Last updated: 18 October 2026
What happened to Stocky
The dates come from Shopify's own guide to transitioning from Stocky:
- 2 February 2026: Stocky was removed from the Shopify App Store. It can no longer be installed or reinstalled.
- 31 August 2026: Stocky stopped managing inventory and its APIs were shut down.
- After that date: Shopify states that read-only access remains for at least 90 days so that you can export your data. 90 days after 31 August is 29 November 2026. Shopify gives no exact end date, so treat 29 November as your deadline.
Before 29 November: export your Stocky stocktakes
Nothing migrates by itself. Shopify's transition guide says you must export manually, with Stocky's built-in reports, any records you want to keep. It lists three:
- All completed purchase order reports, as CSV files.
- Your stocktake history.
- Your historical cost data.
Suppliers can't be exported from Stocky: recreate them as supplier profiles in the Shopify admin.
Keep the stocktake files even if you never open Stocky again. They preserve your Stocky count history: your accountant may ask for it at year end, and it is the baseline for comparing shrinkage before and after the switch. Shopify's guide does not say what happens to the data once read-only access ends.
What replaces each Stocky feature
Shopify's migration guide maps Stocky features to native ones:
- Purchase orders: native purchase orders in the Shopify admin (Products › Purchase orders).
- Transfers: native transfers, in the admin and in Shopify POS.
- Suppliers: native supplier profiles.
- Low-stock alerts: Shopify Flow.
- Forecasting: Sidekick.
- Stocktakes and cycle counts: stock counts in the Shopify admin (Inventory › Stock counts), and Quick count in Shopify POS for spot checks.
For the last line, the guide is explicit: "To run a full-location stocktake or a cycle count, use inventory stock counts in your Shopify admin."
What Shopify's native stock counts do
This is what Shopify's help center describes for creating stock counts and performing and reviewing them:
- Created and managed in the admin, under Inventory › Stock counts, from a desktop browser.
- Counted in the admin or in POS. In the admin, you type the quantity in the Count field or use a barcode scanner, each scan adding 1. POS Pro is not required for that. At locations with a Shopify POS Pro subscription, staff can also count in the Shopify POS app (version 11.16 or later); Shopify announced this on 28 September 2026.
- One location per count. Products are added by search and selection, or by scanning. Several staff members can count.
- An optional review: expected and counted quantities side by side, then a manager approves. You can also complete the count yourself right away, without a review. Either way, the update cannot be undone.
- What it does not do, according to the help center: stock counts can't be exported, and bundles can't be counted. Offline counting is not described.
If your team counts on a desktop with a USB scanner, or already works on Shopify POS Pro, the native stock counts are the first thing to try.
Quick count and the CSV route
Quick count is a Shopify POS extension for spot checks: up to 1,000 variants per session, and the counts are applied without a review step.
The CSV route still exists: export inventory, count offline with a spreadsheet or a scanning tool, import the file back. If the file carries both On hand (current) and On hand (new), Shopify rejects the rows whose stock changed since the export and emails you the list: nothing is overwritten, but those products have to be recounted and imported again. See also how to do a stocktake on Shopify.
When a counting app still helps
The native stock counts cover the core routine. An app is worth it in a few specific situations:
- Staff count with their own phones, without a Shopify account, a POS subscription or a barcode scanner.
- The stockroom has a weak network. Scans need to be kept on the phone and sent later.
- You count a whole scope at once (a location, a collection, a vendor, a tag) as the count scope, within your plan limits.
- You need a record outside Shopify: an export of the count, a printable report of the counted differences, valued at cost.
- You track shrinkage by reason (theft, breakage, expired).
How to run a full stock count without Stocky
Whatever tool you choose, a count that you can trust follows the same steps:
- Freeze the expected quantities at the start, so every difference is measured against the same reference.
- Count with several people at once, each on their own device, in the same session.
- Review before writing: over, under, not counted, unknown barcodes. Recount the lines that look wrong.
- Handle stock that moved during the count. An order shipped while you were counting must not be corrected twice.
- Apply once, with a reason on every adjustment, and keep the report.
What MT: Stocktake & Stock Count does
MT: Stocktake & Stock Count covers the stocktake part of Stocky, and only that part.
- Any phone is a scanner. The desktop shows a QR code, the phone opens a scan page in its browser. No app to install on the phone, no login, no Shopify POS required. Barcodes are decoded on the device. Any of a variant’s barcodes is recognised: Shopify now stores up to 20 per variant (manufacturer EAN, your own label, an old code).
- Or count from the Shopify POS till. A Stock count tile in Shopify POS joins an open count: pick it from the list or scan its QR code.
- No barcode? Type its name. On the phone scan page and in the admin, a product without a barcode is found by typing part of its name or SKU, then picking it from the list.
- Case barcodes (optional). Register the barcode of a case once as “24 units”: scanning the case counts 24 units of the product inside.
- Several devices in one count. Every scan is logged with the device name and can be undone.
- Works when the network drops. Scans are queued on the phone and sent when the connection returns, which matters in a stockroom. Scans made offline stay on the phone until they are sent, even if the count is finished or the link expires first.
- Blind counts. Tick one box when you create the count: phones and the count screen show only what has been counted, never the expected quantity or the difference. Expected quantities and differences appear after “Finish & review”.
- Count by scope. One location, and everything, a collection, a vendor, a tag, a product type or a saved zone.
- It counts the physical stock (On hand). The expected quantity of each line is Shopify’s On hand quantity: every unit physically at the location, including units waiting for unfulfilled orders and units marked as damaged or in quality control. Count everything on the shelf; only the difference is applied, so units already sold stay reserved for their orders. Shopify’s Quick count works the same way.
- Stock that moves during the count is set aside. When Shopify reports a stock change for a product during the count (a sale, a shipment, a delivery), that product is not updated when you apply: it is listed, with a button to count it again from its current stock. When it writes, the app also checks that the physical stock is still what it was when the count started; if not, Shopify refuses the change and the product is listed the same way. Shopify does not report every movement, so for an exact count do not ship, receive or move the counted products until you apply.
- Review before anything is written: over, under, not counted and unknown codes, with the value of the differences at cost. You choose whether uncounted products stay unchanged (partial count) or go to zero (full count).
- One click to apply. Adjustments are written to Shopify with the reason "Cycle count". Nothing is written before you press Apply. Applied by mistake? An applied count can be undone after a confirmation, unless a later count has already set the same products (undo that one first); sales made since are kept.
- Shrinkage log. Losses by reason (theft, breakage, expired, receiving error) valued at cost, from counts and from manual entries.
- Printable report of every count, valued at cost: after you apply, it shows the adjustments applied, with totals for every line and the detail of up to 5,000 lines. Excel and CSV export on paid plans.
- Phone scanner in 6 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch.
What it does not do: purchase orders, transfers, forecasting, labels. Shopify's native features now cover the first three.
There is a free plan with no time limit and no trial period (all locations, 5,000 variants per count, one device). Paid plans are a flat $9 or $19 per month, with no fee per scan or per count. The customer guide shows a full count from start to finish with real screenshots.
View MT: Stocktake & Stock Count on the Shopify App Store
Frequently asked questions
Until when can I export my Stocky data?
Shopify states that read-only access remains for at least 90 days after 31 August 2026, which is 29 November 2026. Shopify gives no exact end date, so export before then: completed purchase order reports as CSV files, your stocktake history and your historical cost data, using Stocky's built-in reports. Suppliers can't be exported from Stocky.
Is Stocky still available?
No. Shopify removed Stocky from the App Store on 2 February 2026 and the app stopped managing inventory after 31 August 2026. Shopify states that read-only access remains for at least 90 days after that date so merchants can export their data.
What does Shopify recommend instead of Stocky stocktakes?
Shopify's migration guide says: to run a full-location stocktake or a cycle count, use inventory stock counts in your Shopify admin (Inventory > Stock counts). For spot checks, Quick count in Shopify POS handles up to 1,000 variants per session and applies the counts without a review step.
Can I do a stock count in Shopify without POS Pro?
Yes. A stock count created in the Shopify admin can be counted in the admin itself, by typing quantities or with a barcode scanner. POS Pro only adds the option of counting in the Shopify POS app. A counting app such as MT: Stocktake & Stock Count is another option: counting happens in the browser of any phone, opened from a QR code, without a Shopify account.
Does MT: Stocktake & Stock Count replace all of Stocky?
No. It covers the stocktake part of Stocky: counting, reviewing differences and applying adjustments. It does not do purchase orders, transfers or forecasting, which Shopify now covers natively.
Stocky and Shopify are trademarks of Shopify Inc. Merchant Tools is an independent developer and is not affiliated with Shopify.