Still checking stock in a spreadsheet? What an alert changes
If you are looking for an alternative to your Shopify inventory spreadsheet, the swap is smaller than you think: you do not need a bigger sheet, you need something that checks it for you. Restoc is built to watch every SKU against its own reorder point and tell you by email or Slack the moment one crosses, then hand you a weekly reorder list with suggested quantities you can export as CSV.
The sheet is fine. The checking is the problem.
You built the spreadsheet yourself. A tab per supplier. A column for current stock, a column for what sold last month, a column where you wrote down how long the factory takes, give or take a week. Formulas you understand because you wrote them at eleven at night.
It works. It works exactly as long as you open it.
That is the real limit of a spreadsheet for Shopify inventory. It is a photograph, not a watchman. It is true at the moment you pasted the export in, and slightly less true every hour after. The failure always looks the same: a best seller moves faster than the week you modelled, the sheet still shows last Thursday's number, and you find out you are out when a customer asks where it went. By then the supplier lead time is already running against you, and running out of stock on a hero SKU is a real financial hit, not an admin annoyance.
So the honest question is not whether you should replace the spreadsheet. It is which part of it you should replace. You are not shopping for an ERP. You are not trying to forecast next spring. You want to know when to reorder, per SKU, without opening anything.
What changes when the trigger moves off the sheet
In a spreadsheet, you are the trigger. You remember to export, you remember to look, you remember which SKUs are worth looking at. That is fine on a quiet week and it is the first thing to go on a busy one.
An alert reverses the direction. Nothing needs remembering, because the number comes to you.
Restoc calculates a reorder point for each SKU from two inputs: the sales velocity it reads from your store, over a store-wide window you choose of 7, 14 or 30 days, and the lead time you type in for that SKU, because you are the only one who knows what your supplier actually does. When stock crosses that reorder point, an alert fires to email, to a Slack webhook, or to both.
Then once a week, a reorder report lists every SKU that sits below its reorder point with a suggested order quantity. You read it in the app or you export it as CSV. If your purchase orders live in a sheet today, the CSV goes straight back into that sheet. The spreadsheet can stay. The watching does not have to.
The workflow, start to finish
- Install on your Shopify store
Restoc installs through Shopify's OAuth flow and pulls your real-time inventory levels and sales history, kept current by webhooks plus a scheduled sync job. No CSV export, no paste, no manual refresh. It is a web app, so you work in a browser.
- Set lead time per SKU
You type the supplier wait for each SKU, because that number lives in your head or in an email thread, not in Shopify. This is the input that makes the alert land early enough to be useful.
- Pick a velocity window
Choose 7, 14 or 30 days for the store. Short windows react fast to a spike, long windows smooth out one odd weekend. On Pro you can override the window for a single SKU that behaves differently from the rest of the catalogue.
- Point alerts where you already look
Email for you, a Slack webhook for the channel where your buying conversations already happen. Alerts fire when a SKU crosses its reorder point, delivered through a background job built to be idempotent, so one crossing does not turn into five copies of the same message.
- Read the weekly reorder report
Once a week you get the full list of SKUs below their reorder point, each with a suggested order quantity. That is your buying session: one screen instead of one tab per supplier.
- Export the CSV and place the orders
Export the report as CSV and take it into whatever you use to raise purchase orders, including the spreadsheet you already trust. Restoc tells you what to order and how much. You still decide and you still send it.
What moves off the spreadsheet, and what stays
| The job | In your spreadsheet | In Restoc |
|---|---|---|
| Getting current stock numbers | Export from Shopify, paste, fix columns | Pulled from your store by webhook and a scheduled sync |
| Knowing when a SKU is due | You open the sheet and scan it | An email or Slack alert fires when the SKU crosses its reorder point |
| Working out the reorder point | A formula you maintain by hand | Calculated per SKU from your velocity window and your lead time |
| The weekly buying list | Filter and sort, hope nothing is hidden | A weekly report of everything below reorder point with suggested quantities |
| Raising the purchase order | Your sheet or your supplier's form | Stays with you. Export the report as CSV and carry on |
| Seeing how long a line will last | A days-of-cover column you built | Days of inventory remaining and reorder status per active SKU on the dashboard |
Why this suits a spreadsheet merchant in particular
You keep the habits that work
CSV export means your existing purchase order sheet, your supplier templates and your own notes stay exactly where they are. Nothing about your buying process has to be rebuilt to get alerts.
The lead time stays yours to set
No black box guessing how long your supplier takes. You put the number in per SKU, and you change it the week a supplier gets slower.
Scannable, not a dashboard project
An alert names the SKU that crossed. The weekly report names the SKUs below reorder point and what to order. If you cannot read it in five seconds, we got it wrong.
The team sees it too
A Slack webhook puts the alert in a channel rather than in one person's inbox, so cover during a holiday does not depend on someone remembering to open a file.
Priced for a store, not a warehouse operation
Starter is $29 a month for up to 200 tracked SKUs, Growth is $59 for up to 1,000, Pro is $99 for up to 2,000. Paid yearly that is $290, $590 or $990, ten months' price for twelve. Billed by Shopify on your Shopify invoice, not a separate card payment.
A trial long enough to test the thing you are buying
Every plan has a 60-day free trial, and the trial is built so at least one full weekly reorder cycle completes before the first charge lands. You see a real report before you pay for reports.
What Restoc does not do, plainly
We would rather you know now than find out in week three.
- It does not place orders. No supplier catalogues, no purchase orders sent from the app. It tells you what to reorder and how much, and you send it.
- It does not forecast seasonality or promotions. The reorder point comes from recent sales velocity over 7, 14 or 30 days and your lead time. If you are planning a Black Friday build, that judgement is still yours.
- One location per plan. Every plan covers a single location. If you split stock across warehouses today, that is a spreadsheet job for now, and we will say so when it changes.
- Per-SKU velocity overrides are a Pro feature. Starter and Growth use one store-wide window of 7, 14 or 30 days. The lead time is per SKU on every plan.
- Web app only. No mobile app, no browser extension. Alerts reach your phone through email and Slack, which is the part that matters when you are away from the desk.
Everything above is what we are building. Restoc is not open to stores yet, so nothing on this page is a customer result, it is what the product is made to do.
Questions
Can I keep using my spreadsheet alongside Restoc?
Yes, and many merchants will want to. The weekly reorder report exports as CSV, so the list of SKUs below reorder point with suggested quantities drops straight into the sheet you already raise purchase orders from. Restoc replaces the checking, not your buying paperwork.
How does it decide when to alert me?
It calculates a reorder point per SKU from the sales velocity it reads from your Shopify store, over a window you set at 7, 14 or 30 days, and the lead time you enter for that SKU. When stock crosses that point, an alert fires to email, to a Slack webhook, or both.
Can different SKUs use different velocity windows?
The window is store-wide on Starter and Growth. Pro adds custom reorder rules: a per-SKU override of the sales velocity window, for the lines that do not behave like the rest of the catalogue. Lead time is per SKU on every plan.
Will I get the same alert over and over?
No. Alert delivery runs through a background job built to be idempotent, so a single threshold crossing produces one alert rather than a repeat every time the job runs.
Do I have to paste Shopify exports in anywhere?
No. Restoc installs through Shopify's OAuth flow and reads inventory levels and sales data through webhooks plus a scheduled sync job. That is the main thing you stop doing by hand.
Is there a mobile app?
Not at launch. Restoc is a web app, with no mobile app and no browser extension. Alerts reach you on your phone as email or as a Slack message.
What does it cost, and how long is the trial?
Starter is $29 a month for up to 200 tracked SKUs, Growth is $59 for up to 1,000, Pro is $99 for up to 2,000. Paid yearly those are $290, $590 and $990, ten months' price for twelve. Every plan includes a 60-day free trial, built so at least one full weekly reorder cycle finishes before the first charge, and the subscription is billed by Shopify on your Shopify invoice. The pricing page has the full breakdown.
Can I use it yet?
Not yet. Restoc is in build and the waitlist is open. Sign in is by email and password, the app is hosted on Amazon Web Services, and we will email waitlist members when installs open.