Inventory-forecasting apps like Inventory Planner help stores decide what to reorder and when. If you're comparing alternatives, the real question is whether the app fits your size and workflow — many forecasting tools are built for large operations and are overkill (and overpriced) for a growing store. Here's what to look for.
What a forecasting app should do
- Forecast demand from your sales. Turn history into asales velocity and project what you'll need — see forecasting methods.
- Tell you what to reorder, and when. A clearreorder point and quantity per product.
- Right-size the buffer. Sensible safety stock so you avoid stockouts without overstock.
- Show stock health. Turnover and days of inventory on hand at a glance.
What matters for a growing store
- Explainable numbers. You should see why it recommends "order 90", not a black-box figure you can't question.
- Fast setup. Install, sync your history, and get a reorder list in minutes — not a multi-week onboarding.
- Right-sized for you. If you have 50–2,000 SKUs and no ops team, you don't need enterprise complexity or an enterprise price.
- Read-only and safe. It should read your data, never change your store.
How Foreshelf compares
Foreshelf is built for exactly this: it reads your Shopify sales history and gives plain-language reorder recommendations — "sells 5/day, 12 days of stock left, 14-day lead time → reorder 90 now" — so every number explains itself. It's read-only, sets up in minutes, and is priced for small and medium stores.
Coming from Stocky?
If you're on Shopify's Stocky and it's being retired, see our guide to the bestStocky alternative — and the fullinventory management guide for how it all fits together.