Everything you need to install, set up, and get the most out of skubird.
After installation, skubird walks you through a quick onboarding flow:
skubird pulls your historical orders and current inventory from Shopify. This usually takes 2–5 minutes depending on your store size. You'll see a progress indicator while it runs.
Enter how many days it typically takes to receive inventory from your supplier after placing an order. This is the single most important setting. It determineswhen skubird tells you to reorder.
1421You can set different lead times per product later on each product's detail page.
Choose whether to receive a weekly reorder digest email and where to send it. You can also enable immediate alerts for critical items. These fire as soon as a product's urgency escalates to critical, rather than waiting for the weekly send.
Once sync completes, click View Dashboard to see your first recommendations. Products with fewer than 30 days of sales history will show "Gathering data" until enough history accumulates.
The dashboard is your home screen inside Shopify admin. It shows three things:
At the top, three colored cards give you an at-a-glance count of how many products fall into each urgency level:
Below the summary cards, every product with a recommendation is listed in a table, sorted by urgency (critical first). Each row tells you what to do for that product. See the Column Reference for details on each field.
Click Refresh Forecasts in the top right to re-sync your sales data and generate fresh recommendations. This typically takes 30–60 seconds. Forecasts also update automatically when your weekly email digest is generated.
Here's what each column in the recommendations table means:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Product | The product name and SKU code. Click a product to open its detail page with full forecast data and sales history. |
| Urgency | How urgently you need to act. See Urgency Levels for the full breakdown of what each level means. |
| Demand | The demand pattern skubird detected for this product. Different patterns use different forecasting methods for better accuracy. See Demand Patterns for details. |
| Stock | Your current inventory count for this product, as reported by Shopify. This updates each time you refresh forecasts. |
| Order Qty | The number of units to order. This is the core recommendation. It's calculated using the upper end of the confidence range to ensure you're covered even if demand is higher than average. It accounts for your current stock and lead time. |
| Order By | The date by which you should place the order with your supplier, so inventory arrives before you run out. Shows "Today", "Tomorrow", a calendar date, or how many days overdue if the date has passed (e.g., "3d overdue"). Watch items with no reorder need show "–". |
| Predicted Sales | The 90% confidence range of predicted unit sales over the reorder window (your lead time + 7-day safety buffer). Displayed as a range like "53–126 units, next 21 days" meaning "between 53 and 126 units over the next 21 days." The Order Qty is based on the upper end of this range minus your current stock. |
| Revenue Impact | The estimated dollar impact of not reordering. Two possible values:
|
| Level | What it means | When it triggers |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | You're past the reorder point. Your current stock will run out before new inventory can arrive, even if you order today. Every day you wait increases the stockout gap. | Days of stock left < supplier lead time |
| Order Soon | You still have time, but the window is closing. Place the order within the next few days to avoid a gap. If the Order By date passes by more than 3 days, this auto-escalates to Critical. | Days of stock left < lead time + 7-day buffer |
| Watching | You're well-stocked. No action needed right now. skubird is monitoring this product and will move it to a higher urgency when the time comes. | Days of stock left > 1.5× the reorder trigger |
skubird automatically classifies every product's sales pattern and picks the best forecasting method for it. This is one of the key things that sets skubird apart: most inventory tools assume all products sell the same way. They don't.
You'll see the demand pattern as a badge on both the dashboard and each product's detail page.
| Pattern | What it means | How skubird handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Smooth | Steady, consistent sales with low variability. These products sell most days with predictable volumes. Examples: bestselling t-shirts, everyday essentials, consumables. | Uses exponential smoothing (AutoETS) with weekly seasonality detection. Produces tight, reliable confidence ranges. |
| Intermittent | Products that sell on some days but not others. Many zero-sale days punctuated by small orders. Examples: niche accessories, seasonal items outside peak, specialty products. | Uses Croston's method (SBA variant), which is designed specifically for intermittent demand. Standard methods break down when there are many zero-sale days. |
| Lumpy | Irregular sales with occasional large spikes. Long quiet periods followed by bulk orders or sudden bursts. Examples: wholesale items, event merchandise, products shared on social media. | Uses IMAPA (Intermittent Multiple Aggregation Prediction Algorithm). Confidence ranges are wider to account for the unpredictable spikes. |
| New / Low Data | Products with fewer than 30 days of sales history. Not enough data yet to reliably classify the pattern. | Uses a conservative fallback method with wider confidence ranges until enough data accumulates. No action required from you. |
skubird uses the Syntetos-Boylan classification framework, which looks at two properties of your sales data:
The classification updates each time you refresh forecasts, so if a product's sales pattern changes (e.g., a niche item becomes a bestseller), skubird adapts automatically.
Click any product name in the dashboard to open its detail page. The page is split into two columns:
Product Details
Current stock, price, unit cost, vendor, and lead time displayed as quick-read stat blocks. The demand pattern and urgency badges appear next to the product title.
Sales & Forecast Chart
A line chart showing the last 90 days of daily sales (dark line) and the 30-day forecast projection (green line) with the 90% confidence band shaded in green. Below the chart: total units sold, average daily rate, 30-day forecast total, and coverage level.
The chart makes the demand pattern visually obvious: smooth products show consistent oscillations, intermittent products have gaps between spikes, and lumpy products show flat periods interrupted by large jumps.
Recommendation Card
The primary action card. Shows the reorder quantity prominently at the top, followed by the order-by date. Below that, supporting data:
SKU Settings
Set a product-specific lead time that overrides your default. Useful when different products come from different suppliers with different shipping speeds.
Access Settings from the navigation menu inside the app.
The default number of days between placing an order with your supplier and receiving the inventory. This applies to all products unless you override it on a product's detail page. Accepts values from 1 to 365 days.
Controls how conservative the reorder quantities are. The slider goes from 80% to 99%, defaulting to 90%.
The email digest is the core deliverable. It arrives on your chosen schedule (daily, weekly, or monthly) at 8:00 AM in your store's timezone and contains your ranked reorder recommendations.
Emails are sent at 8:00 AM in your store's timezone: skubird detects your timezone automatically from your Shopify store settings (e.g., "America/New_York", "Europe/London"). You can see which timezone is being used on the Settings page next to the frequency dropdown.
If you change your store timezone in Shopify admin, skubird will pick up the change on the next forecast refresh.
Each recommendation includes the product name, SKU, specific quantity, specific date, current stock, daily sales rate, confidence range, and dollar impact.
When items need reordering: 3 items need reordering this week
When everything is stocked: All stocked up, no action needed this week
skubird offers four plans. All paid plans include a 30-day free trial.
| Plan | Price | SKU Limit | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 25 SKUs | In-app recommendations, 90% confidence |
| Starter | $49/mo | 100 SKUs | Email digest (daily/weekly/monthly), 90% confidence |
| Growth | $99/mo | 500 SKUs | Everything in Starter + critical alerts, per-product lead times, adjustable confidence |
| Pro | $179/mo | 2,000 SKUs | Everything in Growth + priority email support |
Billing is handled entirely through Shopify. Charges appear on your Shopify invoice, not as a separate subscription. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time from the Upgrade page inside the app.
It means 9 out of 10 times, actual demand will fall within the range shown. skubird uses the upper end of this range for reorder quantities, so you're covered even if sales run higher than average. This isn't a guess. It's a guarantee backed by your actual sales data.
skubird projects demand over your supplier lead time plus a 7-day safety buffer, using the upper end of the 90% confidence range. It then subtracts your current stock to get the number of units you need to order. The result is a quantity that covers you against most demand scenarios without massively overstocking.
skubird needs at least 30 days of sales history to generate reliable forecasts. Products with less history will show a "Gathering data" badge with a countdown of how many more days are needed. This includes brand-new products launched this week with no sales yet. You don't need to do anything. Once enough data accumulates, recommendations appear automatically.
Recommendations update when you click "Refresh Forecasts" on the dashboard, and automatically each day at 4:00 AM UTC. Your sales data syncs in real time via Shopify webhooks (new orders and inventory changes). Email digests are sent at 8:00 AM in your store's timezone.
skubird automatically classifies each product's demand pattern (smooth, intermittent, or lumpy) and picks the best forecasting method for each one. The confidence ranges adapt accordingly: products with spiky demand get wider ranges to keep you covered.
Yes. The default lead time in Settings applies to all products, but you can override it for any individual product on its detail page. This is useful when different suppliers have different shipping speeds.
skubird reads your products, order history, and inventory levels. It does not modify any of your store data, and it does not access customer personal information. See the Privacy Policy for full details.
Email [email protected] and we'll get back to you within 24 hours. Pro plan customers get priority support.