Stocky shutdown
Stocky vs Shopify's built-in inventory tools
Shopify's built-in tools cover more of Stocky than people assume, and less than you need if you were using it to plan.
Marcus VolstedCo-founder, Restocio
Published 7 August 2026Updated 10 October 20264 min read
Stocky closed on 31 August 2026, and Shopify points merchants at the inventory management built into the admin and Shopify POS. Here is what that actually means, feature by feature.
| What Stocky did | Where it goes after 31 Aug |
|---|---|
| Purchase orders | Built into Shopify admin |
| Stock transfers between locations | Built into Shopify admin |
| Inventory adjustments with reasons | Built into Shopify admin |
| History of inventory changes | Built into Shopify admin |
| Suggested reorder quantities | No direct equivalent. Sidekick recommends items and drafts the purchase order, per Shopify's Help Center (read 2 October 2026), which does not describe how it sizes the quantity |
| Minimum / maximum stock levels | Not built in. Needs metafields or a third-party app |
| Purchase-order spend per supplier | No dedicated report |
| Your supplier list | Cannot be exported from Stocky at all |
To be fair to Shopify: the built-in tools genuinely do replace most of Stocky's day-to-day paperwork. Purchase orders, transfers, adjustments, history and bulk edits are all there, included in your plan, with no app to install. Their AI assistant, Sidekick, is included on every plan and will answer questions like “what should I reorder?”. If your needs are mostly record-keeping, you may not need anything else, and we would rather tell you that than sell you something you do not need.
The pattern behind the table
Shopify replaced the record-keeping, not the decision. Everything about writing down what you decided (purchase orders, transfers, adjustments, history) is there and included. Everything about working out what to decide is not.
For a lot of stores that is fine. If your ordering rhythm is driven by conversations with suppliers and a feel for the season, the built-in tools plus Sidekick will do.
When the gap costs real money
- Many products. Past a few hundred, no one keeps every deadline in their head, and the ones that slip are noticed when something is already out of stock.
- Long lead times. If goods take months to arrive, the decision has to be made while the shelves still look fine. Stock level tells you nothing useful at that point.
- Expensive freight options. If missing a deadline means paying air freight instead of sea, every missed deadline has a price attached.
That combination of many products, long lead times, and freight that varies by an order of magnitude describes importers. It is who Restocio is for. If it does not describe you, the built-in tools may genuinely be enough, and we would rather say so.
What "Shopify inventory management" actually covers today
Since Stocky closed, this phrase means the admin's own inventory system, not a third-party app. What is native, per Shopify's own documentation:
| Capability | Built into Shopify | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple locations | Yes | Inventory is tracked separately per physical location; how many locations you get depends on your plan, and Shopify does not publish that number on its own help page |
| Transfers between locations | Yes | Moves stock from one location to another with its own record |
| Adjustments with a reason | Yes | Damaged, correction, and so on, kept in a visible history |
| Low-stock notification | Not out of the box | Needs a Shopify Flow automation or an inventory alert app from the App Store; there is no native toggle that emails you |
| POS stock sync | Yes | A POS sale adjusts the same inventory the admin shows, no separate feed |
So "Shopify inventory management" today is genuinely capable at the bookkeeping layer: multiple locations, a real transfer record, adjustments you can audit later. What it still leaves as homework, for every one of those locations, is the number Stocky used to hand you: how much to reorder, and by when.
Common questions
Do I have to replace Stocky with a paid app?
No. Shopify's built-in inventory tools cover purchase orders, transfers, adjustments and history at no extra cost. A separate tool is worth it if you relied on Stocky for suggested reorder quantities or minimum and maximum levels, or if freight decisions are a significant cost for you.
What does Sidekick do for inventory?
Sidekick is Shopify's AI assistant, included with every Shopify plan. Shopify's migration page, read on 2 October 2026, says it recommends items based on sales data, drafts the purchase order or transfer for you, and can help you forecast demand. That page does not describe how it sizes a quantity, or whether your supplier lead time enters it.
Does Shopify support multiple warehouse locations?
Yes. Shopify tracks inventory separately at each physical location you add, and transfers between them are a built-in record. How many locations are included depends on your Shopify plan.
Can Shopify send a low-stock alert automatically?
Not natively. There is no built-in toggle that emails you when a product runs low. You need either a Shopify Flow automation you build yourself or a third-party inventory alert app from the App Store. Worth knowing before you build one: a threshold alert fires on a stock level, which is why it can still reach you too late to act on. See why a low stock alert fires too late at /blog/shopify-replenishment#low-stock-alert-too-late.
What happened to Stocky's inventory management features specifically?
The record-keeping half (purchase orders, transfers, adjustments, history) moved into the Shopify admin and is included on every plan. The decision half, Stocky's suggested reorder quantities and minimum or maximum stock levels, did not move across as a feature. Instead, Shopify's migration page, read on 2 October 2026, points to Sidekick, which recommends items and drafts the purchase order, and to variant metafields for minimum and maximum levels.
Marcus co-founded Restocio and works on it daily with a Swedish importer who plans their purchasing in it every working day. Restocio is built in Sweden by two founders, one Swedish and one Danish, and Marcus is the Danish one. Why we are building it.
Related reading
- Looking for a Stocky alternative?
- Export your Stocky data before the read-only window closes
- Shopify replenishment, end to end
Restocio 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.