Know a SKU is running out before the marketplace does
Amazon says you have a thousand. The shelf has a hundred. Neither marketplace knows what the other one shipped this week, so neither number is the truth, and you find out which of them was wrong when a cancellation lands and the metric that decides your buy box takes the hit.
The only place that sees both is the bench where the boxes get packed. If you already scan the day's parcels against your order list, the SKU and the quantity have been read out of those labels anyway. This tool keeps a count per SKU, takes units off it as each box is scanned packed, and mails you in the morning when something is at or below the level you set.
Open low stock alert Needs an account. The trial is free and takes a WhatsApp code.
How it works
- Start from the SKUs your labels already carry. Anything you have shipped that is not set up yet already sits in the list, marked with a ~ where its numbers would be. Press Set stock on the row, type what is actually on the shelf and the level you want warning at, and it starts counting. The SKU and the product name are already filled in from your own invoices, so there is nothing to look up.
- Or bring the list in as a CSV. SKU, Name, ActualStock, LowStock and ListingCode - and the file the tool downloads is a file it will read back. So the ordinary way to change fifty levels is Download, edit one column in Excel, Import. Leave the ActualStock cell empty and that count is left exactly as it is, which is what makes a levels-only edit safe.
- Pack the day the way you already do. Every box you scan as packed in Order scan check takes its items off the count, once, however many times the barcode is scanned. Undo a scan and the units come straight back. Adding a label PDF changes nothing at all - a PDF is an intention, a scanned box is a dispatch.
- Read one mail in the morning. Around five, and only on a day something is at or below its level. It lists the SKU, the name, what is left, the level you set and how many units short you are, grouped by marketplace so you can go and fix the Amazon listing and the Flipkart one in the right places. No mail on a day nothing is low.
What it handles
- A count per marketplace, because the same shelf is two listings: your Amazon SKU string and your Flipkart one are tracked separately
- The count moves when a box is scanned packed, not when a PDF is opened - and a box is only ever counted once, however many times you scan it
- Undo a scan, delete a file or delete a day, and the units go back on the count
- Import and export the same columns, so the download is a valid upload - and an empty list still downloads its headings
- One email a day at most, to one address, and only after you confirm that address with a code
- The product's own code - an ASIN, a Flipkart or Meesho listing id, a Myntra number - turns the SKU into a link straight to your listing. Optional.
- The daily mail can copy in up to three more people, each with a one-click way to stop it
- Stop tracking a SKU and it stays stopped - it will not come back into the list from the next label
Your product list, and nothing about your buyers.
This tool stores a list you build yourself: for each item a SKU, a product name you choose, how many you have and the level you want warning at. That is the whole of it. No buyer, no delivery address, no order value, and nothing read out of a file that your packing list had not already read.
The counts come down using the SKU and quantity in the lists you explicitly chose to save in Order scan check. Your label PDF still never leaves your browser - there is no endpoint on our side to send one to.
The daily email goes to one address, and only after you confirm that address with a code we send to it. It lists your own SKUs, their counts and your levels, and never an order, a buyer or a delivery town. At most one a day, only when something is actually low, and you can turn it off on the same page.
Questions
- What actually makes the number go down?
- Scanning a box as packed in Order scan check. Opening or saving a label PDF does not move anything, because a saved PDF is only an intention to ship - the parcel may still be sitting on the bench at six o'clock. If you do not use Order scan check, the count will sit exactly where you set it and the tool becomes a reminder list rather than a running total.
- What if I save the same PDF twice, or my phone re-sends a scan?
- Nothing happens twice. Each parcel is recorded the moment its units come off the count, so a re-saved file, a replayed offline scan queue or the same barcode scanned five times all leave the number exactly where it was. This is the part the tool is most careful about, because a stock figure that drifts is worse than no stock figure at all.
- Why are Amazon and Flipkart separate rows for the same product?
- Because the SKU strings are different, and those strings are what the labels carry. Tracking them separately is what lets the tool match a scanned box to the right row without you mapping anything. If you want one figure for the shelf, set the same level on both rows and treat the pair as one line - and remember the marketplaces will not agree with each other either.
- Do you read my product details from Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho or Myntra?
- No. Nothing on our side ever contacts a marketplace. You can give us the product's own code - an ASIN, a listing id, a Myntra number - and we build a link from it, but we never open that link. The product name comes from your own invoice, which your browser already read. No marketplace account, no API key, nothing to authorise.
- I do not want to track one of these SKUs. Will it keep coming back?
- No. Remove it from the list and it stays removed, even when tomorrow's labels carry it again - which matters for packing slips, free gifts and samples that ship constantly and are not stock you reorder. It is hidden rather than deleted, so if you change your mind it is under Hidden with a Restore beside it.
- What do you store, and is any of it my customers' data?
- None of it is. A row is a SKU, a product name you chose, a count and the level you want warning at. No buyer, no address, no order value, and nothing new read out of a file - the SKU and quantity come from the packing list you already chose to save. The daily mail carries your own SKUs and nothing else.
- Can I turn the email off?
- Yes, on the same page, and turning it off always works - including after a plan has lapsed. It is off to begin with: alerts cannot be switched on until you have added an email address and confirmed it with a code we send to it, so a typed-wrong address means no mail rather than mail to a stranger.
- Can someone other than me get the alert?
- Yes, up to three more addresses - an ops person, an accountant. Your own confirmed address always gets it, and the extras do not have to confirm anything. Every copy sent to an extra carries a one-click link to stop it, because someone who never asked for the mail should not have to sign in to make it stop.