After Stocky: What Shopify Inventory Does Now, and What It Doesn't

Illustration of an inventory workflow list with purchase orders, suppliers, stock counts, transfers and reorder alerts, splitting into a Shopify admin panel with Purchase orders, Transfers, Counts and Suppliers chips and a green check.

Updated September 2026

Stocky was the free Shopify app a lot of stores quietly ran their inventory on: purchase orders, supplier records, stocktakes, transfers and reorder suggestions. Shopify took it off the App Store for new installs, and it stopped working after August 31, 2026. If you relied on it, the question now is simple: what does Shopify do itself, and what do you still need?

The honest answer is that Shopify covers more than it used to. Most of Stocky's core workflows now live in the admin. A few, mostly the ones that help you decide when to reorder, don't.

What Shopify's own inventory tools do now

Everything sits under Products in your Shopify admin:

  • Purchase orders. Record what you've ordered from a supplier, with products, quantities, costs and payment terms. A purchase order moves from draft to Ordered, and from there you create an inventory transfer to track the shipment, receive the stock and add cost adjustments.
  • Suppliers. Create them as you make purchase orders, with contact details, an address and the supplier's currency.
  • Transfers. Move stock between locations, or bring it in from a purchase order.
  • Counts. Shopify POS has Quick Count for spot checks, up to 1,000 variants a session. With POS Pro, you can create a full inventory count in the admin for a location and have staff complete it in POS. The Shopify mobile app can also scan barcodes to adjust stock.
  • Reorder help from Sidekick. There's no forecasting screen, but you can ask Shopify's assistant, Sidekick, what to reorder, and it can draft a purchase order or transfer from your sales.
  • Stock at non-selling locations. Since May 1, 2026, you can see and update on-hand stock at any active location, including warehouses that don't fulfill orders.

For a store with one or two locations, a handful of suppliers and steady sales, that's enough. You probably don't need another app.

Where each Stocky feature lives now: purchase orders, supplier records, transfers and stock counts are built into Shopify; reorder suggestions come from Sidekick or an app; supplier lead times, weighted-average and landed costing and old Stocky history need an app, metafields or an export WHERE STOCKY FEATURES WENT Built into Shopify App or workaround Purchase orders Products › Purchase orders Receive stock through a linked transfer Supplier records Name, contact, currency Created with your purchase orders Transfers Products › Transfers Between locations or from a PO Stocktakes Counts, Quick Count Full counts need POS Pro Reorder suggestions Ask Sidekick, or an app Sidekick can draft a PO from sales Lead times per supplier Metafields or an app Also supplier SKUs, several suppliers per product Advanced costing Third-party app Weighted average, landed cost Old Stocky history Your own export Can't be imported into Shopify Stocky stopped working after August 31, 2026.
Where each Stocky job lives now. Blue is built into Shopify; sand needs an app, metafields or an export.

What didn't carry over

Shopify's own migration guide lists the gaps plainly:

  • Richer supplier data. Lead times, supplier-specific SKUs and several suppliers for one product aren't built in. Shopify suggests metafields.
  • Advanced costing. Weighted-average costing and landed cost allocation need a third-party inventory app.
  • Your Stocky history. Old purchase orders and stocktakes can't be imported into Shopify. If you still have exports from Stocky's reports, keep them somewhere safe.

The other difference is less visible. Stocky told you what was about to run out. In Shopify, you ask. That works if you remember to ask, and it's the part that stores with many SKUs or long supplier lead times tend to miss.

When an inventory app is worth it

Consider one if any of these sound like your store:

  • Your suppliers have very different lead times, from a few days to several weeks, and a single reorder rule doesn't fit.
  • You want reorder alerts based on how fast things actually sell, without having to ask.
  • You count stock regularly but don't have POS Pro.
  • You receive deliveries by scanning boxes rather than typing quantities.

That's the gap we built Stock Control for. Each supplier gets a lead time and safety stock, and the app flags variants as Reorder Now when stock won't cover that window at the current sales pace. You can then draft a purchase order grouped by supplier, receive it with a barcode scanner (partial deliveries included), and run barcode counts that compare every product against its expected quantity. It works in the Shopify admin and in POS, and every plan has a 7-day free trial (Stock Control on the Shopify App Store).

Moving off Stocky, step by step

  1. Export what you want to keep. Old purchase orders and stocktakes won't come across by themselves.
  2. Recreate open purchase orders in Products → Purchase orders, and add your suppliers as you go.
  3. Do a fresh count at each location, so you start the new system with numbers you trust. Our stock take series walks through it.
  4. Decide how you'll know what to reorder: a weekly question to Sidekick, a saved inventory report, or an app that tells you.

If you run stock across more than one store, not just more than one location, see running one inventory across multiple Shopify stores. And if you'd like help planning the switch, talk to us.