Demand forecasting for purchase orders

Note

This feature is available only to merchants using Shopify POS Pro.

When you create a purchase order, Stocky can make suggestions about the products and quantities that you should order. Stocky uses sales data from your store to help you determine which products should be reordered. Stocky can make recommendations based on a product's recent order history, its order history at a certain point in time, or maintaining inventory levels that you've chosen for a product.

Create a purchase order with demand forecasting

1. In Stocky, click Purchases > New Purchase Order.
2. Select whether the purchase order is for a vendor or supplier.
3. In Generate, select Using Suggestion.
4. Enter the rest of the details, and then click Create Purchase Order.

Choose the type of demand forecasting

You can forecast the demand of products using different criteria.

Forecast type	Description
Last X days	Stocky takes the average orders per day within the sample period that you enter and multiplies it by the number of days you enter in the Suggest for field. For example, suppose that you sold 14 shirts in the last 7 days, which is an average of 2 shirts per day. If you put 7 days as your sample period and 14 days in the Suggest for field, then Stocky would recommend that you order 28 shirts.
Custom date range	Stocky takes the average orders per day within the sample period that you enter and multiplies it by the number of days you enter in the Suggest for field. For example, suppose that you had a two-day sale three months ago and sold 50 shirts during it. You want to run the same sale again but this time for five days. If you select the dates of the sale and enter 5 days in the Suggest for field, then Stocky would recommend that you order 125 shirts.
Same period last year	Stocky takes the orders that were placed within the sample period that you enter in the Suggest for field and suggests that you order the same amount of inventory that was ordered. For example, suppose that you want to know how much inventory you might need in the next 30 days, based on the same time period last year. If you enter 30, then Stocky looks at how much inventory was sold last year during the same date range and suggests how much product to order.
Fill shelves	Stocky suggests the amount of inventory you need to order to reach your shelf limits. To use the Fill shelves option, you have to enter shelf limits for your products in your supplier or vendor pages.
Fill shelves (if below min)	Stocky suggests the amount of inventory you need to order to reach your shelf limits for products that are below their minimum inventory level. To use the Fill shelves (if below min) option, you have to enter shelf limits and minimum inventory levels for your products in your supplier or vendor pages.
Target stock level	After you enter a Target quantity, Stocky suggests the amount of inventory you need to order for each product to reach the target quantity that you entered. For example, suppose that you have three products with inventories of 3, 6, and 10. If you enter a target quantity of 15, then Stocky would suggest that you order 12, 9, and 5 of those products.

After a purchase order is created, you can send it to your manufacturers or suppliers directly within Stocky. After you receive the inventory, mark the purchase order as received to update your inventory levels.