What is Demand forecast?
Demand forecast is one of the restock strategies in Smart generate. Unlike the other strategies, which only look at your Min and Max thresholds, Demand forecast also factors in your sales velocity (how fast each item sells) and your supplier's lead time. It then suggests an order quantity large enough to cover the number of days of stock you choose.
Demand forecast is available on the Advanced and Pro plans.
Before you start
You're on the Advanced or Pro plan.
Your sales velocity has finished calculating. The first time this is enabled, EasyScan runs an initial backfill — until it finishes, the Demand forecast tile shows "Sales velocity is still being calculated."
Your supplier has a lead time set (Supplier > Order rules). This is optional, but strongly recommended for accurate suggestions.
Your inventory requirements (Min, Max, and MOQ) are set for the destination location.
How the suggestion is calculated
Sales velocity accounts for days when the variant was out of stock, so recorded stockout days do not dilute the daily sales estimate. The estimate still depends on the sales and stock-history data available to EasyScan; review the suggested quantity before ordering.
For each item, EasyScan works out how much stock you should be holding, then subtracts what you already have:
Target stock = daily sales x (lead time + days of stock to order) + minimum stock
Suggested order = target stock - current stock
The suggestion is then:
Capped at your Max level, if you've set one.
MOQ is a minimum quantity, not a pack multiple. If a positive recommendation is below the applicable minimum order quantity, EasyScan raises it to that minimum. It does not automatically round every recommendation to a multiple of the MOQ.
Rounded up to a whole unit (never a fraction).
Items with no recent sales are only topped up to their Min level (they are not skipped).
Quick steps
Go to Purchase orders, open the dropdown next to Create purchase order, and choose Smart generate.
Select your Supplier and Destination.
Choose your Product scope.
Select the Demand forecast strategy.
Set Days of stock to order and Account for incoming inventory.
Click Generate.
Review the suggested quantities, edit if needed, then save or mark as ordered.
Step-by-step
Step 1: Open Smart generate
On the Purchase orders page, click the dropdown arrow next to Create purchase order and choose Smart generate.
Step 2: Select supplier and destination
Choose the Supplier you want to reorder from and the Destination location the stock will arrive at.
Step 3: Choose your product scope
Pick Entire supplier catalog to scan everything from that supplier, or Specific collection to limit the scan to one collection.
Step 4: Select the Demand forecast strategy
Under Restock strategy, choose the Demand forecast tile. On Advanced and Pro plans it's selected by default once your sales velocity is ready. If your supplier has no lead time set, a banner will prompt you to add one in Order rules.
Step 5: Set your options
Days of stock to order: how many days of sales this order should cover. Defaults to 30 (roughly a month).
Account for incoming inventory: when on, EasyScan counts stock already on its way to you so you don't over-order. On by default.
Use supplier's default MOQ for items without one: appears only if your supplier has a default MOQ set.
Step 6: Generate
Click Generate. EasyScan scans the items and calculates suggestions. A progress bar shows while it runs.
Step 7: Review your suggestions
You're taken to the Create purchase order page with line items pre-filled. Each line shows the calculated quantity plus the details below. Edit any quantity before saving the draft or marking it as ordered.
Understanding the results
Each suggested line shows:
Sales/day: the item's average daily sales. A dash (—) means there's no sales data yet; a very slow seller shows as <0.01.
Days left: roughly how many days of stock you have left at the current sales rate.
A calculation tooltip (info icon): explains how the quantity was worked out, e.g. "Suggested 842 = 120 to cover 30 days of sales + 1,950 safety stock − 1,112 in stock · rounded up to MOQ 1,000."
Reason chips (one or more may appear per line):
Order now: the item is expected to fall below its minimum before this order arrives.
Min top-up: no recent sales, so it's topped up to the minimum stock level only.
MOQ applied: raised to the applicable minimum when a positive recommendation is below it.
Capped at max: limited so stock won't exceed your maximum.
Good to know
Set your supplier's lead time first. Without it, the forecast treats lead time as 0 days and will under-order.
Just enabled or upgraded? Sales velocity needs to finish its initial backfill before Demand forecast becomes selectable.
Quantities are always rounded up, so totals may be slightly higher than the raw formula suggests.
The Order now chip is informational only — it doesn't change the suggested quantity.
Demand forecast is available for Purchase orders only. Transfer orders' Smart generate uses different strategies.
Each PO holds up to 500 variant lines. A larger run started from the PO index can create up to five draft POs, after confirmation, with a total cap of 2,500 lines. An existing draft can add only the number of lines that fit within its 500-line limit. Review any omitted items and the explanation when no order is suggested.