How to Migrate from Stocky to Forthcast (Step-by-Step, 2026)

What data does Stocky store — and what's at risk?

Before you start exporting, it helps to know exactly what lives inside Stocky versus what's already safe inside Shopify. The two are different buckets, and they have different fates after August 31, 2026.

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Data that lives in Shopify (safe regardless of Stocky's shutdown):

• Your full order history — every sale, quantity, variant, date.
• Product catalogue, SKU definitions, barcode mappings.
• Inventory levels, warehouse locations.

This is the data Forthcast uses for forecasting. It auto-imports when you install Forthcast and it doesn't require any action on your part.

Data that lives only in Stocky (at risk after Aug 31):

• Open purchase orders — any PO you've raised inside Stocky but not yet received. These are not stored in Shopify. If you don't export them before the shutdown, you lose visibility into what stock is inbound and when.
• Supplier records — lead times, MOQs, preferred contacts. Stocky holds its own supplier database. Shopify only knows your products, not your procurement relationships.
• Manual demand overrides and safety-stock settings — if you ever manually adjusted reorder points inside Stocky, those custom values are stored in Stocky alone. Forthcast's AI will derive new safety-stock thresholds from your Shopify velocity data, but if you had non-standard rules for seasonal SKUs, you'll want to screenshot or note them before the shutdown.
• Historical PO records — closed POs you might need for supplier audits or accounting. Export these now as a long-term archive even if you don't plan to re-enter them in Forthcast.

The safest mental model: treat August 31, 2026 like a hard drive failure for everything Stocky-specific. Export early, keep the CSVs indefinitely, then migrate at a pace that suits your trading calendar.

What the Stocky CSV exports actually look like

Knowing the column structure before you start saves time during the Forthcast import. Here's what each file contains:

• Purchase orders CSV — columns include: PO number, supplier name, SKU, product title, quantity ordered, unit cost, expected delivery date, and PO status (Open / Partial / Received). You will reference the supplier name, SKU, quantity, and expected date when recreating POs in Forthcast.
• Suppliers CSV — columns include: supplier name, contact email, phone, lead time (days), minimum order quantity, and any custom notes. Map these directly into Forthcast's supplier setup screen — the field names are near-identical.
• Inventory CSV (optional) — a snapshot of on-hand quantities per SKU at the time of export. You don't strictly need this for the Forthcast migration (Forthcast reads live inventory from Shopify), but it's useful as a paper trail to reconcile counts after cut-over.

Keep all three files in a single folder (e.g. stocky-export-YYYY-MM-DD/) and back it up to cloud storage. Even after the migration is complete, you may need the closed-PO history for supplier disputes or accounting reconciliation years later.

What to expect in your first 30 days with Forthcast

Most merchants are surprised by how quickly Forthcast's recommendations become usable. Here's a realistic timeline:

Days 1–3: Backfill and orientation

Forthcast pulls your full Shopify sales history on day one — this takes 5 to 30 minutes depending on your catalogue size. By day two you'll have your first demand forecast and a reorder suggestion list. Don't act on these immediately; let the app ingest one or two full days of live sales data first so the velocity figures are stable.

Days 4–14: Parallel running

Keep Stocky installed alongside Forthcast for at least a week. Each morning, open both dashboards and compare what each app flags for reordering. Forthcast uses AI to weight recent velocity and seasonal patterns; if a suggestion looks unexpected, click through to the "Forecast reasoning" panel to see which data is driving it. Nine times out of ten, Forthcast is picking up a trend that Stocky's static reorder point would have missed.

If you use scheduled fixed-cycle replenishment — ordering from specific suppliers on a weekly or monthly cadence regardless of real-time stock levels — set those rules in Forthcast's Reorder rules → Fixed cycle screen during this period. It takes about 10 minutes per supplier and removes a class of manual work that Stocky didn't automate.

Days 15–30: Full cut-over and review

Once you've approved your first Forthcast-generated purchase order — and it's accurate — you're ready to uninstall Stocky. Don't wait for August 31. Early cut-over gives you three extra months of forecast data before the peak season planning window opens, which is exactly when demand forecasting matters most.

By day 30, most merchants have sent 3–5 POs through Forthcast and are running fully autonomously. The main ongoing task is reviewing Forthcast's weekly reorder digest and approving or deferring PO suggestions. For most Shopify stores, this is a 10-minute weekly task versus the hour or more that Stocky's manual process required. Visit forthcast.io to start your free trial if you haven't already.

Want this as an interactive checklist?

12 ticked steps, progress saved locally, optional email reminders before the August 31 deadline.

The window to migrate on your own schedule — rather than in a panic before August 31 — is narrowing every week. Starting now means you'll have 60–90 days of Forthcast forecast data built up before the shutdown, which is exactly the kind of lead time that prevents stockouts during a supplier disruption. Install Forthcast from the Shopify App Store, run the parallel validation, and uninstall Stocky while it still works. The migration is genuinely quick; the regret of waiting is not. For the full picture of what Forthcast offers beyond migration, read our complete Stocky alternative guide or visit forthcast.io to get started.