A merchant is seeking a replacement for MerchBees after recent changes to its low-stock alert functionality. They need an affordable solution ($35-50/month) that can:
Core Requirements:
Set low-stock thresholds at the variant level without requiring tags
Send email alerts with CSV/Excel reports
Provide a dashboard with color-coded inventory health status (red/yellow/green)
Allow exclusion of specific variants from alerts
Bonus: Include sales-based forecasting for production planning
Responses received:
MerchBees (original provider) offered to discuss the issue via live chat
Better Reports can create filtered inventory reports with scheduling and forecasting, but costs $299/month—well above budget
Logistified appears to match all requirements at $12/month, offering variant-level thresholds, customizable filters, daily email reports, dashboard with KPIs, and sales history-based forecasting with 14-day free trial
Mechanic and Shopify Flow were suggested as automation alternatives
A developer offered custom coding as a one-time fee solution (without forecasting)
The discussion remains open, with Logistified presenting the closest match to the merchant’s budget and feature requirements.
Summarized with AI on October 27.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
We’re looking for a replacement for MerchBees, which recently changed how it handles low-stock alerts. Our business needs very specific features to help us manage inventory cleanly and avoid stockouts without overstocking.
Here’s what we’re looking for:
– Set low-stock thresholds at the variant product level.
– No tagging required. We need to pick specific variants/products for tracking without adding or managing tags.
– Alerts via email, ideally with an attached CSV or Excel report.
– Dashboard view showing red/yellow/green status for inventory health at a glance.
– Ability to exclude certain products by variant from low-stock alerts.
– Affordable—we’re a small team, so cost is a factor.
– Bonus: If there’s forecasting (in the same app or a separate one), that’s a big plus—especially if it uses past sales to help us plan production intelligently.
The goal is to maintain enough inventory to keep production flowing, without sitting on too much excess.
If you’ve used an app or have a recommendation that fits this, we’d love to hear from you!
Hey, for now I don’t know what theme you are using but a lot of themes have come with this feature to show inventory status on the variant level.
You can actually set a threshold in the settings below which the status will show a different color mostly red and above it the message with green and also when it’s near to threshold then in yellow. This is what I have seen on some.
I don’t know of apps but I am pretty there are out there. I can help to set this up with you with code.
So basically I can code all the setup displaying the messages with the different colors. It will be on the variant level and also we can choose to not include specific variants with their variants ID’s.
I am not sure on that notifying with the mail thing but I can research it up. And i don’t think I can come up with forecasting, honestly I don’t even understand it properly.
Can you like explain that a little more in detail? Other than that I can pretty much come up with that inventory status thing.
But I am definite there are apps and since this is not a very advanced feature you might probably find free resource for this.
Please reach out via personal links below for a convenient conversation and collaboration.
We are on a modified Venture version 8.0.0 theme. It’s currently unsupported by Shopify and does not have those features you describe. I started with it in 2019 when it was a supported and free theme from Shopiy.
It doesn’t look like you’ve found a solution just yet to your low stock inventory project, so I thought I’d jump in, seeing as you requested app suggestions.
In Better Reports, we can create a report that shows inventory levels for variants with the ability to filter out variants/products you don’t want to see.
Some merchants even add a filter to show variants with less than X amount of available quantity.
Depending on your needs, you could schedule this report to run hourly/daily/monthly to an email or Google Sheets.
We won’t be able to color code by red/yellow/green, but we can try to color code on a scale using one color or sort/order to make identifying low stock variants easier.
We can also use past sales data to provide forecasting estimates specific to your needs. For example, quantity sold in the last 30/60 days etc.
This will not work at $299 month. We would be open to around $35 to $50 a month for this type of service. I still can’t believe how much apps want when they see a store is shopify plus. I wish we had never switched to it.
You can prepare/ pick variants to focus on based on 34 filters that range from tags to sku. So you can build your specialized requirements to only see the products-variants you need.
We provide a customizable daily email report that which variants need attention
We provide a dashboard that monitors inventory health and on top shows other usful KPIs such as inventory value, days on hand and many more
We also provide inventory forecasting based on your complete past sales history individually for every variant
On top you can customize the data each model should be based on to also consider seasonal effects.
We have a free trial of 14 days that we can extend on demand. Afterwards we will charge 12$/month or 120$/year with no hidden charges.
Fell free to reach out in case you need additional information.
Hey there! It sounds like you are outgrowing the simple alert tools and need something that allows for granular control without messing up your Shopify data with endless tags.
I’m Johannes from P&H Cloud Solutions. We built Logistified Inventory Planning specifically around a “View Concept” that solves exactly what you are describing.
Here is how we match your requirements:
Deep Drill-Downs (No Tagging): Instead of manually tagging products to track or ignore them, you use our “Views”. You can filter your entire catalog by dozens of metrics (vendor, collection, sales velocity, etc.) to drill down to exactly the specific variants you want to monitor. You save this View, and that becomes your dynamic report. No need to touch a single tag in Shopify.
Red/Yellow/Green Dashboard: These Views effectively act as your traffic light system. You can instantly see which specific segment of your inventory is healthy, overstocked, or critical.
Custom Email Alerts: In our Enhanced Plan ($29/month), you can set up custom instant email alerts based on these specific Views. So you only get notified about the products you actually care about.
Forecasting (The Bonus): This is included. We analyze your full sales history to predict demand, so you aren’t just reacting to low stock, but planning production ahead of time.
While $29/month is a step up from the basic tools, you get full AI forecasting and a much more robust logic than just “if stock < 5 then email”.
If you want to see how the drill-down views work, feel free to reach out. I can show you how to build a filter that excludes those specific variants you mentioned!
Hope this helps you streamline the production planning!
Great question—this is a super common challenge as businesses scale. There are quite a few inventory alert apps in the Shopify ecosystem, but not all offer the specific “variant-level, no tagging, CSV alerts, and easy dashboard” setup you’re after.
A few options to consider:
Built-In Shopify Reports: Shopify’s inventory reports can help identify low stock, but alerts, variant-level controls, and forecasting are limited without a third-party app.
Mipler Reports: Mipler reports let you set up detailed variant-level low stock reports, schedule automatic delivery to your email (with Excel/CSV), and quickly check inventory health with custom views. Plus, you can exclude specific products/variants and get forecasting insights based on sales trends, which is really handy for production planning.
For immediate alerts (and a dashboard), look at apps like:
Low Stock Alert or Stocky (if you’re on Shopify POS Pro), though Stocky does require the POS plan.
TradeGecko (now QuickBooks Commerce), if you’re open to a broader inventory system.
If your main needs are really granular controls and reports/alerts that just work without tagging, Mipler reports can fill the gap and are affordable for small teams. You might need an alert app for real-time push notifications, but many people find getting daily tailored reports (with forecasting) is enough.
Hope this helps—let me know if you want specific setup tips or an example workflow!
