Demand Forecasting & Reorder Assist
Stop guessing when to reorder. ShipWave computes daily demand statistics from your last 60 days of sales, surfaces reorder points with safety stock built in, and drafts purchase orders for your suppliers with one click.
ROP
Reorder Point Math
Lead time × demand + safety stock
DoS
Days of Supply per SKU
How many days until you run out
1-Click
Auto-PO Integration
Push drafts into Supplier Portal
Daily
Forecast Refresh
Recomputed every morning
Benefits
Why Businesses Choose This Feature
- Math, Not Guesswork
Reorder Point = lead time × average daily demand + safety stock. Safety stock uses standard deviation and your target service level. No more eyeballing spreadsheets.
- Color-Coded SKU Health
Urgent, Reorder, Healthy, and Idle badges turn your inventory dashboard into a triage list. Hit the red items first, ignore the green ones, kill the idle ones.
- One-Click PO Drafts
When a SKU hits its reorder point, ShipWave drafts a purchase order with the recommended quantity and routes it to the right supplier through the Supplier Portal.
- Seasonality-Aware
The 60-day rolling window naturally captures seasonal shifts. Spike in Q4? Forecast adjusts. Quiet January? Forecast adjusts. No manual tuning required.
- Days of Supply at a Glance
Every SKU shows exactly how many days of inventory remain at current sell-through. Sort, filter, and prioritize replenishment by urgency.
- Lead Time Per Supplier
Set custom lead times for each supplier or SKU. Domestic 7-day vendor and 45-day overseas freight get different reorder triggers automatically.
How Demand Forecasting Works
Daily Cron Computes Demand
A nightly job analyzes your last 60 days of orders per SKU, computing mean daily demand and standard deviation.
Reorder Points Update
Each SKU gets a fresh reorder point: lead time × demand + safety stock. SKUs below the threshold get flagged Urgent.
Draft POs Automatically
Click "Create PO draft" on any flagged SKU and ShipWave routes a recommended purchase order to your supplier in the Supplier Portal.
The Math Behind Reorder Points
Why Reorder Point Math Beats Spreadsheets
Most operators reorder based on a feeling: "We are getting low, place an order." That feeling is usually wrong in one of two directions. Either you order too late and stock out, costing you sales and Amazon BSR rank, or you order too early and tie up cash in inventory that takes months to sell through. The reorder point formula — lead time × average daily demand + safety stock — gives you a precise number for every SKU. When your on-hand quantity hits that number, it is time to order. No emotion, no guessing, no spreadsheet that someone forgot to update last week. ShipWave recomputes ROPs daily so the number always reflects reality, not last quarter is sales.
How Safety Stock Is Calculated
Safety stock is the buffer that protects you from demand variability. If you sell exactly 10 units per day, you need zero safety stock — your forecast is perfect. But most SKUs do not behave that way. Some days you sell 5 units, some days 30. Safety stock uses the standard deviation of daily demand and a target service level (typically 95% or 98%) to compute how much buffer inventory you need to almost never stock out. ShipWave computes standard deviation from your 60-day sales history per SKU and applies a z-score for your chosen service level. The result is a safety stock number that matches your actual demand variability, not an arbitrary "two weeks of stock" rule of thumb.
Days of Supply Triage
Days of Supply (DoS) = current on-hand quantity ÷ average daily demand. It tells you how many days of selling you have left at current sell-through. ShipWave color-codes every SKU based on DoS relative to lead time: Urgent (DoS less than lead time — you will stock out before the PO arrives), Reorder (DoS within reorder window — order now to avoid stockout), Healthy (well-stocked, no action needed), and Idle (extremely high DoS — possible dead stock, investigate). This turns your inventory dashboard from a wall of numbers into an action list. Open the dashboard, sort by status, work the Urgent and Reorder items, ignore the rest.
Supplier Portal Auto-PO Integration
When you click "Create PO draft" on a flagged SKU, ShipWave does not just stage an order in your inventory system — it pushes a draft purchase order into the Supplier Portal where your supplier can see it, accept it, and ship against it. The draft includes the recommended quantity (typically enough to bring you back to a target days-of-supply), the SKU, your default destination warehouse, and any negotiated price terms on file. You review and approve. The supplier gets a notification and acknowledges. Inventory inbound shows up in your forecast immediately, so you do not double-order. This closes the loop between forecasting and execution that most inventory tools leave wide open.
When Forecasts Are Less Reliable
A 60-day rolling window works well for established SKUs with consistent demand. It works poorly for brand-new SKUs with less than 60 days of history, highly seasonal items with sharp Q4 spikes, and SKUs that just had a viral moment. ShipWave flags these cases. New SKUs (less than 14 days of sales) get a "Insufficient History" badge and you can override the forecast manually. Seasonal SKUs can have manual lift factors applied. SKUs with anomalous recent demand show a confidence score so you know when to trust the math and when to use judgment. The forecast is a tool, not a replacement for an experienced operator.
ShipWave Forecasting vs. ShipBob AI Decision Engine
| Feature | ShipWave | ShipBob / Ordoro / Extensiv |
|---|---|---|
| Reorder point math | ROP + statistical safety stock | Min/max thresholds (manual) |
| Days of Supply per SKU | Live, color-coded | Manual report |
| Forecast refresh | Daily automatic cron | Weekly or on-demand |
| Lead time per supplier | Per-supplier and per-SKU overrides | Global default only |
| Auto-PO drafts | One-click to Supplier Portal | Export CSV, email manually |
| Seasonality handling | Rolling window + manual lift factors | Requires premium tier |
Who Uses Demand Forecasting
Brands Hitting Stockouts
If you have ever lost a week of Amazon sales because you ran out of inventory, this is the fix. Reorder points fire before you hit zero, not after.
Brands Sitting on Dead Stock
The Idle badge surfaces SKUs with 180+ days of supply. Liquidate, bundle, or stop reordering — but at least you know which ones are tying up cash.
Operators Replacing Spreadsheets
Stop maintaining a 20-tab Excel file that nobody trusts. Forecasts update nightly, math is consistent, and the dashboard is the single source of truth.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is sales velocity computed?
ShipWave looks at your last 60 days of fulfilled orders per SKU, computes the average daily demand (mean) and the standard deviation, and updates these values nightly. The 60-day window captures recent seasonality without overreacting to single-day spikes.
How does seasonality factor in?
The rolling 60-day window naturally adapts as seasons shift — your November forecast pulls from September and October sales, while your June forecast pulls from April and May. For sharper spikes (Black Friday, summer surge), you can apply manual lift factors per SKU.
Can I customize lead times?
Yes. Set a default lead time at the supplier level (e.g., 45 days for overseas freight, 7 days for domestic) and override per SKU if needed. Reorder points use the SKU-specific lead time when one is set.
Does this integrate with my supplier?
Yes — through the Supplier Portal. When you create a PO draft, your supplier sees it in their portal, can accept or counter, and ships against it. ShipWave tracks inbound quantities so the forecast accounts for in-transit stock.
What if I have a brand-new SKU with no history?
SKUs with less than 14 days of sales get an "Insufficient History" badge. You can override the forecast manually by entering an expected daily demand, or wait until enough sales data accumulates for the model to take over.
How is safety stock calculated?
Safety stock = z-score × standard deviation of daily demand × square root of lead time. The z-score corresponds to your target service level (default 95%). Higher service levels (98%, 99%) increase safety stock proportionally.
Can I override the recommended PO quantity?
Always. The PO draft is exactly that — a draft. You can edit the quantity, change the supplier, swap the destination warehouse, or add notes before sending it to your supplier through the Supplier Portal.
Explore More
Related Features
Warehouse Management
Multi-warehouse inventory tracking that feeds days-of-supply per location.
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Order Management
Centralized order data is what powers the 60-day demand history per SKU.
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Automation Rules
Pair forecasting with rules that auto-route low-stock items to your default supplier.
Learn more →
Replenish Before You Stock Out
Get daily reorder point math, color-coded SKU health, and one-click PO drafts in your ShipWave dashboard.