Replenishment, POs & Receiving: Rebuilding Stocky's Fill Shelves Workflow

If you run a retail store on Shopify POS, you have probably built your entire restocking process around Stocky. The Fill Shelves workflow — demand analysis, suggested purchase orders, sending to suppliers, receiving inventory, and updating stock levels — is the backbone of how thousands of independent retailers keep products on shelves without drowning in spreadsheets.

With Shopify sunsetting Stocky on August 31, 2026, that backbone is about to disappear. This guide breaks down exactly what the Fill Shelves workflow does, why it matters so much to daily operations, what you lose without it, and how to rebuild it — whether you go manual, adopt a new tool, or something in between.

What is the Fill Shelves workflow?

Stocky’s Fill Shelves feature is a five-step replenishment cycle that turns sales data into purchase orders:

Demand analysis — Stocky reads your recent sales history (typically 30 days) and calculates how fast each product variant is selling.
Suggested PO — Based on sales velocity, lead times, and minimum stock levels you have configured, Stocky generates a list of items that need reordering and the quantities to order.
Send to supplier — You review the suggested order, make adjustments, and either email the PO directly from Stocky or export it as a PDF/CSV to send manually.
Receive inventory — When the shipment arrives, you open the PO in Stocky and mark items as received — fully or partially.
Update inventory — Received quantities sync directly to Shopify, updating available stock across all relevant locations.

This cycle repeats on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for most retailers. Some high-volume shops run it daily. The key insight is that the entire chain is connected: sales data feeds the suggestions, suggestions become orders, orders become receivable documents, and receiving updates your live inventory. Break one link and the whole process falls apart.

Why this workflow matters for retail operations

Inventory management is not a back-office chore you can ignore. For physical retail stores operating on Shopify POS, the replenishment cycle directly affects:

Revenue protection

Empty shelves mean lost sales. Shopify’s own data suggests that stockouts cost retailers between 4-8% of annual revenue. A customer who walks in looking for a product that is out of stock does not always come back — they go to the shop down the street or order from Amazon.

Cash flow optimization

Overstocking ties up cash in products sitting on shelves or in the back room. For a small retailer operating on tight margins, having $10,000 in slow-moving inventory is the difference between making payroll comfortably and sweating through the month. The Fill Shelves workflow helps you order just enough based on actual sales data, not gut feeling.

Time savings

Without automation, the replenishment process involves pulling sales reports from Shopify, cross-referencing current stock levels in a spreadsheet, manually calculating what to order, typing up purchase orders, and then manually adjusting inventory when shipments arrive. Stocky compressed all of that into a workflow you could complete in 15-30 minutes. Doing it manually takes 2-4 hours per week for a typical store with 500+ SKUs.

Supplier relationship management

Consistent, well-organized purchase orders build trust with suppliers. They know what to expect, deliveries arrive on schedule, and disputes over quantities are rare because there is a clear paper trail. Lose your PO system and you are back to phone calls and handshake agreements.

Breaking down the components

Replenishment logic

Stocky’s replenishment engine is straightforward but effective. At its core, it answers one question: “How much of each product do I need to order right now to avoid running out before the next delivery?”

The calculation works like this:

Daily sales velocity = Total units sold over the lookback period (usually 30 days) divided by 30
Demand during lead time = Daily sales velocity multiplied by the supplier’s lead time in days
Reorder point = Demand during lead time + safety stock (your minimum stock level)
Suggested order quantity = Reorder point minus current stock on hand (if the result is positive, you need to order)

For example, say you sell 3 units per day of a particular t-shirt, your supplier takes 14 days to deliver, and you want a safety buffer of 10 units. Your reorder point is (3 x 14) + 10 = 52 units. If you currently have 20 in stock, Stocky suggests ordering 32.

This logic is not rocket science, but having it run automatically across hundreds or thousands of SKUs is what makes it powerful. Doing the same calculation by hand for 500 variants is where mistakes happen and hours disappear.

For a deeper dive into replicating this formula yourself, see our guide on Fill Shelves alternatives using 30-day sales and min stock levels.

Purchase order creation

Once Stocky generates the suggested quantities, the next step is turning those suggestions into a formal purchase order. Stocky groups items by supplier, so you get one PO per vendor rather than a jumbled list.

A good PO includes:

PO number for tracking and reference
Supplier details (name, contact, payment terms)
Line items with SKU, product name, variant, quantity, and unit cost
Expected delivery date based on lead time
Shipping and tax estimates if applicable
Total cost for budget approval

Stocky handled all of this within the app. You could review, adjust quantities, update costs, add notes, and then either email the PO to your supplier or export it as a PDF. The PO stayed in Stocky as a living document that you would later receive against.

The receiving process

Receiving is where the PO workflow pays off most visibly. When a shipment arrives at your store, you open the corresponding PO in Stocky and record what actually showed up.

Partial receives are critical here. Suppliers do not always ship everything at once. Maybe 80% of your order arrives on Tuesday and the remaining 20% comes the following week. Stocky let you receive against a PO multiple times, tracking:

Which line items were received and in what quantities
The date of each receive event
Any cost adjustments (the supplier’s invoice price might differ from the PO price)
Discrepancies between ordered and received quantities

When you marked items as received, Stocky automatically updated Shopify’s inventory levels for the correct location. No manual stock adjustments, no forgetting to update the system, no discrepancies between what is physically on the shelf and what Shopify thinks you have.

Cost updates during receiving are equally important. If you ordered widgets at $5.00 each but the supplier invoiced you at $5.25, you could update the cost per unit during receiving. This flowed through to Shopify’s cost field, keeping your margin calculations accurate.

Many merchants also relied on Stocky’s integration with label printers during receiving. Once items were received, you could print price tags and barcode labels directly from the PO — an enormous time saver for stores that need to label every product. We cover this workflow in detail in Print Price Tags from POs.

What you lose without a dedicated PO tool

When Stocky shuts down, the gap is not just “one less app.” It is the loss of an integrated system. Here is what breaks:

No automated reorder suggestions

Shopify Admin does not have a built-in way to calculate when you need to reorder. You can set up low-stock notifications, but those are simple threshold alerts with no intelligence about lead times, sales velocity, or order quantities. You will know something is low, but not how much to order or when.

No PO management

Shopify has no native purchase order feature. Without Stocky (or a replacement), you have no system for creating POs, tracking them against suppliers, or receiving against them. You are back to emailing spreadsheets or using Word documents.

No receiving workflow

Without a receiving tool, you either update inventory manually in Shopify Admin (one variant at a time) or do bulk updates via CSV import. Both are slow and error-prone. There is no concept of “receiving against a PO” in native Shopify.

No cost tracking on receive

Shopify lets you set a cost per item, but there is no workflow for updating costs when you receive new inventory at a different price. Over time, your cost data drifts from reality, and your margin reports become unreliable.

No paper trail

With Stocky, you had a history of every PO sent, every receive event, and every cost update. Lose that, and you lose accountability. When a supplier disputes what you ordered, or your accountant asks where a cost figure came from, you have nothing to point to.

Manual workarounds: the spreadsheet approach

If you are not ready to adopt a new app immediately, or if you are evaluating options and need a stopgap, you can rebuild parts of the Fill Shelves workflow manually. Fair warning: this works, but it is painful and does not scale.

Step 1: Export your sales data

From Shopify Admin, go to Analytics > Reports > Sales by product variant. Set the date range to the last 30 days and export as CSV.

Step 2: Export your current inventory

Go to Products > Inventory and export your inventory levels as CSV.

Step 3: Build the replenishment spreadsheet

Create a spreadsheet with these columns:

SKU	Product Name	Variant	30-Day Sales	Current Stock	Lead Time (days)	Min Stock	Reorder Point	Order Qty
ABC-001	Blue T-Shirt	Small	45	20	14	10	31	11

The formulas:

Daily velocity = 30-Day Sales / 30
Reorder point = (Daily velocity x Lead Time) + Min Stock
Order Qty = MAX(0, Reorder Point - Current Stock)

Step 4: Create POs manually

Filter the spreadsheet for items where Order Qty > 0, group by supplier, and create purchase order documents in your preferred format (Google Docs, Word, whatever your suppliers accept).

Step 5: Receive manually

When inventory arrives, update stock levels in Shopify Admin by going to Products > Inventory, finding each variant, and adjusting the quantity. For large shipments, prepare a CSV with the adjustments and use Shopify’s bulk inventory import.

Why this breaks down

This process works for a store with 50-100 SKUs and one location. Beyond that, the manual effort becomes unsustainable:

Exporting and merging CSVs every week eats 1-2 hours minimum
Manual data entry during receiving introduces errors
There is no connection between your PO spreadsheet and Shopify’s inventory
Cost updates require separate manual edits
You have no audit trail for receives

For small retailers trying to navigate the transition, our guide on lightweight alternatives for 1-5 store retailers covers what to prioritize.

What to look for in a replacement

Not all inventory management tools are created equal. Many are full ERP systems that bundle manufacturing, accounting, warehousing, and HR modules you will never use — and charge accordingly. Before you commit to a $300+/month platform, consider what you actually need. (We break down the pricing landscape in detail in Why Merchants Say You Need a $350+/mo ERP to Replace Stocky.)

Must-have features

Shopify-native integration: The replacement should connect directly to your Shopify store via the official API. Avoid tools that require middleware or manual syncing. Inventory updates from receiving should flow to Shopify in real time or near-real time.

Purchase order management: Full lifecycle support — create, send, edit, and close POs. Support for multiple suppliers and the ability to group suggested orders by vendor.

Receiving with partial support: You need to be able to receive a PO in multiple installments and track what has arrived versus what is outstanding.

Cost tracking on receive: The tool should update Shopify’s cost-per-item field when you receive inventory, especially if the actual cost differs from the PO price.

Replenishment suggestions: At minimum, the tool should calculate suggested reorder quantities based on sales velocity and lead times. This is the core of the Fill Shelves workflow.

Multi-location support: If you operate more than one store or have a separate stockroom, the tool needs to handle inventory across Shopify locations.

Nice-to-have features

Barcode scanning for faster receiving
Label and price tag printing from POs
Supplier management (contact info, payment terms, lead times)
CSV/PDF export for POs
Inventory valuation reports
Stocktake/cycle count support

Red flags

Pricing that starts at $200+/month for features you already had for free in Stocky
Long-term contracts with no monthly option
No free trial or demo
Poor Shopify App Store reviews, especially around sync reliability
“Coming soon” labels on core features like receiving or replenishment

How Stokka rebuilds this workflow

Stokka is purpose-built to replace the three core workflows Stocky handled: purchase orders, stocktakes, and replenishment. We are not building an ERP. We are building the focused tool that Shopify retailers actually need.

The Stokka replenishment workflow follows the same logical chain that made Fill Shelves effective:

Demand analysis pulls your Shopify sales data and calculates per-variant sales velocity
Restock suggestions use configurable lead times, safety stock levels, and sales lookback periods to recommend what and how much to order
One-click PO creation converts suggestions into purchase orders grouped by supplier
Receiving supports partial receives with cost adjustment, updating Shopify inventory and cost fields in real time
Audit trail keeps a complete history of every PO, receive event, and cost change

Stokka runs on Shopify’s official APIs and syncs inventory across all your locations. It is designed for independent retailers with 1-5 stores who need the workflows Stocky provided without the complexity or cost of a full ERP.

We are currently in development with a beta launching ahead of the Stocky sunset. Join the waitlist for early access and early-bird pricing.

Preparing for the transition

The Stocky sunset is coming whether you are ready or not. Here is what you should do now:

Export your Stocky data — Download your PO history, supplier list, and any stocktake records as CSVs while Stocky is still accessible. Shopify has not announced a data export tool, so do this manually.
Document your current settings — Note your lead times per supplier, minimum stock levels, and any custom replenishment settings you have configured in Stocky.
Evaluate your options — Test replacement tools before the deadline. Do not wait until August to discover that migration takes longer than expected.
Plan for overlap — Ideally, run your new tool alongside Stocky for at least one full replenishment cycle to verify that the numbers match.
Train your team — If staff members handle receiving or PO creation, make sure they have time to learn the new system before the old one disappears.

The Fill Shelves workflow is not a luxury feature for retail stores — it is the difference between running your business proactively and constantly reacting to empty shelves and surprise stockouts. Whatever path you choose, make sure you have a plan in place before August 31.