A minimum for each product
A bag of rice and a birthday candle need very different safety levels. Set the minimum per product.
Low-stock reminders
Low-stock reminders before you run out
Set the minimum you want to keep for each product. When stock drops to it, Shopkeepa reminds you once and adds the product to your restock list, with a suggested amount to order.
Corner Shop
RestockLow stock. Grace Corned Beef is down to 5. Time to reorder.
Things to restock
| Product | Have | Target | Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grace Corned Beef | 5 | 24 | +19 |
| Excelsior Crackers | 3 | 30 | +27 |
| Lasco Water | 8 | 40 | +32 |
What you get
One reminder, not a flood
You are told when stock crosses the minimum, not after every sale that follows.
A restock list that builds itself
Products at or below their minimum collect in one list, so ordering day starts with the answer.
A suggested order quantity
For each product, Shopkeepa suggests how many to order: your target level minus what you have now.
Reminders in the app first
Reminders appear in Shopkeepa. Push notifications and email are planned for later.
Based on real stock
Because every sale and delivery updates the count, the reminder reflects what is actually on the shelf.
Running out costs more than it looks
When a product runs out, the lost sale is the obvious cost. The less obvious cost is the customer who learns your shop does not reliably have it and starts going elsewhere. For a small shop that depends on regulars, that can matter more than any single sale.
The usual way to avoid it is to look at the shelves and decide what feels low. That works when you are in the shop every day and the range is small. It stops working when you take a day off, when staff do the selling, or when you have a few hundred products and cannot hold all of them in your head.
A reminder turns a feeling into a rule. You decide once, per product, how low is too low. After that, the shop tells you.
How reminders work in Shopkeepa
Set a minimum
On a product, enter the lowest stock you are comfortable with. Say you set 6 for a case of bottled water.
Sell as normal
Each sale takes items off the count. At 8, 7 and 6 left, you carry on selling.
Crossing the minimum
When stock reaches your minimum, you get a reminder and the product joins your restock list.
Restock and carry on
Record the delivery as stock received. Once the count is back above the minimum, the product is ready to remind you again.
Repeated alerts feel helpful for a day and then become noise. Once people start ignoring reminders, the real one gets missed too. One clear reminder is easier to act on.
The restock list
The restock list is the part you will use on ordering day. It collects every product at or below its minimum in one place, instead of making you walk the shop with a notepad.
Next to each product is a suggested order quantity. It is simple on purpose: your target stock level minus the current count. If you like to hold 24 of a product and you have 5 left, the suggestion is 19.
| Product | Target | Now | Suggested order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottled water, case | 20 | 6 | 14 |
| Cooking oil, 1 litre | 12 | 3 | 9 |
| Washing powder | 10 | 0 | 10 |
The suggestion is a starting point. You know things the numbers do not: a supplier that sells in boxes of 12, a holiday next week, a slow month. Change the quantity before you order. The list is there to make sure nothing is forgotten.
Choosing a good minimum
The minimum is the one number that decides whether reminders help you. Set it too low and the reminder arrives after you have already run out. Set it too high and the restock list is full of products that are fine.
A good rule of thumb is to think about how long your supplier takes. If a product sells about 3 a day and a delivery takes 4 days to arrive, you need about 12 on the shelf when you place the order, and a few extra for a busy week. That is the idea behind a reorder point.
- Fast sellers with slow suppliers need a higher minimum.
- Slow sellers you can get in a day can have a low one.
- Products that matter most to regulars deserve a cushion.
- Products you are happy to run out of can have a minimum of zero or none at all.
Our guide on how to set reorder points shows the arithmetic with worked numbers, and the reorder point calculator does it for you. You can adjust a minimum whenever you see that it is not working.
Where you will see reminders
Reminders show up inside Shopkeepa first, on your dashboard and your restock list, so the next time you open the app you see what needs attention. Push notifications and email reminders are planned but are not part of the first release.
Because a reminder is only as good as the count behind it, it helps to keep stock accurate. Every sale updates the count automatically, deliveries are recorded as stock received, and a periodic count fixes any drift. Read more on inventory tracking.
Low and out-of-stock products also appear in your reports, next to your best sellers, so you can see which products are selling and which are running short.
Not every product needs a reminder
It is tempting to set a minimum on everything. Resist it. Reminders work best when each one means something. Start with the thirty or so products that your regulars come in for, set minimums that reflect your supplier's lead time, and add more over time. A short, trusted restock list gets used. A long one gets ignored.
Shopkeepa is built to be adjusted as you learn. If a product keeps showing up on the list too early, raise or lower its minimum. If something ran out without warning, raise it. Within a month or two, your numbers will reflect how your shop really trades.
Common questions
Will I get a reminder for every sale once stock is low?
No. You get one reminder when stock crosses the minimum. The product then stays on your restock list until you restock it.
Where do the reminders appear?
In the app first. Push notifications and email are planned for later.
How does the suggested order quantity work?
It is your target stock level for the product minus the current count. You can change the quantity before you order.
Can I set a different minimum for each product?
Yes. Every product has its own minimum, so fast sellers and slow sellers can be treated differently.
Does Shopkeepa place the order with my supplier?
No. It tells you what to order and how much. You place the order the way you do today.
Is it available yet?
Not yet. Shopkeepa is in development, and early access shops will help shape it. Join the waitlist to be one of the first in.
Related
Feature
Know what's in stock without counting shelves
Inventory tracking for small retail. Every sale, delivery, return and loss is kept as a movement, so you can see what is in stock and how it got there.
GuideHow to set reorder points so you never run out
Learn the reorder point formula for a small shop: average daily sales times lead time, plus safety stock. A worked example with plain numbers and a checklist.
FeatureSee what sells and what makes you money
Simple sales and profit reports for small shops: sales by day, week and month, best sellers, slow movers, inventory value and gross profit where cost is known.
Shop typeSoftware for corner shops and mini-marts
Simple software for convenience stores and mini-marts. Fast checkout, stock that updates itself and a reminder before your best sellers run out.