Inventory how-to

How to plan inventory for private label products

Plan private label inventory around your supplier's lead time plus a safety buffer, and always respect their minimum order quantities and case pack sizes.

Short answer: Plan private label inventory around your supplier's lead time plus a safety buffer, and always respect their minimum order quantities and case pack sizes. Because private label orders usually take longer to produce and ship than stock items, you need to trigger reorders earlier and carry more safety stock.

Know your true lead time

Private label lead time is production time plus shipping time, not just shipping time. If your supplier needs 20 days to produce and 15 days to ship, your lead time is 35 days, not 15. Get this number in writing and update it if the supplier's production schedule changes.

Build in extra safety days

Private label suppliers are less flexible than stock suppliers. If a production run is delayed, you cannot just ask another supplier to rush a batch. Add more safety days than you would for an off-the-shelf product to cover this risk.

Respect minimums and case packs

Private label almost always comes with a minimum order quantity, and sometimes a minimum per color or size. Your order quantity needs to round up to those minimums even if your forecast says you need less. This means you will sometimes carry more stock than your daily sales alone would justify.

Watch for seasonality and slow ramp-up

A new private label SKU has no sales history, so early forecasts will be rough. Treat the first few months as a learning period and reorder conservatively until you have enough data to trust the trend.

Step by step

  1. List every private label SKU with its full lead time: production time plus shipping time.
  2. Set safety days higher than your stocked items to cover production delays.
  3. Record each supplier's minimum order quantity and case pack size per SKU.
  4. Calculate reorder point as daily sales x (lead time + safety days).
  5. Calculate order quantity as daily sales x (lead time + days of cover) minus (on hand + on order), then round up to the case pack or minimum.
  6. Review forecasts monthly for new SKUs until you have a few months of sales history.
  7. Confirm order quantities with your supplier before sending a purchase order, since private label terms can change run to run.

Worked example

Say you sell a private label candle with 20 days production time and 10 days shipping, so lead time is 30 days. You set safety days at 14 to cover production delays, for a reorder trigger of 44 days of cover. Daily sales average 4 units, so reorder point is 4 x 44 = 176 units. You want 60 days of cover when ordering, have 50 on hand and 0 on order, so order quantity is 4 x (30 + 60) - 50 = 310 units. Your supplier's case pack is 50, so you round up to 350 units.

How SteadyShelf helps

SteadyShelf can calculate the reorder point and order quantity for private label SKUs once you set the supplier's lead time and safety days, and it will round suggested quantities to case packs and minimums automatically. It does not track production stages or manufacturing/BOM details, so you still need to track where a run is in production yourself outside the app.

$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.

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FAQ

Can SteadyShelf forecast a brand new private label SKU with no sales history?

Not accurately at first. With no sales history the forecast has nothing to work from, so you should set an initial manual order quantity and let SteadyShelf take over once it has a few weeks of real sales data.

Does SteadyShelf track how many units of a private label order are already in production?

No. SteadyShelf tracks what is on order as a purchase order quantity, but it does not track production stages or manufacturing status. You need to follow up with your supplier directly on production progress.

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.

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