Inventory management for a Shopify toy and games store
If you sell toys and games on Shopify, inventory management comes down to one question per line: does this need reordering, and did I already miss the window? Restoc is built to answer it, calculating a reorder point for every SKU from your sales velocity, the lead time you set for that vendor and a safety stock buffer, then sending an email or a Slack message when a SKU crosses it.
How a toy and games store does this today
Most toy stores on Shopify run stock the same way. Shopify admin shows a quantity per variant. You sort the inventory list low to high, scan for what looks thin, and export to a spreadsheet when scanning stops working.
The quantity is accurate. It just never shows the rate. Fourteen units of a family board game that sells one a week is three months of cover. Fourteen units of a plush that took off last Friday is a weekend. Same number. Two different decisions. Nothing on the screen separates them.
Three things make that gap wider in toys and games.
- Lead times belong to the supplier, and they vary wildly. A container run from an overseas factory sits in the same catalogue as a next-week topup from a domestic distributor. One needs flagging months out. The other needs flagging on Thursday. Shopify's product record carries a vendor name, not a lead time, so the number lives in your head or in a sheet.
- Demand is gift-shaped. The ranking you trust in August does not hold in the last quarter. A line that crawled for ten months can clear its shelf in ten days, and an average-based reorder point is reached too late when a licensed title spikes.
- The catalogue sprawls. Age tiers, editions, expansions, puzzle piece counts, two colourways of the same soft toy. A few hundred products is far more variants than anyone reviews by eye on a Sunday night.
So the failure is rarely a bad decision. It is a decision nobody got to make, because the number crossed the line on a day when no one was looking at the list.
How Restoc watches a toy catalogue
- Connect the store
Install through Shopify's OAuth flow. Restoc pulls inventory levels and sales history through webhooks plus a scheduled sync job, so the numbers it reasons about come from Shopify rather than from a sheet somebody kept up by hand. It is a web app: no mobile app, no browser extension.
- Set lead times by vendor, not line by line
The vendor lead times screen lists every distinct vendor in your catalogue and takes one lead time each, which fills in every SKU that has no lead time of its own. Set the overseas factory at six weeks and the local distributor at three days once, rather than typing a number into hundreds of variants.
- Override the lines that need it
Lead time is still a per-SKU field where a line does not follow its vendor, and a store default can be applied across SKUs when most of the catalogue restocks on the same clock. Two SKUs sitting at the same stock level get different reorder points once their lead times differ.
- Add safety stock for the bursty lines
A store-wide safety stock percentage sits on top of lead-time demand in the reorder point calculation, because items that sell in bursts run out before an average catches up. The safety stock units show as their own column on the dashboard, in the weekly report and in the CSV, so you can see how many units of the number are buffer.
- Pick the sales velocity window
Choose 7, 14 or 30 days store-wide. A short window reacts to a line that has just started moving; a long one flattens a single busy weekend. On Pro you can override the window on individual SKUs, which is how a steady classic and a spiking licensed title live in one catalogue.
- Let the reorder point do the arithmetic
The reorder point is calculated per SKU from that velocity, that lead time and that safety stock percentage by a tested pure function. Nothing to maintain, nothing to re-derive when the season turns. Change a vendor's lead time and every SKU behind it moves with it.
- Take the alert when a SKU crosses
When a SKU crosses its reorder point, an alert goes out by email, and to a Slack incoming webhook on Growth and above. Delivery runs through an idempotent background job, so one crossing is one alert, not a pile of repeats every time the job wakes up.
- Order from the weekly report
The weekly reorder report lists every SKU below its reorder point with a suggested order quantity and its safety stock units, in the app and as a CSV export you can work into a purchase order.
What else the screen gives you between reports
Sort by days left, not by quantity
The dashboard shows current stock, days of inventory remaining and reorder status per active SKU, sortable and defaulting to the closest to stockout first. That is the column a quantity-sorted list cannot give you, and it is how an edition or a piece count that is quietly draining surfaces without scrolling.
The supplier name sits beside the SKU
Each SKU shows the vendor name Shopify holds on the product, on the dashboard and on the weekly report. A reorder list then reads supplier by supplier instead of as a wall of titles, which is the shape a phone call or an email to a distributor actually takes.
Count variants, not products, before you pick a tier
Tracked SKU caps are 200 on Starter, 1,000 on Growth and 2,000 on Pro, enforced at sync time. In toys and games the count that matters is variants: every age tier, edition and colourway is its own line, so a 400-product catalogue can sit well past a thousand SKUs.
Choosing a velocity window for a toy catalogue
| Window | What it reflects | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | The last week of sales only, so the reorder point moves quickly | The run-up to the gifting season, a licensed title with a short peak, a line that only just started selling |
| 14 days | A fortnight of sales, which absorbs one quiet or one busy week | A mixed catalogue of evergreen games and seasonal lines for most of the year |
| 30 days | A month of sales, flattening single spikes | Classics and slow steady lines, and quiet trading months when a one-off weekend would otherwise skew the number |
Plans against the size of a toy catalogue
Starter, $29 a month
Up to 200 tracked SKUs and one location. Reorder point per SKU, the store-wide velocity window, email alerts, the weekly reorder report with CSV export, and the days-of-inventory dashboard. Billed by Shopify on your Shopify invoice.
Growth, $59 a month
Up to 1,000 tracked SKUs, five times Starter's capacity and enforced at sync time, plus Slack alerts through an incoming webhook alongside email. That is the SKU headroom and the Slack channel a variant-heavy toy catalogue tends to need.
Pro, $99 a month
Up to 2,000 tracked SKUs and everything in Growth, plus custom reorder rules: a per-SKU sales velocity window override for the lines that do not behave like the rest of the catalogue.
What Restoc does not do for a toy store
We would rather you knew now than found out in week three.
- It does not forecast your season. Restoc calculates a reorder point from sales velocity over your chosen window, the lead time behind the SKU and your safety stock percentage. It is arithmetic on what has already sold, not a demand model that predicts which licence will be the hit this year.
- Safety stock is one percentage, store-wide. It is not a per-SKU buffer today. The velocity window is the per-SKU lever, on Pro.
- It covers one location per plan. Every tier lists one location. If you split stock between a stockroom and a shop floor in Shopify, that is not something Restoc separates today, and we have no date for it to give you. When that changes it will be written here.
- It does not place orders. No supplier accounts, no purchase orders sent, no stock receiving. Vendor names are names on a list, not accounts you manage here. You get the list, the suggested quantity and the CSV; the order stays yours to place.
- It is web only. There is no mobile app and no browser extension. Alerts reach your phone as email or Slack, which is the part that needs to travel.
Every plan starts with a 60-day free trial, and the first charge is held until at least one full weekly reorder cycle has completed, so you see a real report on your own catalogue before you pay for one.
Questions
Can different suppliers have different lead times?
Yes, and that is the quickest way to set them. The vendor lead times screen lists each distinct vendor in your catalogue and takes one lead time per vendor, which fills every SKU that has no lead time of its own. A six-week factory run and a three-day distributor topup then get different reorder points even when they sit at the same stock level, and you can still override an individual SKU.
Does it account for lines that sell in bursts?
Partly. A store-wide safety stock percentage is added on top of lead-time demand in the reorder point calculation, so a bursty line is flagged earlier than a plain average would flag it, and the buffer is shown in units on the dashboard, the weekly report and the CSV. For the lines that move least like the rest of the catalogue, Pro adds a per-SKU velocity window override.
Will it tell me what to order for the holiday season?
It will tell you which SKUs have crossed their reorder point and suggest an order quantity on the weekly report. That comes from recent sales velocity, the lead time behind the SKU and your safety stock percentage, not from a seasonal forecast. If a line has barely sold all year and you expect it to move in December, that judgement is still yours.
How many variants can I track?
Starter tracks up to 200 SKUs, Growth up to 1,000 and Pro up to 2,000. The caps are enforced server-side at sync time.
Can alerts go to Slack instead of an inbox?
Slack alerts, through an incoming webhook you configure, are on Growth and above, alongside email. Email alerts go to your account address unless you change it in alert settings.
Does it handle two locations, like a shop and a warehouse?
Not today. Every plan lists one location, and we have no date to offer for splitting stock across two. We will say so here when that changes rather than imply it is already there.
Is there an app for my phone?
No. Restoc is a web app, with no mobile app and no browser extension. Reorder alerts arrive by email or Slack, so the time-sensitive part reaches your phone without one.
What does it read from my store?
Products, inventory levels and orders through Shopify's API. What is stored is narrow: per tracked SKU, the title, your own SKU code, the Shopify variant id, current stock, lead time and computed reorder point, plus sales quantities and dates with the Shopify order reference. No customer names, addresses or payment details are stored. The security page sets out the full list and how to delete it.