Who should plan your reorders?
Four options, compared honestly.
Every Shopify and Amazon brand needs someone to decide what to reorder, when and how much. You can hire a planner, book a freelancer, run an inventory app yourself, or have the planning done for you. Here is what each one costs and what you still own.
| In-house planner | Freelancer | Inventory app | Done-for-you (SCAIT) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | About $71,000 to $74,000 a year base salary in the US, before taxes and benefits | About $18 to $45 an hour on Upwork | Inventory Planner Essentials $119.99 a month; Prediko from $49 a month for stores under $100K a year, rising with revenue; higher tiers on quote | Reorder Desk from $490 a month; Full Inventory Management from $2,000 a month |
| Who does the weekly work | Your employee | The freelancer, for the hours you buy | You or your team | We do; you approve the orders |
| What you still own | Hiring, managing, cover for holidays and sick days | Briefing, checking the work, continuity when they move on | Setup, clean data, opening the dashboard every week | Approving the plan and placing orders with your suppliers |
| Best fit | Large catalog and budget for a full-time role | A one-off model or a short project | A small catalog and someone disciplined enough to review it weekly | A growing brand without a planner and without time to run an app |
When each option is the right one
Hire a planner when your catalog and order volume justify a full-time role and you have someone to manage them. A good planner owns the numbers every day, but you carry the salary, the hiring and the cover when they are away.
Book a freelancer for a defined piece of work: a reorder model, a clean-up of your purchase orders, a one-off forecast. Weekly planning needs continuity, which is hard to buy by the hour.
Use an inventory app if your catalog is small and someone on your team will open it every week. An app is the cheapest option. It only works if a person reviews it and acts on it.
Choose a done-for-you service when you want the weekly reorder decisions made for you without hiring. With Reorder Desk, every Monday we tell you what to reorder, from whom, how much and by when; you approve and place the orders.
Need an operations leader rather than planning? Fractional supply chain and operations leaders typically cost about $5,000 to $18,000 a month. That is a different job from weekly reorder planning.
Questions founders ask.
Should I hire an inventory planner or use an app?
Hire when your catalog and volume justify a full-time role. Use an app when the catalog is small and someone will review it every week. If neither fits, a done-for-you service gives you the weekly decisions without a hire or a new tool to run.
Is an inventory app enough for Amazon FBA?
It can be, if someone checks it every week and adjusts for FBA restock and capacity limits. The app shows the numbers; a person still has to decide and act.
What does done-for-you inventory planning cost?
SCAIT's Reorder Desk starts at $490 a month with setup included, and you can cancel any time. Full Inventory Management, where we also run the stock ledger and landed cost, starts at $2,000 a month.
Do I still place the orders myself?
Yes. We prepare the plan and you approve it. You stay in control of your suppliers.
Prices checked October 2026. Sources: inventory planner salary, PayScale and Indeed; freelancer rates, Upwork; Inventory Planner Essentials on the Shopify App Store; Prediko pricing; fractional leadership, Onflair.