The Restocio blog
Plain explanations of the decisions behind buying stock: how much to order, when the deadline really is, and whether it should travel by sea, rail or air.
Replenishment
Shopify replenishment, end to end
How replenishment works on Shopify: days of stock, the order deadline, the sales-rate mistake that buries best sellers, how much to order, and what Shopify's built-in inventory tools do not do.
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Replenishment
Stock replenishment, end to end
How stock replenishment actually works. Days of stock, reorder points, safety stock, order quantity, lead times, minimum order quantities and freight mode. With the formulas and the mistakes that cost the most.
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Replenishment
Reorder point formula, with a worked example
The reorder point formula, the safety stock formulas that go with it, a full worked example, and the three assumptions that make a textbook reorder point wrong for an importer.
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Replenishment
How to stop running out of stock
The three causes behind repeat stockouts, why they hit best sellers hardest, the fix for each one, and the case where letting a product run out is right.
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Replenishment
Minimum order quantities, and what to do when the MOQ is more than you need
Three different minimums collide on every import order: per product, per supplier order, and per carton. How to work out what an MOQ really costs you, when to accept it, and how to ask for a smaller one.
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Replenishment
Supplier lead time, and why yours is probably too short
Most lead times count only the shipping. Production, clearance and putaway go missing, and every order deadline arrives late by exactly the days you left out.
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Replenishment
When a stock spreadsheet stops working, and how to tell
A spreadsheet handles reordering perfectly well until one of four things changes. Here is what actually breaks, in what order, and how to know you have crossed the line.
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Replenishment
ABC analysis for inventory, and where the letters stop helping
ABC analysis sorts products by annual value, which is the right idea on the wrong axis for reordering. Here is how to calculate it, what it is genuinely good for, and the three things it cannot see.
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Replenishment
Reorder point calculator
A free reorder point calculator that divides by the days you could actually sell, not by days elapsed. No email required. Shows the deadline, the quantity and what is left when the delivery lands.
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Replenishment
How many days of stock should you hold
Days of stock is delivery time plus a cushion plus how long one order should last. Why an importer orders at four months of cover, and what happens when the number is set too low.
Read more ReplenishmentIs your safety stock the right size
An audit you run on your own delivery history instead of a formula. Read the cover left on the shelf the day each delivery landed, compare it with the cushion you planned, and see whether your buffer is doing work or sitting idle.
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Replenishment
Why incoming stock is missing from your Shopify numbers
Shopify tracks incoming inventory but leaves it out of Available, On hand and the stock value report. For an importer with a boat at sea, that gap is large.
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Replenishment
Reorder point when you do not know your lead time
Every reorder point formula assumes you know your lead time. How to recover a real one from dates you already hold, and what to do on a first order.
Read more ReplenishmentWhat belongs on a purchase order when the supplier is overseas
What an import purchase order has to say that a domestic one can leave out: the freight mode, two separate dates, the incoterm, and the SKU your store actually uses.
Read more ReplenishmentWhere Shopify's count drifts when goods arrive
What moves Shopify's stock number away from the shelf when an import lands, which direction each mistake pushes your next order, and how to put the count back with a reason attached.
Read more ReplenishmentWeeks of supply formula, and how to convert it from days of stock
The weeks of supply formula with a worked example, how to convert days of stock to weeks, the one public retail benchmark, and why yours comes from lead time.
Read more ReplenishmentContinue selling when out of stock, and for how long
What continue selling when out of stock does in Shopify, how long it is safe with stock on the way, and why the negative stock belongs in your next order.
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Forecasting
Inventory forecasting, without the mystique
How demand forecasting works for a Shopify store: the honest sales rate, trend and seasonality, what Shopify's reports leave out, and where forecasts stop.
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Forecasting
Inventory forecasting formulas, and which one to use when
Moving average, weighted average, exponential smoothing and seasonal indexing, each with the arithmetic worked through and the case it is actually right for. Plus the one input that breaks all four.
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Forecasting
How to forecast a new product with only three months of sales
Three months of sales gives you a rate and a rough direction, never a season. How to correct the rate for early sell-outs and size the first reorder.
Read more ForecastingSales are declining, and why the reorder math still says buy the same amount
A trailing sales rate looks backward, so a declining product keeps being reordered at its old pace. How to tell a real decline from noise, and what to change.
Read more ForecastingHow to tell whether your forecast is any good
Forecast accuracy on its own settles nothing. Measure how far your sales rate missed, which way it leaned, and whether either is big enough to change an order.
Read more ForecastingDo returns count as sales in your sales rate?
A refunded unit still counts as sold in most sales rates, ours included. How far the rate reads high, where your return share is in Shopify, and how to fix it.
Read more ForecastingThe last order of the season, and how much to buy
With a known end date the last order is subtraction: selling days left times the rate, minus the shelf and what is on the way, on a route that lands in time.
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Freight
Sea, rail or air, and why the answer is often all three
How to decide which freight mode an order should travel by, why splitting one order across modes is usually cheapest, and what it costs to decide late.
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Freight
Air or sea freight, and how to work out the split
Most restock decisions are not air or sea, they are how much of each. A worked example of the bridge calculation, what the freight quote leaves out, and when flying part of an order is cheaper than shipping all of it.
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Freight
How much extra stock to order before Chinese New Year 2027
Chinese New Year 2027 falls on 6 February. Turn the factory closure into a number of days, multiply it by your sales rate, and you have the extra quantity. Why a percentage cannot be the answer.
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Freight
The January stock gap, and why the order is due in November
Q4 stock sells through by Christmas. The order that refills January is due in early November, and it collides with Chinese New Year on 6 February 2027.
Read more FreightFCL vs LCL, and the CBM where it flips
FCL and LCL is a container-size decision, not a freight-mode one. The CBM range where a full container starts beating LCL's per-cubic-metre rate, a worked example, and both sources checked live.
Read more FreightImporting for Shopify, and where to start
A short map for Shopify merchants new to importing. What decides your order timing, how freight mode and container size change the math, and which of these posts to read next.
Read more FreightWhich SKUs to fly, which to leave on the boat
A late boat does not make every product worth flying. How to rank revenue at risk against the air freight bridge calculation to find the few SKUs worth the premium, worked example included.
Read more FreightHow many units fit in a container, and whether you should fill it
Cartons-per-container arithmetic for 20ft, 40ft and high cube boxes, why dividing by volume overstates it, and whether to fill the space once a box is booked.
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Cash flow
Profitable on paper, empty at the bank
Why a profitable ecommerce store can have no cash in the bank. For an importer the money leaves months before the sale and comes back one unit at a time.
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Cash flow
What a unit actually costs you
The margin in your Shopify reports is revenue minus the cost you typed on the product. If that was the supplier price, it contains no freight and no duty. How to work out what a unit really costs.
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Cash flow
Out of stock statistics, dated and sourced
Stockout statistics with a year and source on every figure. The 2026 per-brand numbers, the trillions correctly dated, and famous misquotes corrected.
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Cash flow
Dead stock, and how to spot it while it is still worth something
Dead stock is cash you already spent, sitting in a box. How to define it for your own catalog, the aging bands that decide what to do, and the ordering habits that create it in the first place.
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Cash flow
Stock valuation for your accounts, and why freight belongs inside it
Swedish rules say the acquisition value of stock includes purchase price, freight and duty. Shopify's cost per item usually holds only the first, which is why year end turns into a spreadsheet.
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Cash flow
Inventory turnover and sell-through, and which one tells you something
Turnover measures the whole catalogue and hides the products that are hurting you. Sell-through works per product. Here is how to calculate both, and why neither sees the money on the water.
Read more Cash flowWhat a product really earns, after ad spend
Landed cost tells you what a unit cost to get to your shelf. It says nothing about what you spent to sell it. A worked example of how ad spend quietly erases margin, and why it belongs next to landed cost rather than in a separate report.
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Cash flow
The cost error that changes what you buy
A cost price missing freight and duty does not change the order quantity your numbers recommend. It changes what that quantity appears to cost, which is the figure you actually approve, trim or delay.
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Cash flow
How to check your COGS in ten minutes
A ten-minute audit you can run on one SKU with two invoices and a calculator: work out the real per-unit cost, compare it to Shopify's cost per item, and see what the gap does to your pricing, your ad spend ceiling and your next order.
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Cash flow
The cost price nobody ever updates
Shopify's cost per item changes only when somebody edits it. When it drifts, the products with the oldest costs rank highest on margin, so you promote and reorder exactly the wrong ones. How to find yours in an afternoon.
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Cash flow
Seven reasons your accountant's number is not Shopify's
Shopify's profit report and your bookkeeper's margin come from different costs, struck on different dates, over a different set of units. A line-by-line reconciliation.
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Cash flow
Your supplier raised prices, and what it does to your numbers
Accepting a price increase is the easy half. After it, old stock on the shelf and the new container have different costs, and every margin figure downstream drifts until the average catches up.
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Cash flow
How much cash your next container ties up, and when
How much cash one sea-freight reorder cycle ties up, and the month its payments bunch, worked out from your deposit terms, lead time and order size.
Read more Cash flowWhen stock stops being worth what you paid for it
A write-down changes your books, a clearance sale changes the shelf price. When to do the first, what it does to your margins, and why a wrong cost delays it.
Read more Cash flowYour supplier invoices in dollars, and your cost price moved on its own
Buy in dollars, sell in kronor or euros, and your cost price moves with the rate while the invoice stays the same. Which day's rate counts, and how to notice it.
Read more Cash flowBorrow to buy inventory, or order less
Whether to borrow for an inventory order or shrink it instead, what changes either way, and how to size a loan to the burst month rather than to the offer.
Read more Cash flowCheap and far or dear and near? Comparing two suppliers on the full cost
A cheap far supplier or a dearer near one? Compare the full cost of one order, with freight, cash on the water and extra safety stock counted.
Read more Cash flowOverstocked and out of stock at the same time
A full warehouse and best sellers that keep going dark are one allocation problem, not two. Why both happen at once, and which fix belongs to which half.
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Seasonal
Black Friday inventory planning, counted backward from the sale
When to order Black Friday stock if it comes by sea, how to size a spike with no history, and what to do when the cheap deadline has already passed.
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Comparisons
Restocio vs Cogsy
Cogsy is no longer available. What it published while it was live, which part of it you actually have to replace, where Restocio fits for importers, and where it does not.
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Comparisons
Restocio vs Prediko
Restocio charges by catalog size, Prediko by revenue. That single difference decides which is cheaper for you. A comparison using only published facts.
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Comparisons
Restocio vs Inventory Planner
Inventory Planner is an established, broad forecasting tool with quote-based pricing. Restocio is narrower and publishes its prices. A comparison from published facts only.
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Comparisons
Looking for a Cogsy alternative?
Cogsy has been discontinued and is no longer available. Which part of it you actually have to replace, the alternatives worth comparing, and why its Shopify App Store listing is still up.
Read more ComparisonsPrediko alternatives
Prediko charges by revenue. Whether that is good or bad for you decides which alternative fits. A comparison built from each vendor's published pages.
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Comparisons
Inventory Planner alternatives
Inventory Planner is quote-only. If you want a number before a sales call, that narrows the field fast. Built from each vendor's own published pages.
Read more ComparisonsWho Restocio is not for
The stores that should not buy Restocio, from dropshipping and print-on-demand to barcode shops and ERP-run multi-channel, plus the gaps that are real today.
Read more ComparisonsRestocio vs Shopify's own inventory tools, for importers
What today's Shopify admin does for a store that imports, what its Help Center does not describe, and where Restocio differs, row by row.
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Stocky shutdownClosed 31 Aug 2026
Looking for a Stocky alternative?
Stocky has been unavailable since 31 August 2026. Here is what Shopify's built-in tools replace, what they do not, where Restocio fits for stores that import, and how long you still have to export your data.
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Stocky shutdownClosed 31 Aug 2026
Export your Stocky data before the read-only window closes
Stocky closed on 31 August 2026 but read-only export still works for at least 90 days. Here is what to pull out, in what order, and the one thing that cannot be exported at all.
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Stocky shutdown
Stocky vs Shopify's built-in inventory tools
A feature-by-feature look at what moved from Stocky into Shopify's built-in inventory management when Stocky closed, and the specific gaps left behind.
Read morePå svenska
Inköpsplanering🇸🇪
Lagerstyrning för Shopify, hela kedjan
Lagerdagar, beställningsdeadline, säljtakten som begraver dina bästsäljare och vad Shopifys inbyggda lagerfunktioner faktiskt klarar. Med räkneexempel för en svensk importör.
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Inköpsplanering🇸🇪
Beställningspunkt och säkerhetslager, med räkneexempel
Formeln för beställningspunkt, de tre sätten att räkna säkerhetslager, ett fullständigt räkneexempel och de tre antaganden som gör läroboksformeln fel för en importör.
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Kassaflöde🇸🇪
Varulagervärdering för en Shopify-butik
Vad som ingår i anskaffningsvärdet enligt Skatteverket, vilka värderingsmetoder årsredovisningslagen tillåter, schablonregeln på 97 procent, och varför Shopifys kostnadsfält ger fel lagervärde.
Läs merPå dansk
Lagerstyring🇩🇰
Lagerstyring for en Shopify-webshop
Lagerdage, bestillingsdeadline, den salgshastighed der begraver dine bestsellere, hvad varen faktisk koster efter varelagerloven, og hvad Shopifys indbyggede lagerfunktioner rent faktisk kan.
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Lagerstyring🇩🇰
Genbestillingspunkt og sikkerhedslager, med regneeksempel
Formlen for genbestillingspunkt, hvordan du regner leveringstiden fra en leverandør i Kina korrekt, sikkerhedslager med et regneeksempel, og de to ting et fyldt Shopify-lager ikke fortæller dig.
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Likviditet🇩🇰
Lagervurdering for en Shopify-butik
Skattestyrelsens juridiske vejledning siger, at indkøbsprisen for varelager skal indeholde fragt og told. Shopifys kostfelt gør det sjældent, og det gør din lagervurdering forkert.
Læs merePå norsk
Lagerstyring🇳🇴
Lagerstyring for en Shopify-nettbutikk
Lagerdager, bestillingsfrist, salgstakten som begraver bestselgerne dine, hvorfor frakten allerede ligger i tollverdien Tolletaten regner mva av, og hva Shopify faktisk kan selv.
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Lagerstyring🇳🇴
Gjenbestillingspunkt og sikkerhetslager, med regneeksempel
Formelen for gjenbestillingspunkt i en Shopify-butikk, de tre måtene å regne sikkerhetslager på, et regneeksempel, og hvorfor leveringstiden fra Kina er lengre enn fraktoffertet sier.
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Likviditet🇳🇴
Lagervurdering for en Shopify-nettbutikk
Hva regnskapsloven og Norsk RegnskapsStiftelse regner som kjøpsutgifter, hvorfor skattemeldingen følger en strengere regel enn årsregnskapet, og hvorfor Shopifys kostfelt gir feil lagerverdi.
Les merRestocio plans purchasing for Shopify stores that import. It works out what to order, how much, and whether it should travel by sea, rail or air, so you pay air freight only for the units that genuinely cannot wait.