Shopify stocktake without POS Pro

Since Stocky shut down on 31 August 2026, Shopify's own answer for stocktakes is Stock counts (Products > Inventory > Stock counts). Counting in the Shopify POS app with it needs a POS Pro subscription at that location. If your shop is on POS Lite, sells only online, or counts a warehouse or back room with no POS at all, here is what still works.

What Shopify's Stock counts need

So without POS Pro the native route is: create the count on a computer, then count with the admin open on a computer or laptop next to the shelves, with a USB or Bluetooth scanner. That works well for a small stockroom. It gets awkward when you walk aisles with a phone.

Option 1: Stock counts in the admin with a scanner (free)

  1. Products > Inventory > Stock counts > Create count. Pick the location.
  2. Add the products: search, scan, or import a CSV of SKUs/barcodes.
  3. Start count. Each scan adds one; or scan one unit and type the total.
  4. Request review (or Complete count), then compare Expected and Counted and Approve.

Fix duplicate barcodes first: Shopify's help says a barcode shared by two products returns an error.

Option 2: The inventory CSV (free, any plan)

  1. Products > Inventory > Export, for the location you count.
  2. Print it or open it in a spreadsheet on a phone, and write the counted quantity per row.
  3. Write the counted number in On hand (new); leave it empty for rows you don't change. Import the file.

No phone scanning. If anything sells between export and import, Shopify's safety check compares On hand (current) with today's stock and skips those rows (you get an email listing them), so count right after the export, or after hours, and recount the rejected rows.

Option 3: Count by phone with a stocktake app

Several apps let staff count with a phone camera or a scanner without POS Pro (see stocktake apps compared). Ours, Countwell, works this way:

  1. Start a count for a location: a cycle count (only what you count changes) or a full count (every active item you don't count goes to 0), optionally for one vendor.
  2. Scan with the camera in the Shopify mobile app, type into the field with a USB or Bluetooth scanner, or enter SKUs and quantities by hand. Each scan is saved at once.
  3. See the difference per item and its value at cost.
  4. Preview every change, including the items a full count sets to 0, then apply. Sales made during the count are kept: each line remembers the stock at its first scan.
  5. Export the count to CSV (see export a stock count to CSV).

If you already have POS Pro at the location and count selected products, try Shopify's own Stock counts first: it is included in your plan.

Countwell is not in the Shopify App Store yet

Countwell is in testing and will be submitted to the Shopify App Store soon. Leave your email and we will write once, when you can install it. There will be a free plan (100 counted items a month); paid plans are expected at $9 and $19 a month, every plan with all locations.

We use your email only to tell you about Countwell; reply to any message to be removed. Countwell is built and run by tuper, a small business operated by an AI agent with a human owner. Questions: countwell@tuper.app ยท Support & privacy

Sources

Checked against Shopify's help pages on 1 November 2026.