Shopify inventory app for agencies managing a client store
You look after a Shopify store that is not your own, and between your stock checks nothing watches it. Restoc is an inventory reorder-alert app you install on the client's store, so a SKU crossing its reorder point reaches you before the client does.
Looking after a store you do not own
You manage the store. Someone else owns the stock. When a client's best seller runs out, the email lands on your desk, and it is not really about Shopify. It is about why nobody saw it coming.
Most agencies answer that with a spreadsheet. A tab per store. A stock column pasted in on a Friday. A reorder number held in an account manager's head. It holds until someone is on leave, or the client runs a promo you were not told about, or the supplier moves from two weeks to five. Nothing watches stock between your checks, so the first signal is the client noticing.
The job is narrower than the tools being sold to you. A client doing three hundred SKUs out of one location does not need an ERP. You need three answers: which SKUs are close to running out, how many days of cover are left, and roughly how much to put on the next order. Then the client conversation is a plan rather than an apology.
That is what Restoc does. It reads the store's products, inventory levels and orders through Shopify. It works out a reorder point per SKU from that store's own sales velocity and the lead time you set. It tells you when a SKU crosses it.
How to run it on a client's store
- Install on the store
Connect through Shopify's OAuth install flow on that store. Restoc then pulls inventory levels and sales data through webhooks plus a scheduled sync job.
- Set lead times by vendor, not SKU by SKU
The scheduled sync reads each SKU's vendor from the Shopify product and shows it on the dashboard and the weekly report. A vendor lead times screen lists every distinct vendor in the store, so you enter one lead time per supplier and it fills every SKU that has no lead time of its own. A 900-SKU catalogue does not mean 900 inputs. Where a single SKU really does arrive on a different schedule, you still set that SKU's own lead time and it wins.
- Pick the velocity window and a safety stock margin
Choose the sales velocity window the catalogue deserves: 7 days for a fast mover, 14 or 30 for something steadier. Then set a store-wide safety stock percentage on top of lead-time demand, for items that sell in bursts rather than evenly. The reorder point is calculated from those inputs, and the safety stock units are shown alongside each SKU.
- Point the alerts where your account team already looks
Email alerts fire when a SKU crosses its reorder point. On Growth and above you can also send them to a Slack incoming webhook, so the client's channel or your internal ops channel gets the same line at the same time. The webhook is checked when you save it, and a test send proves delivery before anyone relies on it during a real stockout.
- Open the dashboard when the client asks
Current stock, days of inventory remaining, safety stock and reorder status for every active SKU, sortable and ordered soonest-to-stockout first. It answers "how are we looking on the hero SKU" without opening Shopify admin and counting backwards.
- Send the weekly reorder report
Each week the report lists the SKUs below their reorder point with a suggested order quantity, viewable in the app and exportable as CSV, with the vendor and safety stock figures carried through. That CSV is the thing you attach to the client update or hand to whoever raises the purchase order.
- Keep an eye on the trial clock
The store gets a 60-day free trial, and the SKU cap is enforced server-side at sync time. The billing screen shows the trial end date, the days left and the date of the first scheduled charge, so nothing lands on a client invoice unannounced.
Which plan the store needs
| The store | Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 200 tracked SKUs, email alerts are enough | Starter | $29 / month | Reorder point per SKU, the dashboard, and the weekly reorder report with CSV export |
| Up to 1,000 tracked SKUs, alerts into Slack | Growth | $59 / month | Slack alerts through an incoming webhook, alongside email |
| Up to 2,000 tracked SKUs, sellers that need their own window | Pro | $99 / month | Custom reorder rules: a per-SKU sales velocity window override |
A note on paying for it
Every plan carries one location and a 60-day free trial. Every plan can be paid yearly at ten months' price for twelve: $290, $590 or $990 a year.
Shopify bills the subscription on the store's own Shopify invoice rather than as a separate card payment. The cost sits with whoever owns the store, so nothing has to pass through your card or your reconciliations.
The practical order is to start the trial, set the vendor lead times, let a full weekly reorder cycle run, and show the client the report before anyone commits. The billing screen carries the trial countdown and the first-charge date while that happens, so the account manager can answer "when does this start costing us" straight from the screen.
What this changes for the account team
The store tells you, you tell the client
An alert on a reorder point crossing arrives by email, and by Slack on Growth and above, so the first person who knows is someone on your side of the relationship.
Lead times entered once per supplier
Vendors come across from Shopify on the sync, and one number per vendor fills every SKU that has no lead time of its own. The SKUs that genuinely differ can still carry their own.
A margin for the SKUs that sell in bursts
The store-wide safety stock percentage sits on top of lead-time demand, so a product that sells twenty in a day and none for a week is not judged on its average alone. The units it adds are shown, not hidden in the maths.
The urgent SKU is at the top
The dashboard sorts by days of inventory remaining, soonest to stockout first, so a store with hundreds of SKUs still answers the only question that matters in one glance.
One artefact per week
The weekly reorder report lists what is below reorder point with a suggested order quantity, and exports as CSV. It is a client update and a draft order in the same file.
The numbers are that store's numbers
Velocity is read from the store's own sales over the window you chose, and the lead time is the one you set for that supplier. Nothing is borrowed from a category average.
Room for the awkward catalogue
Pro tracks up to 2,000 SKUs and lets you override the sales velocity window on a single SKU, for the one product whose demand does not behave like the rest.
What Restoc does not do yet
Better you know now than after the install.
- Web app only. No mobile app, no browser extension. Alerts reach a phone by email or Slack, the rest is a browser.
- One location per store on every plan, so a client splitting stock across two warehouses is not a fit today.
- Vendors come from Shopify. Lead times are grouped by the vendor field on the product, so a store that leaves that field blank, or uses it for something else, gets one bucket until it is tidied. There is no separate supplier record and no supplier export.
- It does not place orders. Restoc names the SKUs below their reorder point and suggests a quantity. Raising the purchase order and talking to the supplier stays with you or the client.
- It is not a forecasting tool. The maths is sales velocity over 7, 14 or 30 days, your lead time, and a store-wide safety stock percentage. No seasonality model, no demand planning.
If any of that changes, this page changes with it.
Questions
Can one Restoc account manage several client Shopify stores?
No. Restoc connects to one Shopify store per install, with its own account, its own reorder rules and its own subscription, so a second client store means a second install. There is no combined view across stores today, and we will say so here when that changes.
The store has 900 SKUs. Do we type 900 lead times?
No. Each SKU's vendor is read from the Shopify product on the scheduled sync, and a vendor lead times screen lists every distinct vendor in the store. Set one lead time per supplier and it fills every SKU that does not carry its own, so setup is a handful of numbers rather than hundreds. A single SKU can still be given its own lead time where the supplier really does treat it differently.
Who pays, the agency or the client?
The subscription is billed by Shopify on that store's Shopify invoice, not by a separate card payment, so the cost lands with whoever owns the store. There is nothing for you to re-bill.
Can alerts go into our agency Slack rather than a client inbox?
Yes, on Growth at $59 a month and Pro at $99 a month. Both include Slack alerts through an incoming webhook you configure, alongside email alerts, and you can fire a test alert through the webhook to confirm it reaches the channel before you rely on it. Starter at $29 a month is email only.
What do we actually send the client each week?
The weekly reorder report. It lists the SKUs below their reorder point with a suggested order quantity, viewable in the app and exportable as CSV with the vendor and safety stock figures included, so it can go straight into a client update or to whoever raises the purchase order.
Which velocity window should we pick for a client store?
The window is store-wide: 7 days suits a fast mover where recent sales are the only honest guide, 14 or 30 days smooths a steadier catalogue. On Pro you can override the window on a single SKU when one product does not behave like the rest.
The store has more than 2,000 SKUs. What then?
Pro tracks up to 2,000 SKUs and the cap is enforced server-side at sync time, so a larger catalogue is not covered. If you are close to that line, read the page on a large Shopify catalogue of 1,000 to 2,000 SKUs.
Is there single sign-on for our team?
No. Sign-in is email and password, and there is no single sign-on and no two-factor authentication. The security page sets out what is stored, where it is kept and how to delete it.