Ecommerce inventory process for a small team
An ecommerce inventory process for a small team has to run on the weeks when nobody has time to run it. Restoc is built to carry the middle of that process for a Shopify store: lead times set by supplier, a reorder point per SKU, an alert at the crossing, and one weekly report with suggested order quantities.
A process that holds when there are three of you
An inventory process for a small team is not a bigger process. It is a smaller one with fewer handoffs.
In a team of two or three, the stock check is somebody's extra job. It sits between a supplier call and a customer email. It is the first thing dropped when the week goes sideways. Running out of a line that sells is a real hit, and it usually happens in a week when nobody got to the sheet.
So the design question is not what the ideal process looks like. It is which parts can run without a person, and which parts need the person who knows the supplier.
Four judgements need a human
- The sales velocity window you judge your lines by: 7, 14 or 30 days.
- The lead time in days, which is really your read on each supplier. Set it once per supplier, or per SKU where a line is different.
- How much cushion you want on top of lead-time demand, set as a store-wide safety stock percentage.
- The decision to place the order, and the money that goes with it.
The rest is arithmetic and timing. Work out a reorder point per SKU. Watch stock against it. Raise the flag at the crossing. Once a week, list what is below the line with a quantity beside it. That middle is what Restoc is built to carry, so the judgements stay with you and the watching stops depending on whose week it is.
What a small team is optimising for
Coverage first. The check has to happen on a holiday, in a launch week, on a sick day.
Then handoff. The person who notices and the person who orders are rarely the same person.
Then one record of the inputs, written into the app rather than held in one head.
Last, speed. Someone asks whether you are covered on a line. The answer should take seconds, not an afternoon of rebuilding a sheet.
If your method today is a spreadsheet and a Monday reminder, the spreadsheet page covers that comparison. This page is about who owns what once the alerts are running.
The process, step by step
- Connect the store once
Restoc installs through Shopify OAuth and reads inventory levels and sales history from your store, through webhooks plus a scheduled sync job. One connection covers the store. It is a web app, so there is nothing to install on anyone's phone and no browser extension to roll out.
- Set lead times by supplier, not one SKU at a time
Each SKU's vendor comes across from your Shopify product record and shows on the dashboard and the weekly report. A vendor lead times screen in settings lists every distinct supplier in your catalogue, so one entry fills every SKU under that supplier that has no lead time of its own. Nobody has to type a lead time into hundreds of rows. Where a line genuinely differs, the per-SKU lead time still wins.
- Pick the window, then the cushion
The sales velocity window is store-wide: 7, 14 or 30 days, with a per-SKU override on Pro. On top of that, a store-wide safety stock percentage is added to lead-time demand, for the lines that sell in bursts rather than evenly. Both are set once, in the app, so the fast supplier and the slow one stop being treated the same and nobody re-argues the numbers each week.
- Let the dashboard answer the standing question
The dashboard shows current stock, days of inventory remaining and reorder status for every active SKU, with safety stock in units and the supplier beside it. It sorts by days of inventory remaining, soonest to stockout first. When someone asks whether you are covered on a line, that is the screen they open, and all three of you read the same number.
- Take the alert at the crossing
When a SKU crosses its reorder point, an alert fires by email, and by Slack webhook on the Growth plan and above. Nobody has to be at a desk. Nobody has to remember. That is the part of the process a busy week used to eat.
- Use the weekly report as the agenda
Once a week the reorder report lists every SKU below its reorder point with a suggested order quantity, its safety stock in units and its supplier, viewable in the app. The review becomes a read of a list that was already prepared, which is a job a small team can finish between other things.
- Export it and hand it on
The report exports as CSV, carrying the same figures including safety stock units. That export is the handoff to whoever places orders. Restoc stops at the list: the purchase order itself stays between you and your supplier.
Which signal reaches whom
| Signal | When it arrives | What the team does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | Whenever anyone opens the app | Scan days of inventory remaining, reorder status and safety stock per SKU, soonest to stockout first, before answering a stock question. |
| Reorder alert | When a SKU crosses its reorder point | Read it in the alert mailbox you set, or in Slack on Growth and above, without opening the app. |
| Weekly reorder report | Once a week, in the app | Work the list of SKUs below their reorder point, each with a suggested order quantity and the supplier it belongs to. |
| CSV export | On demand from the report | Pass the same list to whoever places orders, or into the sheet your supplier expects. |
Why this fits a team of two or three
The review becomes a read, not a meeting
The weekly report arrives already made: SKUs below reorder point, each with a suggested order quantity. Nobody has to prepare it, so nobody can be too busy to prepare it.
The watching does not depend on who is in
Stock is checked by a scheduled sync job and webhooks from your store, not by a person with a calendar reminder. A holiday, a sick day or a launch week no longer stops anyone noticing a crossing.
Setup is per supplier, not per row
Lead times are entered against each supplier in your catalogue and fill every SKU under that supplier that has none of its own. A small team can get the inputs straight in one sitting instead of saving hundreds of rows one at a time.
A cushion for lines that sell in bursts
A store-wide safety stock percentage sits on top of lead-time demand, and the resulting units show on the dashboard, the weekly report and the CSV. An average-based reorder point stops being the only thing standing between a spiky seller and an empty shelf.
One crossing, one message
Alert delivery runs through an idempotent background job. A single crossing produces a single alert per channel, not a run of repeats.
Slack when the team lives in Slack
Email alerts are included on every plan. Slack alerts arrive through an incoming webhook you configure, on the Growth plan and above, which suits a team that reads a channel faster than an inbox.
A figure to put on the order
Each line on the report carries a suggested order quantity, worked out from your velocity window, your lead time and your safety stock setting, so the handoff to whoever buys is a number rather than a shrug.
Priced like a tool, not a department
Starter is $29 a month for up to 200 tracked SKUs, Growth $59 for up to 1,000, Pro $99 for up to 2,000. Paying yearly is ten months' price for twelve. Every plan starts with a 60-day free trial, and the first charge waits until at least one full weekly reorder cycle has completed. Billing runs on your Shopify invoice.
Two things to settle before you adopt it
Sign-in is email and password. A small team can share the signals without sharing a screen. Reorder alerts go to the email address you set in alert settings, which can be a shared or group mailbox, and to one Slack webhook on Growth and above. The weekly report exports as CSV for whoever places the order.
Every plan is declared for a single location and carries a tracked-SKU cap: 200 on Starter, 1,000 on Growth, 2,000 on Pro. The cap is enforced when your store syncs, so count your variants, not your products, before you pick a tier. If the catalogue is nearer the top of that range, the large-catalogue page is the one to read next.
One practical note on the first week. Lead times are the input the process cannot guess, so decide early whether a supplier-level figure is close enough for most of your catalogue, and reserve per-SKU lead times for the handful of lines where it is not.
Questions
How many people can use one Restoc account?
Sign-in is email and password. In practice a small team shares the outputs rather than the screen: the reorder alert goes to the email address you set in alert settings, which can be a shared or group mailbox, and the weekly report exports as CSV for whoever places the order.
Do we have to enter a lead time for every SKU?
No. Each SKU's vendor comes across from your Shopify product record, and a vendor lead times screen lets you set one lead time per supplier, which fills every SKU under that supplier that has no lead time of its own. Set a per-SKU lead time only where a line really differs.
Can we add safety stock on top of the reorder point?
Yes, as a store-wide safety stock percentage applied on top of lead-time demand in the reorder point calculation. The resulting units are shown as a column on the dashboard, in the weekly reorder report and in the CSV export, so you can see exactly what the cushion is adding.
Can the reorder alert land in a Slack channel?
Yes, through an incoming webhook you configure, on the Growth plan and above. Email alerts are included on every plan, and both fire when a SKU crosses its reorder point.
Who decides the velocity window?
You do. The sales velocity window is 7, 14 or 30 days, set store-wide, with a per-SKU override on Pro. The reorder point and the suggested order quantity are calculated from that window, your lead time, your safety stock percentage and your sales history.
Does the weekly report replace the dashboard?
They answer different questions. The dashboard carries current stock, days of inventory remaining, safety stock and reorder status per active SKU, sorted soonest to stockout, for the moment someone asks whether you are covered. The report is the weekly list of SKUs below their reorder point with a suggested order quantity on each line, viewable in the app and exportable as CSV.
Is there a mobile app for the team?
No. Restoc is a web app, with no mobile app and no browser extension. The alerts are what reach you away from a desk: email to the address you set, and Slack on Growth and above.
What does it cost for a small team?
Starter is $29 a month for up to 200 tracked SKUs, Growth $59 for up to 1,000, Pro $99 for up to 2,000. Yearly is $290, $590 and $990, which is ten months' price for twelve. Every plan starts with a 60-day free trial, and the subscription is billed by Shopify on your Shopify invoice rather than by a separate card payment. The pricing page lays out what each tier includes.