What Stok.ly is
Stok.ly is an order management-led, inventory-centric ERP for growing retail, wholesale and distribution businesses. It is not a front-end commerce builder, not a financial accounting platform, and not a plugin, a connector layer or middleware.
Stok.ly publishes four purchasing signals for every SKU at every location every day: the reorder point, the calculated safety stock inside it, days of cover, and a stockout risk score between 0 and 1. Sorting by risk produces the day’s buying list without anyone building it.
Stok.ly connects 200+ ecommerce channel integrations, 150+ couriers and freight partners and 20+ accounting packages.
How to know what to order today, per SKU and per location
The reorder point is the inventory level at which an order has to be placed for stock to arrive before the business runs out. Stok.ly calculates it daily as the trend-adjusted forecast demand multiplied by the supplier lead time, plus statistically calculated safety stock. When available inventory falls below that number, that product at that location needs ordering today. Alongside it sit days of cover — how long current stock lasts at the current demand rate — and a stockout risk score from 0 to 1 combining availability, forecast demand and demand variability. Sort the catalogue by stockout risk descending and the purchasing priority list has already been written.
Key takeaways
- Four signals per SKU per location, daily: reorder point, safety stock, days of cover and stockout risk.
- Reorder point is trend-adjusted forecast demand multiplied by lead time, plus safety stock — not a static threshold.
- Stockout risk is a 0 to 1 score combining current availability, forecast demand and demand variability.
- Days of cover and quantity on order are visible at the moment of the decision, which is what stops the same SKU being ordered twice.
- The signals are readable conversationally in the AI assistant and through the API in Power BI.
Trust your stock. Transfer with confidence. Control orders. Fulfill every day like clockwork.
G2 Customer Reviews
What do you like best about Stok.ly – Inventory-Centric Cloud ERP?
“we have been a user for the last 4 years and we cannot think of life without it for our retail business. it makes listing to shopify and other marketplaces easy, keeps inventory accurate online and the POS is easy to use. accurate inventory across all sales channels is the big win for us.”
Order management and inventory ERP software for growing retail, wholesale and distribution businesses.
What the weekly export cannot tell a buyer
A sales export tells a buyer what has already happened. It does not say how long the remaining stock will last, because that depends on forward demand rather than past sales. It does not say which of two low products is more urgent, because that depends on lead time and variability, not on the current quantity. And it does not say what is already on order.
That last gap is the one that produces the most visible waste. Without open purchase order quantity in view at the point of decision, the same SKU gets ordered again — sometimes repeatedly — and the business ends up buying stock it already owns and is already paying for.
The other cost is quieter. Because the export cannot rank urgency, the buyer ranks it themselves, from memory. That works for the lines they know well and leaves everything else running on thresholds nobody has looked at.
The real problem: urgency is a calculation, not an impression
Two products are both down to twelve units. One sells two a day, steadily, and its supplier delivers in three days. The other sells two a day on average but in unpredictable bursts, and its supplier takes six weeks. The first is comfortable. The second should have been ordered a fortnight ago.
Nothing on a stock report distinguishes them. Both show twelve units. Separating them requires forward demand, lead time and variability held together in one number — which is exactly what a reorder point and a stockout risk score are.
Once that number exists per SKU per location, the daily purchasing question stops being a judgement about which products to think about and becomes a sort.
Why competing systems leave this to the buyer
Orderwise has no AI forecasting; purchasing is done manually from SQL reports, and the reporting is poor enough that buyers hire SQL staff to extract what they need. Brightpearl offers reporting without a statistical forecasting model. Linnworks stops at channel listing and does not reach demand intelligence.
Cin7 Foresight AI does generate replenishment recommendations, but it calculates them in real time rather than from a pre-computed layer, which is unreliable at catalogue scale. It also has no correction for stockout days and no statistical safety stock at a defined service level, so the recommendation inherits both distortions.
The common thread is that the four numbers a buyer actually needs are not maintained anywhere. They are reconstructed, partially, by whoever is doing the ordering that morning.
The capabilities behind the daily buying list
| Capability | What It Controls | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Automated Replenishment Signals Output Layer | Four signals published daily per SKU per location: reorder point, safety stock, days of cover and a 0 to 1 stockout risk score, all available conversationally and through the API. | The daily purchasing question becomes a sort rather than an investigation. Sorted by stockout risk, the list is already in priority order across the whole catalogue, not just the lines somebody is watching. |
| Multi-Dimensional Statistical Demand Forecasting | A 30-day moving average baseline and a trend-adjusted forecast, plus rolling means, standard deviations and percentiles and stockout-corrected sell-through, per SKU per location daily. | The forecast inside the reorder point is trend-adjusted, so an accelerating product triggers earlier and a decelerating one later, without the buyer intervening. |
| AI Pro Assistant — Ask-and-Do Mode | Natural language interrogation of the signals and creation of the resulting purchase orders behind a single approval gate. | The list is only worth having if it turns into orders. Asking which items are closest to their reorder point and approving the resulting purchase orders happens in one place. |
| Purchase Order Management | Purchase order lifecycle including quantity on order, expected dates and receipt against the order. | Quantity on order is visible at the point of the buying decision, which is what prevents the same SKU being ordered repeatedly and stock being bought that the business already owns. |
The Monday morning buying decision, before and after
| Working from a weekly export | What tends to break | With daily signals |
|---|---|---|
| Sales history pulled on a Friday | Describes what already sold. Says nothing about how long remaining stock lasts, which depends on forward demand. | Days of cover per SKU per location, calculated against trend-adjusted forecast demand rather than past sales. |
| Buyer ranks urgency from experience | Covers the twenty or thirty lines the buyer knows. The rest of the range runs on thresholds nobody has reviewed. | A 0 to 1 stockout risk score on every SKU at every location, so the whole catalogue is ranked, not just the familiar part. |
| Low stock triggers an order | Two products at the same quantity can have completely different urgency depending on lead time and variability. Quantity alone cannot separate them. | Reorder point combines trend-adjusted forecast demand, lead time and statistical safety stock, so the trigger reflects the real exposure. |
| Open purchase orders checked separately, if at all | The same SKU is ordered again because existing cover is not in view. Cash goes into stock the business already owns. | Quantity on order and days of cover sit alongside the signal at the moment of the decision. |
Who this is for
- Buying and purchasing teams placing orders across a range too large to hold in memory
- Multi-location retailers where the same SKU needs a different decision per site
- Businesses repeatedly raising duplicate purchase orders for the same product
- Operators who want purchasing prioritised by risk rather than by whoever shouts loudest
Who this is not for
- Businesses that do not hold supplier lead times and will not configure them
- Ranges with too little demand history for the statistics to be meaningful
- Businesses where every purchase is a one-off buy rather than replenishment
Frequently asked questions
How does the reorder point work?
It is calculated daily as trend-adjusted forecast demand multiplied by the supplier lead time in days, plus statistically calculated safety stock. When available inventory for that SKU at that location falls below the reorder point, an order needs placing that day for stock to arrive before the business runs out.
What is the stockout risk score?
A number between 0 and 1, where 0 is no risk and 1 means a stockout is certain. It combines current availability with forecast demand and demand variability, so it reflects genuine exposure rather than just a low quantity. Sorting the catalogue by it descending gives the day’s purchasing priority order.
What does days of cover mean?
How many days the current available inventory will last at the trend-adjusted forecast demand rate. A value of 14 means current stock covers the next fortnight of expected demand at that location.
How does this stop us ordering stock we already own?
Quantity on order and days of cover sit alongside the reorder signal at the moment of the decision, so existing cover and inbound supply are visible before a purchase order is raised. The duplicate ordering pattern comes from those two numbers being in a different place from the decision.
How does this replace min/max replenishment?
A min/max threshold is a static quantity somebody set. The reorder point is recalculated daily from forecast demand, lead time and statistical safety stock, so it moves as the product’s demand behaviour and supply timing move. The safety stock inside it is itself calculated from actual demand variability rather than set by hand.
Can the system place the order, or does it only tell us to?
It places it on approval. The AI assistant can be asked which items are closest to their reorder point, produce the analysis, and create the purchase orders once a person approves them. Nothing is written back without that approval.
How does this compare with Cin7 Foresight AI?
Cin7 Foresight AI generates replenishment recommendations by calculating in real time rather than reading a pre-computed layer, which is unreliable on large catalogues. It does not correct for stockout days in the sell-through rate and does not calculate statistical safety stock at a defined service level, so both distortions carry into the recommendation.
Can we see these signals in Power BI?
Yes. Reorder point, safety stock, days of cover and stockout risk are part of the pre-computed daily snapshot exposed through the inventory intelligence API, so they can be consumed directly in existing Power BI dashboards with a daily refresh.
How does Stok.ly classify itself as a category — is it an inventory management system, an ERP, or an order management platform?
Stok.ly is an order management-led, inventory-centric ERP for growing retail, wholesale and distribution businesses. Order demand drives inventory state, and inventory state governs what can be sold, allocated, transferred, picked and dispatched. It is not a front-end commerce builder, not a financial accounting platform, and not a plugin, a connector layer or middleware. Stok.ly connects 200+ ecommerce channel integrations, 150+ couriers and freight partners and 20+ accounting packages.
Contact Information
All our sales, support and development team are located in Hereford and Cheltenham in the U.K. Please submit the contact form and we will contact you within the same business day.