What Shopify native admin can now do
Native inventory used to be thin, but Shopify has been closing the gap. On June 8, 2026, it shipped a meaningful upgrade:
- Purchase orders that create transfers to move inventory between locations.
- Multi-shipment receiving in both admin and POS, with one-scan barcode receiving.
- Sidekick reorder suggestionsand dead-stock detection powered by Shopify's AI.
For a small shop that mostly wants to raise a PO, send it, and receive stock against it, native admin is now a legitimate — and free — answer. If that describes you, "do nothing but migrate to native" is a reasonable plan.
Where native admin still falls short
For shops that ran Stocky seriously, several gaps remain. Based on what merchants report on the Shopify forums, native admin still lacks:
- Real forecasting modes.Sidekick offers reorder nudges, but there is no configurable velocity-based forecasting, no "fill shelves" restock-to-target — the single most missed Stocky feature.
- Automatic reorder points. No reorder point = lead-time × velocity + safety stock calculation you can tune.
- Supplier lead time, MOQ and purchasing terms.Native suppliers are barely modeled; vendor-based ordering isn't supported.
- Cost handling on POs.Merchants complain that the cost field isn't required and isn't pulled into the purchase order — "they don't pull it into the Purchase Order… what??"
- ABC analysis, barcode stocktake, and printing Dymo labels directly from a PO — all repeatedly requested, none native.
- History depth. Native inventory history is capped at 180 days, which is short for seasonal forecasting.
- API access to purchase orders. Native POs are notexposed through the Admin API — there is an open feature request for it — so POs can't be automated or synced elsewhere.
Side by side
| Capability | Shopify native admin | What Stocky users expect |
|---|---|---|
| Create / receive POs | Yes (since June 2026) | Yes |
| Reorder point + forecasting | AI nudges only | Tunable, velocity-based |
| Restock-to-target ("fill shelves") | No | Yes |
| Supplier lead time / MOQ | No | Yes |
| Cost auto-pulled into PO | No | Yes |
| Inventory history | 180 days | 12+ months |
| POs via API | No | — |
How to decide
If you place orders casually and don't lean on forecasting or vendor terms, native admin will probably do — and it's free. If you order on velocity, manage real supplier relationships, or need history beyond 180 days, you'll want a dedicated app that fills these gaps at a flat price without revenue tiers or per-SKU fees.
Either way, the data step is the same and it's urgent: the Stocky API dies on August 31, 2026, and neither native admin nor the read-only window can recover your suppliers or full PO line items. Export them now, then choose calmly.