Inventory how-to

How to manage inventory for a Shopify store with 50 SKUs

With 50 SKUs, the job is to know your reorder point and order quantity for each one, and to review them on a fixed schedule rather than reacting to stockouts.

Short answer: With 50 SKUs, the job is to know your reorder point and order quantity for each one, and to review them on a fixed schedule rather than reacting to stockouts. At this size you can still do it in a spreadsheet, but a forecast-based tool removes the manual recalculation each week and catches SKUs before they run out.

Know your numbers per SKU

At 50 SKUs, tracking by memory or gut feel stops working. For each SKU you need a daily sales rate, a reorder point, and an order quantity. Reorder point is daily sales multiplied by lead time plus safety days. Order quantity covers your lead time plus a chosen number of days of cover, minus what you already have on hand and on order.

Group SKUs by supplier, not by product type

Lead times and minimums are set per supplier, not per product. Group your 50 SKUs by supplier and set one lead time and one safety-day buffer per supplier. This cuts the work from 50 individual decisions down to a handful of supplier settings, with only a few SKUs needing custom treatment for odd lead times or slow movers.

Pick a review cadence and stick to it

Weekly review works well for 50 SKUs. Pull a list of anything below its reorder point, check what is already on order, and decide what to send. Doing this on a fixed day each week is more reliable than checking randomly when stock looks low, because by the time something looks low on the shelf it may already be past its order-by date.

Separate fast movers from slow movers

Not all 50 SKUs need the same attention. A handful of fast movers probably account for most of your order volume and deserve a shorter review cycle or tighter safety days. Slow movers can be checked less often, as long as you still catch them before they hit zero.

Step by step

  1. List all 50 SKUs with current on-hand quantity and supplier.
  2. Calculate a daily sales rate for each SKU from recent sales history.
  3. Set a lead time and safety-day buffer for each supplier.
  4. Calculate reorder point and order quantity for every SKU using the standard formulas.
  5. Flag SKUs whose stock is at or below reorder point for review this week.
  6. Round order quantities up to the supplier's case pack or minimum order quantity.
  7. Set a recurring weekly time to review and place orders, and do not skip it.

Worked example

A store sells a ceramic mug at 3 units/day on average over the last 28 days. The supplier's lead time is 10 days and the store wants 5 safety days. Reorder point = 3 x (10 + 5) = 45 units. The store wants 21 days of cover after ordering. On hand is 60, nothing on order. Order quantity = 3 x (10 + 21) - (60 + 0) = 93 - 60 = 33 units, rounded up to 36 to match a case pack of 12.

How SteadyShelf helps

SteadyShelf fits this size of store well: it forecasts each of your 50 SKUs from a 28-day sales window, tells you the order-by date per SKU based on supplier lead time and safety days, and sends a weekly reorder email so you are not pulling the numbers yourself. It does not handle per-location stock if you sell from more than one location, and it will not track lot numbers or expiry dates if any of your SKUs need that.

$29/month flat, unlimited products and suppliers, 30-day free trial. Run the numbers now with the free reorder point calculator.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related guides

All inventory how-to guides ยท Inventory glossary

FAQ

Can SteadyShelf predict a seasonal spike with only 28 days of data?

Not reliably. 28 days gives you a recent average but it will not know that a SKU sells more in a particular month unless it has seen that month before. Once you have about 13 months of sales history, SteadyShelf starts factoring seasonality into the forecast.

Do I need to set reorder rules for all 50 SKUs individually?

Set up each supplier once with its lead time, your chosen safety days, and any case pack or minimum order quantity. SteadyShelf uses those settings for every SKU tied to that supplier, so you do not need to configure each of the 50 SKUs separately.

Let SteadyShelf do this math for every SKU

Order-by dates per supplier, seasonal forecasts and draft POs for your Shopify store. $29/month after a 30-day free trial.

Get early access