What moves across when you switch Shopify inventory apps
If you are moving your reorder work to a new Shopify inventory app, the question is what carries across and what you type again. Suppliers arrive as the vendor name already on each Shopify product, products and stock levels are read from your store, and purchase order and supplier-account history stay in the app you are leaving.
Most of the data was never in the app
Merchants bracing for a migration usually picture a CSV export, a column-mapping screen and a week of checking numbers. For the parts that drive a reorder decision, there is no export. Your products, variants, SKU codes, stock levels and the vendor name on each product all sit in Shopify. Restoc is built to read them over the Shopify install, so there is no file to hand across.
What does not sit in Shopify is the paperwork your old app held: purchase order documents, received quantities against them, supplier contact records and stocktake sheets. Those stay where they are. Take a copy while you still have access, because a reorder-alert app will not reproduce them.
The honest gap
Sales velocity is the one figure that needs time. Restoc measures it over a store-wide window of 7, 14 or 30 days, and that window starts filling from the day you connect, not from your trading history in the old app. Expect thin numbers in the first days and a full window by the time the window length has passed. Keep your old reorder sheet to hand until then.
Where each piece comes from
| What you need | Where it comes from | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Products, variants, SKU codes | Your Shopify store, at install | Read over the Shopify OAuth connection, not exported from the old app. |
| Current stock levels | Your Shopify store | A scheduled sync job keeps the figures current, so stock is not re-keyed. |
| Supplier names | The vendor field on your Shopify products | Synced onto each tracked SKU and shown on the dashboard and the weekly report. |
| Lead times | You, once per vendor | The vendor lead times screen takes one number per vendor; a SKU with no figure of its own uses its vendor's. |
| Sales velocity | Built from sales after you connect | Over a store-wide window of 7, 14 or 30 days. Pro adds a per-SKU window override. |
| Reorder points | Calculated per SKU | Velocity against lead time, plus a store-wide safety stock percentage, with days of inventory remaining beside it. |
| Purchase orders, supplier accounts, stocktakes | They stay in your old app | Export or print what your accounts need before access ends. |
Questions
Can I migrate my suppliers and purchase orders to a new inventory app?
Suppliers carry across in the form that matters for reordering: the vendor name on each Shopify product. Restoc is built to sync that vendor onto every tracked SKU and show it on the dashboard and the weekly reorder report, so the list of who you buy from rebuilds itself from your own catalogue. Purchase order documents and supplier-account records do not move, and no reorder-alert app will recreate them, so copy them out of your old app while you still have access. Restoc names the SKUs below their reorder point with a suggested order quantity, and you raise the order wherever you raise it today.
Where do supplier names come from if nothing is imported?
From the vendor field on your Shopify products. Each tracked SKU is built to carry that vendor through from the catalogue, which means a supplier list assembled from your store rather than typed in again. If a product has no vendor set in Shopify, set it there and it flows through on the next sync. It is worth tidying those vendor names before you connect, because they are also how lead times are grouped.
Does my sales history come across, or does velocity start from zero?
Velocity starts from zero on connect and builds up over the window you choose. Pick 7, 14 or 30 days for the store, and the reorder point for each SKU firms up as that window fills with your sales. In the first days the numbers are thin, which is why keeping your existing reorder sheet through the first window is sensible rather than optional. The 60-day trial is long enough that a full 30-day window, and a weekly reorder cycle on top of it, can run before any charge.
Do I have to type a lead time on every SKU?
No. The vendor lead times screen lists each distinct vendor in your catalogue and takes one lead time for each, and any SKU without a figure of its own falls back to its vendor's number. That turns a per-item chore into a short list, usually as many numbers as you have suppliers. Add a per-SKU lead time only where one item from a supplier runs on a different schedule.
What do I set up by hand on day one?
Three things, and they are quick. Connect the store through the Shopify install, choose the store-wide sales velocity window of 7, 14 or 30 days, then give each vendor a lead time on the vendor lead times screen. A store-wide safety stock percentage sits on top of lead-time demand for items that sell in bursts rather than evenly. From there the reorder point per SKU is calculated for you, with current stock and days of inventory remaining on the dashboard.
Do I need to run both apps side by side while I switch?
There is no export to reconcile, so the overlap is not about data mapping. It is about two things: copying the purchase order and supplier records you want to keep, and covering the first velocity window while Restoc builds its own sales picture. Plan the overlap around whichever of those takes longer. Once the window is full, the reorder point, the alerts and the weekly report are working from your store's own figures.
What tells me to reorder once the switch is done?
Two things, both built on the same reorder point. Email alerts are made to fire when a SKU crosses its reorder point, with Slack alerts through an incoming webhook on Growth and above. A weekly reorder report lists every SKU below its point with a suggested order quantity, viewable in the app and exportable as CSV, which is the sheet you work from when you place orders. The dashboard carries the live view: current stock, days of inventory remaining and reorder status per SKU.
What does Restoc store about my store once it is connected?
Your sign-in details, your store connection and the inventory numbers it needs. That means your name, email address and a password hash, since sign-in is email and password; your .myshopify.com domain with the Shopify Admin API access token and secret key, held server-side and never shown in the app; and tracked SKUs with titles, SKU codes, variant ids, current stock, lead times and computed reorder points, plus sales quantities and dates with the Shopify order reference. No customer names, addresses or payment details are stored, and payment details stay with Shopify. Deleting your account in Settings removes the connection, the SKUs, the sales records, the alerts and the reports at once.