Shopify stock planning for a seasonal spike
If half your year's orders land in ten weeks, a month-long sales average will always be reading last season's numbers. Restoc is built so you can set the sales velocity window your reorder points are calculated from, 7, 14 or 30 days, and watch days of inventory remaining per SKU while the curve is still climbing.
The ten weeks that decide your year
Your sales curve was never flat. August is quiet, September doubles, and by the middle of November one hero SKU is moving more units in a week than it did in the whole of the second quarter. You know which products those are. What you do not know on any given Tuesday is how many days of cover the hot ones have left, and whether your supplier's lead time still fits inside that number.
The sentence merchants say afterwards is always a version of the same one: we sold out of our best seller and didn't notice. Usually because nothing was watching. A stock count on its own is a snapshot. It does not tell you that the number is falling three times faster this week than it did last month, and it carries no memory of the eighteen days your supplier needs.
The job is narrower than inventory management. You are not trying to model the season, you lived through the last one. You want to know, per SKU, the day the order has to go in for it to land before the shelf empties.
What the week actually looks like
- A spreadsheet you built in a quieter month, updated when you remember, already out of date on your three fastest lines.
- A supplier who quotes one lead time in June and a longer one in October, and you are holding both numbers in your head.
- Two hundred to two thousand SKUs, of which maybe fifteen matter this month.
- A reorder decision you keep deferring because checking it properly takes forty minutes.
That is the shape Restoc is made for. Not a full planning suite, and not demand forecasting. A reorder point per SKU, calculated from what just sold and how long your supplier takes, and a dashboard that puts the soonest stockout in front of you.
Why a 30-day average flattens your peak
Restoc's reorder point engine takes two inputs. The sales velocity it measures over a window you choose, and the lead time you enter for that SKU. Nothing else is assumed on your behalf. That makes the window the most consequential setting a seasonal store has.
Average a month of sales during a rising peak and the figure carries three weeks of slower trade. The reorder point it produces belongs to a store that no longer exists. Shorten the window to seven days and the figure tracks the climb. Last week is all it looks at.
The trade is noise. One unusual day moves a 7-day average much harder than a 30-day one. A sale, an influencer post, a bulk order from a wholesale customer: any of them can drag the number.
So both settings are wrong some of the time. The choice is which error you would rather carry into November. Sharp peaks and short lead times usually favour reacting early and over-ordering slightly. Twelve-week sea freight is a different bet entirely. Lead time demand and weeks of cover are the two figures underneath that judgement, and we cover both separately.
One practical note on timing. Restoc reads inventory levels and sales data from your store through webhooks and a scheduled sync job, so connect before the climb rather than in the week you need an answer.
Restoc does not pick the window for you. It does not add a safety-stock buffer, and it does not project seasonality forward. You get the window control, the lead time field, and arithmetic that runs the same way every time.
Choosing the window before the season starts
| Velocity window | What it measures | Where it fits a seasonal store |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | Last week's sales only, averaged per day | The climb into peak, launches, a product that has just started moving. Reacts fastest, moves most on an unusual day. |
| 14 days | Two weeks of sales, averaged per day | The shoulder of the season and a weekly purchase-order cadence. A compromise between reaction and steadiness. |
| 30 days | A month of sales, averaged per day | The flat part of your year, slow movers, and long lead times where a single busy week should not trigger an order. |
Setting up before the spike
- Connect the store and let it read your catalogue
Restoc installs through Shopify OAuth and reads inventory levels and sales data from your store through webhooks plus a scheduled sync job. It is a web app, so there is no mobile app or browser extension to install.
- Enter the lead time you will actually get in peak season
Lead time is yours to supply, per SKU, in days. If your supplier stretches from ten days to twenty-five in October, that is the number to put in now rather than the one you were quoted in spring.
- Set the sales velocity window to 7 days
The reorder point engine runs on a configurable window of 7, 14 or 30 days. Tighten it to 7 while demand is climbing so the reorder point you see reflects the week you are in, not the quarter behind you.
- Read days of inventory remaining, not stock on hand
The dashboard shows current stock, days of inventory remaining and reorder status for every active SKU. During a spike those three columns answer your question in one pass: what runs out first, and is it already past its reorder point.
- Let the alert find you instead of the spreadsheet
When a SKU crosses its reorder point, Restoc is built to fire an alert by email, and by Slack webhook on Growth and above, through a background job designed to be idempotent so one crossing means one message.
- Send the weekly report to your supplier
The weekly reorder report lists every SKU below its reorder point with a suggested order quantity, viewable in the app and exportable as CSV. That is the purchase order conversation, already written down.
- Loosen the window when the peak passes
January trade on a 7-day window will read the post-peak slump as your new normal and push reorder points down hard. Moving back to 14 or 30 days once the curve settles keeps the numbers calm again.
What a seasonal store gets out of it
One setting that moves every reorder point at once
Changing the store-wide velocity window from 30 to 7 days recalculates reorder points across your tracked SKUs. No per-row editing before a peak, and no spreadsheet formula to drag down four hundred lines.
The soonest stockout, visible on one screen
Days of inventory remaining per SKU is the number a seasonal buyer actually works from. Current stock alone hides the fact that forty units is comfortable in July and two days of cover in December.
One message per crossing
Alerts are delivered through a background job built to be idempotent, so a SKU crossing its reorder point means one email, or one Slack message on Growth and above, rather than a drip through your busiest week.
Arithmetic you can check
The reorder point calculation is a single tested function of your velocity window and your lead time. If a number looks wrong you can trace it back to those two inputs rather than guessing at a model.
A per-SKU override when one product peaks alone
On Pro, custom reorder rules let you override the sales velocity window for individual SKUs, for the gift set that spikes in December while the rest of the catalogue ticks along unchanged.
A paper trail for the order you placed
The weekly report and its CSV export give you a record of what was below its reorder point in a given week, which is a straightforward way to review the season once it is over.
Priced for a store, not a warehouse operation
Three tiers from $29 to $99 a month, each with a 60-day free trial and billed by Shopify on your Shopify invoice rather than a separate card payment.
Plans, and which one a seasonal store needs
Starter, $29 / month
Up to 200 tracked SKUs at one location. Store-wide sales velocity window of 7, 14 or 30 days, reorder point per SKU, email alerts, the weekly reorder report and CSV export, and days of inventory remaining on the dashboard.
Growth, $59 / month
Up to 1,000 tracked SKUs, five times Starter's capacity, enforced at sync time. Adds Slack alerts through an incoming webhook, alongside email.
Pro, $99 / month
Everything in Growth, up to 2,000 tracked SKUs, plus custom reorder rules: a per-SKU sales velocity window override. The tier for a catalogue where different products peak at different times.
Billed yearly
Ten months' price for twelve: Starter $290, Growth $590, Pro $990 a year. Annual billing is offered at signup, and every plan carries a 60-day free trial, built so at least one full weekly reorder cycle completes before the first charge.
Questions
Which velocity window should I use for Q4?
If demand is climbing and your lead time is short, 7 days keeps the reorder point moving with the curve. If you are ordering on a long lead time where one busy week should not trigger a purchase order, 14 or 30 days is the steadier read. Restoc gives you the three options and the lead time field; the judgement stays yours.
When should I connect before a peak?
As early as you can. Restoc reads inventory levels and sales data from your store through webhooks plus a scheduled sync job, and the window you pick averages the sales data it holds, so the earlier you connect the more trade the figure has behind it. Connecting in the week you need the answer is the hardest way to do it.
Does Restoc forecast demand for the peak?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. It measures the sales velocity in the window you choose and calculates a reorder point from that plus your lead time. There is no demand forecast and no automatic seasonality adjustment, which is exactly why the window setting is yours to control.
Can I set a different window for one product?
Yes, on Pro. Custom reorder rules provide a per-SKU sales velocity window override at $99 a month for up to 2,000 tracked SKUs. On Starter and Growth the window is store-wide.
My supplier's lead time gets longer in peak season. What do I do?
Change it. Lead time is a merchant-entered value per SKU, so when a supplier quotes twenty-five days instead of ten, you update the number and the reorder point rises with it.
How many SKUs can I track, and how many locations?
Starter tracks up to 200 SKUs, Growth up to 1,000, Pro up to 2,000, with the cap enforced at sync time. Every plan covers one location.
Where do alerts arrive when a SKU crosses its reorder point?
Email on every plan, and a Slack incoming webhook from Growth upwards. Delivery runs through a background job built to be idempotent, so one threshold crossing means one message rather than a repeating loop. The dashboard carries current stock, days of inventory remaining and reorder status per active SKU alongside that. Restoc itself is a web app, with no mobile app and no browser extension, so the phone part is email or Slack.
How does billing work, and when does the first charge land?
Plans are billed by Shopify on your Shopify invoice rather than a separate card payment, with annual billing offered at signup. Each plan starts with a 60-day free trial that is built to guarantee at least one full weekly reorder cycle completes before the first charge, so you see a report before you pay for one.