Running a barcode stock count on Shopify

The sequence that works on a shop floor

• Open a count on a phone or a laptop with a USB scanner plugged in.
• Scan. Each scan adds one unit — no typing, no selecting from a list.
• The screen shows what Shopify thinks you have, what you counted, and the variance.
• Apply. Only the products you scanned are adjusted; everything you did not touch is left alone.

Why partial counts are the point

Nobody counts a whole shop in one go. Counting one shelf on a Tuesday morning is realistic, and it is how discrepancies get caught before they become a year-end problem.

That is why an applied count must never zero out what was not scanned — a rule worth checking in whatever tool you pick.

Concurrency, the quiet failure

If you sell three units while counting, a naive tool overwrites the sale. Shopify’s inventory API now requires the quantity you measured from, so a count written against stale numbers is rejected instead of quietly wiping a transaction.

Questions

Do I need a special scanner?

No. Any USB barcode scanner acts as a keyboard. A phone camera scanning app works too, as does typing a SKU by hand.

What happens to products I did not scan?

Nothing. Only scanned lines are written back to Shopify.