Core Issue:
Shopify merchants struggle to automate average unit cost (weighted average cost/WAC) tracking when product costs fluctuate between shipments. Manual spreadsheet management is time-consuming and error-prone, particularly impacting accurate stock valuation and margin calculations.
Primary Solution Identified:
Stocky app (included with Shopify POS Pro at ~$80/month) can handle WAC, but requires specific configuration:
Navigate to Preferences → COGS
Disable “Automatic Cost Price Syncing”
Manually sync average costs after each purchase order receipt
When adding prices to PO items, avoid selecting the “Update all variants” or “Also update current cost price” options
Key Limitations:
Manual syncing required after every inventory receipt (not automatic like competing POS systems)
Purchase orders created in Stocky don’t appear in Shopify’s native PO tab
No clear import path for historical Shopify purchase orders into Stocky
Shopify reportedly working on improvements, but timeline unclear
Status:
Partially resolved workaround exists, but merchants express frustration that this basic business function lacks native automation. Historical cost data migration remains an open question.
Summarized with AI on November 2.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
I run a Shopify store and currently manage my average unit cost in a spreadsheet. It is a very time consuming thing to do and then I need to manually update the cost of the products inside of Shopify as well.
I thought I would be able to easily find an app which lets me setup a purchase order of some sort and then maintain my average cost automatically, but I haven’t been able to find the right fit yet. I can see Stocky offers this feature but it is for POS Shopify only. Love to hear how anyone has gotten around this?
Did you ever figure this out? I’m in the same boat. I buy from overseas so my cost changes drastically per shipment depending on the USD and not having the ability to to use average unit cost is wreaking havoc on my “Stock on Hand” on my books
Very frustrating! Shopify seems to be missing so many core features. Fingers crossed this is resolved soon as it seems a lot of people are frustrated by this.
Did you end up finding a suitable app for this purpose? We also need to track variable cost for the same product (i.e: buying a SKU from supplier at regular cost, vs. buying it at a discounted rate) and we need to track these different costs since it’s impacting our margins as well.
I’ve actually recently starting playing with the pro version of the Shopify POS - which gives you access to product called “Stocky”. POS will cost you about $80/month but stocky is free.
It appears to do what I want it to do, however I’ve been waiting almost a week from Shopify support for an issue I’m having with it. You can preload your initial average costs, and then create purchase orders which will supposedly amend your average costs on the go. Sounds good, but after uploading my average costs, it hasn’t set it correctly. It could be user error, hence why I’m waiting for clarity from their support channel.
If I can get past this, it seems like the best option.
Stocky does the WAC (Weighted Average Cost) but it is not straight forward. I’ve called Shopify about this half a dozen times. The way to do it in Stocky under “Preferences” click on “COGS” under that “Disable” Automatic Cost Price Syncing. Then below that there is a heading “Manually sync average cost”.
This Manually syncing needs to be done every time you receive inventory on a Purchase Order. Super annoying and completely crazy. It should be done automatically like every other POS system out there. Shopify says they are working on it but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Have you found any solution to this problem. I am also encountering the same issue and its very difficult to obtain an accurate stock value as the prices of our products fluctuate regularly. Does anyone know if any apps will cater for our needs.
I have figured it out. You have to us the Stocky App and in the upper right corner there is the little person icon. Click on it and under it click preference. Under preference click COGS. In this section you need to click “Manually sync average costs” after you receive inventory. This needs to be done every time you receive inventory. The last thing is the top part must not be Enabled.
The last part is confusing. When you add the price to an item in a purchase order DON’T select either of these when on adding price to a new item. Again dont select either of the options below.
Update all variants for this product
Also update the current cost price of this product variant
Do you know how to import all of my purchase orders already in shopify into stocky? I can’t seem to find an import option. I thought it would sync automatically doesn’t appear to be the case.
So do you just create all purchase orders from stocky now? and when you do, do they show up in shopify as a purchase order? Trying to figure out how to sync this all.
My pleasure. Glad to help. Ill need help at some point.
Regarding your questions.
All your PO’s in Shopify are already in the system and if you bring them over to Stocky it would probably duplicate them and mess up your inventory. Moving forward just use Stocky. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Im OCD and have studied it to no end. Just start using Stocky.
I’ve used Stocky from the Start. I did a few test PO’s in Shopify and decided to use Stocky. Your PO’s created in Stocky will not show up in Shopify under the “Purchase Order” tab. Consider Stocky your massive Excel file storage system an you make journal entries in it to Update Shopify.
Finally, If you have a business that has a massive amount of part numbers, SKU’s and UPC’s, then some of the reports in Stocky are better suited for sorting inventory than the Shopify reports. In terms of finding products to stop selling and also Archive. Use Tags to mark Archived items. Also good for inventory and other stuff.
IF stocky doesnt import all of my PO history from shopify, how do I get my true costs from those old PO’s in Shopify but Stocky? Do I have to enter costs for everythings manually?
