How to Build an Inventory App for a Small Shop

The realistic situation in most small shops: a spreadsheet that was accurate in March, and a stock count that happens when something runs out at the worst possible moment.

Full inventory systems are built for warehouses and priced accordingly. What a single shop needs is much smaller.

What it needs

1. A product list with current quantity. That's the core.
2. Fast adjustment. Tap a product, plus or minus, done. If counting a shelf is slower than writing on paper, nobody will do it.
3. Low-stock alerts at a per-product threshold. Different products have different lead times.
4. Barcode scanning. The phone camera reads the barcode and finds the product. This is what makes it genuinely faster than paper, and it's well within reach.
5. A simple stock-take mode — walk the shelves, enter counts, see the discrepancies.

Leave out: purchase orders, supplier management, multi-location, accounting integration.

Starting prompt

Build an inventory app for iOS and Android for a single retail shop. Products have a name, SKU, barcode, current quantity, and a low-stock threshold. Users search or scan a barcode to find a product, then adjust the quantity up or down. Show a low-stock screen listing everything below its threshold. Include a stock-take mode where the user enters counted quantities and sees a list of discrepancies against recorded stock. Include CSV import and export.

CSV import matters more than it sounds — it's how you get your existing spreadsheet in without typing 400 products by hand, and how you get your data out if you stop using the app.

The honest hard part

Barcode scanning reliability varies with lighting, camera quality and label condition. Test with your actual products, including the scuffed ones.

Also: an inventory app is only as good as the discipline of using it. The app is the easy part.

Cost

• Subscription: $25/month
• Equivalent developer quote: $12,000–35,000

Try Rork's free tier →

(affiliate link)