Inventory management for variable cost produccts

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A Shopify merchant purchases products from individuals at varying costs, making traditional inventory management challenging since the same SKU may have different cost bases across purchases.

Current Workaround:

  • Manual spreadsheet tracking using FIFO (First In, First Out) method
  • Monthly reconciliation by reviewing sold orders individually
  • Time-consuming process due to variable product costs

Core Problem:

  • Shopify and most apps assume static cost per product
  • Need to track variable costs for accurate margins and cost of goods sold
  • Standard Shopify product cost fields don’t support FIFO inventory valuation

Potential Solutions Discussed:

  • One developer mentioned releasing “SmartStock” app supporting FIFO method and dynamic pricing based on cost
  • App appears no longer available in Shopify App Store
  • Stocky app mentioned as possibility, but requires expensive Shopify plan upgrade or POS Pro
  • Some users considering switching from FIFO to cost averaging approach, though acknowledged as less ideal

Status: No widely accessible solution found; merchants continue seeking apps that handle variable product costs effectively.

Summarized with AI on November 11. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Small shop in which I buy goods from individuals, thus the same product may have a different cost basis than the batch bought before or the one bought later.

Handling inventory management (largely focused on cost of goods) via elaborate spreadsheet and manual monthly updating of each product’s units sold by manual review of individual orders. Using FIFO system.

All the apps I’ve seen so far (and even the internal Shopify product cost field/reports) assume a static cost per goods.

So wondering if anyone else has resolved this challenge, other than the good old spreadsheet and manual reconciliation with a pile of each month’s sold orders.

2

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.

3

No, met with radio silence from several app developers I asked. So for now, will continue using my spreadsheet and using FIFO approach to decrease cost-of-goods inventory from oldest date to newest date.

Clunky, and am tempted to adopt a COG averaging approach, but it’s low on my list to look into.

Thanks,
Gary

4

Hi,

you’re right shopify assume that your cost per product are static, so you can’t decide to change your selling price according to your product cost.

It seems this problem was not solved so we decided to release our own app : smartStock.
https://apps.shopify.com/smartstock

With it you can manage your stock using the FIFO method (first in first out) and manage price according to your cost.

Hope this app will help :wink:

5

What happened to your app? Not in the App Store. Like others, I need this solution, but so far, not finding any app that addresses it. Stocky might, but the cost to access that is huge - app is free… if you have POS Pro or upgrade to an expensive Shopify plan.