Devmerx Blog

Shopify, AI Search & Ecommerce Growth

Practical guides from the Devmerx team — written for Shopify merchants and DTC brand operators.

74 in-depth guides on Shopify, WordPress & accessibility

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Inventory6 min read

10 Ways to Sell Excess Inventory Without Losing Margin

Ten tactics for clearing excess stock, ordered from most margin-preserving to most drastic.

Inventory7 min read

Shopify Inventory Best Practices Checklist

Eighteen self-audit checks for Shopify inventory — sales-velocity forecasting, KPI tracking, stock counts, and discrepancy prevention — each linking out to the full guide.

Inventory10 min read

Shopify Inventory Forecasting: Complete Guide

The whole process end to end — pulling your own sales data, picking a method, sizing the order, and keeping the forecast from quietly going stale.

Inventory5 min read

How to Calculate Excess Inventory

Excess is a number, not a feeling. The formula for how many units too many you're holding, worked on one SKU.

Inventory9 min read

How to Prevent Inventory Discrepancies

A diagnostic guide to why Shopify stock counts drift — unreserved drafts, refund restocking, receiving mix-ups, and shrinkage — with the habits that stop each one recurring.

Inventory6 min read

How to Identify Slow-Moving Inventory

No alert fires for a slow mover. Which metrics flag one, how to set your threshold, and when to stop reordering it.

Inventory8 min read

How to Perform a Shopify Stock Count

Shopify's admin has no stock-count button. Here's the real workflow — native tools, POS Quick Count, app-assisted blind counts, and reconciling every variance.

Inventory5 min read

What Is Dead Stock? A Shopify Merchant's Guide

Dead stock isn't a slow month, it's a SKU that has stopped selling. The definition, and where it differs from overstock.

Inventory7 min read

Cycle Counting vs. Physical Inventory

Cycle counting or a full physical count — the operational math behind choosing one for your Shopify store, and how to run a sensible hybrid of both.

Inventory9 min read

How to Prevent Stockouts on Shopify

Why stores run out despite watching stock, and the process changes that stop it — from unreserved drafts to stale reorder points.

Inventory8 min read

Shopify Inventory Reports Explained

A screen-by-screen walkthrough of Shopify's nine native inventory reports, the one with a real plan restriction, and where they genuinely fall short.

Inventory6 min read

How to Calculate What Stockouts Cost Your Store

Industry stockout figures don't apply to your store. The calculation that does, worked on your own margin and velocity.

Inventory9 min read

Shopify Inventory Metrics to Track

Turnover, sell-through, days of inventory, stockout rate, GMROI — the formulas, and what a bad number tells you to actually do next.

Inventory6 min read

How to Predict Stockouts Before They Happen

Turning sales velocity and lead time into a forward view, so a shortage is a date on a calendar rather than a surprise.

Inventory7 min read

Shopify Inventory Adjustment: How & When

Shopify's native adjustment reasons, how to make a manual correction in the admin, when to adjust instead of running a full count, and the audit trail it leaves.

Inventory5 min read

10 Warning Signs You're About to Run Out of Stock

The signals that appear before a stockout, most of which nothing in Shopify will point out to you.

Inventory9 min read

Manage Inventory Across Multiple Shopify Locations

Setting up locations, per-location stock, transfers, and fulfillment priority in Shopify — plus what dedicated apps do and don't yet automate per location.

Inventory6 min read

What to Do When a Product Goes Out of Stock

The product is already at zero. What to do in the next hour, the next day, and before the replacement lands.

Inventory8 min read

How to Set Up Inventory Tracking in Shopify

One toggle per variant, or one CSV for the whole catalogue. The full walkthrough for turning on Shopify inventory tracking, mistakes included.

Inventory5 min read

Stockout vs. Backorder

Out of stock and taking orders anyway are different situations with different consequences. Which one you're in, and what to do.

Inventory8 min read

How Shopify Inventory Tracking Works

Same product, three different numbers on the same screen. What On hand, Committed, Available, and Incoming actually mean, and what moves each one.

Inventory7 min read

Purchase Order Workflow: Reorder to Receiving

The full sequence from a crossed reorder point to received stock, and the three places it most often breaks down.

Inventory6 min read

What Is Shopify Inventory Management?

Shopify's inventory vocabulary explained for merchants who've never managed stock anywhere — SKUs, variants, locations, tracking, and when native tools stop being enough.

Inventory5 min read

Purchase Orders vs. Inventory Transfers

Buying from a supplier and moving stock you already own fix two different shortages. A quick test for which you need.

Inventory9 min read

Inventory Management Fundamentals

The general discipline behind stock levels, reorder points, turnover, and control methods — the pillar the rest of the Shopify inventory series builds on.

Inventory5 min read

How to Manage Late Purchase Orders

Shopify has no field for an expected date, so nothing flags an overdue PO. What to do, and how to feed the delay forward.

Inventory6 min read

Common Inventory Forecasting Mistakes

A scannable checklist of the mistakes that quietly wreck a forecast — including the stockout bias almost nobody has a name for.

Inventory5 min read

How to Manage Partially Received Purchase Orders

A shipment lands short. How to record what arrived, decide what happens to the rest, and keep your numbers honest.

Inventory5 min read

How to Track Purchase Orders in Shopify

Draft, Ordered, and then a separate transfer that does the receiving — how Shopify's PO model actually works.

Inventory7 min read

How to Improve Forecast Accuracy

MAE, MAPE and forecast bias in plain English — plus the caveat vendor content leaves out: MAPE breaks down on low-volume SKUs.

Inventory9 min read

Shopify Purchase Orders: Complete Guide

Shopify's native purchase order tool end to end — what it covers, where its two-status lifecycle stops, and what an app adds.

Inventory5 min read

What Should a Purchase Order Include?

A field-by-field anatomy of a purchase order, and the optional fields worth adding once you run more than a few.

Inventory9 min read

Forecasting Inventory for New Products

No sales history doesn't mean no plan. Analogous products, early signals, and a first order sized to be corrected rather than to be right.

Inventory5 min read

7 Safety Stock Mistakes That Cause Overstocking

Seven ways a safety-stock rule quietly turns into excess inventory, and the fix for each.

Inventory10 min read

Safety Stock: Complete Guide

The buffer that absorbs a demand spike or a late shipment — both formulas worked, and how it differs from your reorder point.

Inventory8 min read

How to Forecast Seasonal Inventory

Separating a recurring seasonal pattern from ordinary noise, and building the index that tells you how much of next December to order.

Inventory10 min read

Shopify Inventory Replenishment: Complete Guide

Reorder point, quantity, cadence, prioritisation and automation as one process rather than five separate decisions.

Inventory7 min read

How Promotions Affect Inventory Forecasting

A promotion breaks the baseline it sits on — pull-forward, cannibalisation, and why promo weeks must be flagged before they poison the next forecast.

Inventory7 min read

How to Automate Reorder Recommendations

The whole pipeline, from a crossed reorder point to a drafted purchase order — what to automate and what to keep human.

Inventory6 min read

Automatic vs. Manual Inventory Reordering

Manual works fine below a certain catalogue size. An honest look at where the line actually sits, and what breaks past it.

Inventory7 min read

How Supplier Lead Times Affect Your Forecast

Lead time is a forecast of its own, and its variability is what safety stock actually buys against. Includes the Z-value most guides get wrong.

Inventory6 min read

How to Prioritize Products for Reordering

Not every SKU deserves equal attention. ABC and XYZ analysis, and how to combine them into a reorder order of operations.

Inventory5 min read

Min/Max Inventory Planning Explained

Older ERP vocabulary mapped onto formulas you already have: min is your reorder point, max is your target stock level.

Inventory6 min read

How Often Should You Reorder Inventory?

Continuous review versus a fixed schedule, and how catalogue size and supplier terms decide which one suits you.

Inventory7 min read

How Much Inventory Should You Keep in Stock?

Reorder point and target stock level are different numbers answering different questions. Both, worked through on one product.

Inventory5 min read

Reorder Point vs. Reorder Quantity

Two numbers doing two different jobs, compared side by side on one SKU: when to order, and how much.

Inventory6 min read

Moving Average Forecasting Explained

Simple vs. weighted, worked on real sales numbers — the window-size tradeoff, and exactly where the method stops being reliable.

Inventory6 min read

Reorder Quantity: How Much Stock to Order

How many units to order once you hit your reorder point — and what happens when the supplier's minimum doesn't match that number.

Inventory10 min read

Inventory Forecasting Methods for Shopify

Smooth, erratic, intermittent, lumpy — which method suits a SKU depends on how it actually sells, not on which is most sophisticated.

Inventory8 min read

Forecast Demand Using Your Shopify Sales Data

Your store already holds the history a forecast needs. How to get it out, what to strip before you use it, and how to turn it into a daily rate.

Inventory6 min read

What Is Inventory Forecasting?

The plain-English definition, how it differs from demand forecasting, and the signs a store has outgrown reordering on gut feel.

Accessibility9 min read

Shopify ADA Compliance Checklist (2026)

A practical, section-by-section checklist for Shopify ADA compliance — images, contrast, keyboard navigation, forms, and the third-party apps most merchants miss.

Accessibility8 min read

Do Accessibility Overlay Widgets Actually Work?

Accessibility overlay widgets promise instant ADA compliance. Here's why lawsuits keep happening to sites that installed one anyway, and what actually reduces risk.

Migration9 min read

How Much Does a Shopify Migration Cost?

Honest Shopify migration cost ranges by store size and complexity — what drives the price up, what most quotes leave out, and DIY vs. hiring help.

Shopify9 min read

Shopify Custom Theme Development Cost

From a Theme Store purchase to a fully bespoke build: the four tiers of Shopify theme development, what drives cost, and how to pick the right one.

Inventory8 min read

Low Stock Alerts for Shopify: A Setup Guide

Shopify doesn't email you when stock runs low by default. Here's how to set up real low stock and reorder point alerts, from native tools to dedicated apps.

WordPress9 min read

Why Is My WooCommerce Site So Slow?

A step-by-step diagnostic for a slow WooCommerce store — hosting, plugins, database bloat, caching, and the checkout-specific issues most guides miss.

Inventory6 min read

Stocky Has Shut Down: Export Your Data in the Read-Only Window

Stocky shut down on August 31, 2026, but Shopify's read-only window is still open. Exactly what you can still pull out — suppliers, assignments, open POs, stock counts, sales history.

Inventory6 min read

Stocky Has Shut Down — Here's How to Migrate Now

Shopify retired Stocky on August 31, 2026, APIs included. If you did not move in time, here is how to migrate now, while the read-only export window is still open.

Inventory7 min read

The Best Stocky Alternatives for Shopify in 2026 — An Honest Comparison

Stocky shut down on August 31, 2026. An honest comparison of alternatives — StockCue, Sensible Forecasting, Prediko, mid-market planners, and spreadsheets — pricing and who each is for.

Inventory6 min read

How to Calculate Reorder Points (The Formula Every Small Shopify Store Needs)

The reorder point formula in plain English, with a worked example: average daily sales × lead time + safety stock. Stop guessing when to reorder.

Shopify Tips8 min read

How to Protect Your Shopify Store from Content Theft

Stop scrapers, copycats, and right-click theft from stealing your product descriptions and images. A practical guide to Shopify content protection.

AI Search10 min read

How to Track Your Brand Mentions in ChatGPT, Gemini & Perplexity

AI search engines answer shopping questions without sending clicks. Here's how to measure your brand's visibility before your competitors do.

Shopify Tips12 min read

Shopify Store Speed Optimisation: A Complete Guide

Slow stores lose sales. This guide covers every lever — themes, images, apps, and Core Web Vitals — to make your Shopify store measurably faster.

Shopify Tips14 min read

WooCommerce to Shopify Migration: A Complete 2026 Guide

Ready to move from WooCommerce to Shopify? This step-by-step migration guide covers data export, 301 redirects, SEO preservation, and what to do when things go wrong.

Shopify Tips15 min read

Shopify Conversion Rate Optimization: 12 Tactics That Actually Move the Needle

Discover 12 practical CRO tactics for Shopify stores — from hero sections and product photography to checkout friction and post-purchase flows.

Shopify Tips18 min read

The Complete Shopify SEO Guide for 2026

A complete Shopify SEO guide covering technical foundations, keyword research, product page optimization, and link building for DTC brands wanting more organic traffic.

Shopify Tips12 min read

Shopify Product Page Optimization: What the Best DTC Brands Get Right

What separates high-converting Shopify product pages from average ones? This guide covers hero images, social proof, CTA design, trust badges, and mobile-first best practices.

AI Search14 min read

Generative Engine Optimization for Shopify: How to Appear in AI Search Results

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the new frontier for Shopify product discovery. Learn how to appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini recommendations.

Shopify Tips10 min read

How to Protect Your Shopify Product Images from Theft (2026 Guide)

Image theft costs Shopify stores sales, SEO, and brand authority. This guide reveals what actually works to stop it — from server-level protection to automated monitoring.

Shopify Tips15 min read

The Shopify Store Launch Checklist: 40 Things to Do Before Going Live

Going live without a checklist? This Shopify launch checklist covers design, performance, SEO, legal, payment, and marketing — everything you need for a smooth launch.

Shopify Tips11 min read

Shopify Theme Customization: From the Editor to Custom Code

Everything you need to know about Shopify theme customization — from the visual editor to Liquid templates, CSS, and when to hire a developer vs. DIY.

AI Search10 min read

Google AI Overviews for Ecommerce: How to Appear and What to Expect

Google AI Overviews are reshaping ecommerce search. Discover how to appear in AI-generated results, improve E-E-A-T signals, and track your AI brand presence.