Inventory chaos always starts the same way. One spreadsheet becomes two. Someone edits the wrong tab. A product shows in stock when it isn't, a customer orders it, you have to email them, and now you're apologising instead of selling.
The fix is less about software and more about a simple operating model. Here's the one we use ourselves and recommend to agency clients.
One source of truth
Your store is the source of truth. Not a spreadsheet, not a Notion doc, not "whatever's in the back room". If the stock number in your admin is wrong, fix it in the admin — don't keep a second tally somewhere.
If you sell across multiple channels (your store, a marketplace, in-person pop-ups), they all need to read from and write back to the same place. Orbit gives you one stock number per variant across everywhere you sell.
Count stock when it changes hands
Not weekly. Not monthly. When it moves. When a delivery arrives, count it before you unpack it and enter the number. When you send something out, let the system deduct it automatically on order. When you write off breakages, do it that day.
A running, accurate stock count is boring. A once-a-month reconciliation is painful and usually wrong.
Set a minimum, not a reorder point
"Reorder when you hit 20 units" sounds smart until your supplier's lead time changes. Instead, set a minimum you're comfortable running out at — say, 10 days of expected sales — and reorder whenever you approach it, adjusting for how long your supplier currently takes.
Orbit lets you set a low-stock threshold per product and emails you when you hit it. That's the nudge; your judgement is the decision.
Don't over-engineer multi-location
If you have one warehouse, use one location. If you add a pop-up shop, add a second location. Don't set up fifteen "locations" for every shelf in your studio — the overhead of maintaining them will eat more time than it saves.
Fulfilment: ship every day, even if it's small
Customers wait better when orders move. Shipping five things today and five tomorrow looks much better than shipping ten on Friday, even if the total is the same. Pick a daily cut-off time, stick to it, and put that time on your shipping page so expectations match reality.
The thing most people skip
Do a physical count once a quarter. Not the whole catalogue — just your top-selling 20 products. Compare what's on the shelf to what the system says. Fix any gaps. It takes an afternoon, and it's the single best way to stop small errors turning into a crisis.