max levels go stale as demand and lead times change. A worked example shows what that costs, and how forecast-driven reorder points fix it.
· 6 min read
PurchasingMOQs, case packs and order rounding without overbuying
How to apply minimum order quantities, case packs and order-value minimums to reorder suggestions, when to round up or down, and how to top up an order without buying stock you don't need.
· 6 min read
ReportsDead stock and excess inventory: find it, age it, clear it
How to define and measure dead and excess stock, use aging buckets, cancel surplus purchase orders, and clear slow stock without training customers to wait for discounts.
· 6 min read
ForecastingForecasting new products without sales history: analogues, category rates and early reads
How to forecast a product launch with no history: borrow from similar products, use category rates, read the first weeks of sales properly, and size the first order around the risk.
· 6 min read
ShopifyHow to export your Stocky data before it's gone
Stocky stopped working on 31 August 2026 and read-only export access won't last forever. A step-by-step plan for exporting purchase orders, rebuilding your supplier list and importing it all somewhere else.
· 6 min read
ReportsABC-XYZ inventory analysis, with a worked example
How to classify products by revenue contribution (ABC) and demand variability (XYZ), worked through with ten products, and what to do with each of the nine cells.
· 6 min read
ForecastingSeasonal demand forecasting: Holt-Winters, seasonal profiles and the Q4 ramp
How to forecast seasonal products, when to use Holt-Winters versus a seasonal profile, and how to time Q4 orders when lead times are long — with a worked example.
· 7 min read
ReportsThe Shopify inventory reports that actually drive decisions
Ten inventory reports every Shopify brand should run, the decision each one drives, how often to look at it, and the arithmetic behind the numbers.
· 7 min read
PurchasingSupplier lead times: why variability matters more than the average
How to measure real supplier lead times from your purchase orders, and why two suppliers with the same average lead time can need very different amounts of safety stock.
· 6 min read
ForecastingForecasting slow and lumpy sellers: Croston, SBA and TSB explained simply
Products that sell occasionally break ordinary forecasting methods. Here's how Croston, SBA and TSB work, when to use each, and how to stock slow movers sensibly.
· 7 min read
GrowthInventory and cash flow: payment terms, order size and reorder timing
How supplier deposits, payment terms, order frequency and reorder timing decide how much cash your inventory ties up, with worked examples of the cash conversion cycle.
· 6 min read
PurchasingPurchase orders for Shopify brands: an end-to-end guide
How to run purchase orders properly, from working out what to buy to drafting, sending, receiving partial deliveries, checking invoices and learning real lead times.
· 6 min read
ForecastingHow to measure forecast accuracy: MAPE pitfalls, WAPE, MASE and bias
Why MAPE misleads for inventory, and how WAPE, MASE and bias tell you whether a forecast is actually helping — with worked numbers for each.
· 7 min read
ForecastingDemand forecasting for Shopify merchants: a complete beginner's guide
What a demand forecast is, what data you need from Shopify, how to clean it, and how to turn a weekly forecast into a purchase order — with every number worked through.
· 7 min read
GrowthBFCM 2026 inventory planning: a timeline and checklist
A week-by-week inventory plan for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026, from stockout-adjusting last year's sales to order-by dates, warehouse prep and the post-peak review.
· 6 min read
ShopifyShopify multi-location inventory: planning stock across warehouses
How to plan stock across several Shopify locations, warehouses and 3PLs: giving each location a role, forecasting per location, pooling safety stock and rebalancing with transfers.
· 6 min read