Inventory by store type

Inventory management for Shopify craft soda brands

Craft soda brands live and die by flavor drops, pack sizes, and keeping cans in stock without sitting on dead inventory past its best-by date. SteadyShelf helps you time reorders per SKU so you are not guessing when to call your co-packer.

The inventory problems craft soda brands run into

  • Flavor and pack-size sprawl. a single soda line can split into 4 flavors x 3 pack formats (single can, 4-pack, 12-pack case), so you are tracking a dozen or more variants with different velocities.
  • Best-by dates. carbonated beverages lose fizz and flavor over time, so old stock sitting in a warehouse is a real loss, not just a shelf-space problem.
  • Co-packer minimums. most craft soda brands use a contract co-packer or bottler with high minimum run quantities, so a small reorder decision can mean committing to thousands of cans at once.
  • Glass and can supply separate from syrup. your finished goods depend on packaging material lead times too, and a shortage in cans or bottles can stall production even if your flavor syrup is ready.
  • Seasonal spikes colliding with production lead time. summer demand surges but co-packer scheduling often books up weeks or months ahead, so you must commit to production runs before you know exactly how hot the season will get.

Seasonality and demand

Demand for craft soda typically peaks in late spring through summer, with secondary bumps around holidays if you sell gift packs or seasonal flavors like root beer floats for fall or spiced flavors for winter. The hard part is that production is not instant: co-packers need lead time to schedule a run, and cans or bottles need to be ordered ahead of that. Plan your summer stock by placing production orders well before the season starts, and treat slow months as the time to work through any aging inventory rather than brewing more. If you run limited-edition flavors, treat each one as its own forecast since past sales data will not exist for a brand-new flavor.

Suppliers, lead times and minimums

Most craft soda brands work with a contract co-packer or bottler who produces to order, and these runs often have high minimums, sometimes several thousand units per flavor, because of fixed setup costs on bottling lines. Lead times vary a lot depending on co-packer schedule load, so overseas or in-demand domestic co-packers often take several weeks or longer from order to delivery. Packaging suppliers, cans, bottles, labels, and cartons are usually separate vendors with their own case-pack minimums and lead times, and a delay in any one of them can hold up a finished production run.

Worked example

Say you sell a ginger craft soda in 12-packs and average 6 units sold per day. Your co-packer's lead time is 21 days and you keep 5 safety days to cover scheduling slips, so your reorder point is 6 x (21 + 5) = 156 units. You want 35 days of cover once new stock arrives, and you currently have 80 units on hand with none on order, so your order quantity is 6 x (21 + 35) - (80 + 0) = 336 - 80 = 256 units. Your co-packer's case pack is 24 units per case, so SteadyShelf rounds that up to 264 units, or 11 cases, to place a clean order.

Try it with your own numbers in the reorder point calculator, or size your buffer with the safety stock calculator.

A simple system to start this week

  1. List every flavor and pack-size combination as its own SKU with its own sales history.
  2. Confirm each co-packer's real lead time and minimum run size, and enter those into SteadyShelf per supplier.
  3. Set safety days higher for co-packers with inconsistent scheduling or packaging suppliers prone to delays.
  4. Review the weekly reorder email and flag any SKU nearing its order-by date before co-packer slots fill up.
  5. Track best-by dates yourself outside SteadyShelf, and manually prioritize older stock when planning promotions or discounts.
  6. Before summer or holiday peaks, place production orders early enough to account for co-packer scheduling backlogs.

How SteadyShelf fits craft soda brands

SteadyShelf will tell you when to order each soda SKU, how much to order rounded to your co-packer's case pack and minimum, and will draft and send the purchase order once you approve it. It does not track best-by dates or expiry, so you still need to manage freshness and rotation yourself, and it does not handle multi-location transfers if you store finished goods at both a warehouse and a co-packer's facility.

$29/month flat, unlimited products and suppliers, 30-day free trial.

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

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FAQ

Can SteadyShelf track best-by dates on my soda cans?

No. SteadyShelf does not do lot or expiry tracking. Keep a simple spreadsheet or use your co-packer's production date codes, and set your safety stock and reorder timing so you are not sitting on near-expired inventory.

My co-packer has a high minimum order. Will SteadyShelf force me to order too much?

SteadyShelf rounds suggested order quantities up to your supplier's minimum and case pack, so you will see the real minimum commitment before you approve the purchase order. It will not silently inflate orders beyond what your demand forecast calls for, but it respects the floor your co-packer requires.

I store finished soda both at a warehouse and at my co-packer's facility. Does SteadyShelf manage that?

No. SteadyShelf does not handle multi-location transfers. It treats your Shopify-connected inventory as a single pool for forecasting and reorder timing, so you would need to manage transfers between locations outside the app.

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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