Integration
What this app actually touches in your store
Inventory Surplus is a native Shopify app, installed from the official App Store. The fair question before installing any inventory app is what it can reach and what it can change. Here is the whole answer: it reads four things, writes one, and has no permission at all for the rest.
Every permission it asks for
These are the five scopes Shopify shows you on the install screen, in plain terms.
| Permission | What it is used for |
|---|---|
read_products | Reads your product and variant list — titles, SKUs, prices and cost — so a scan can tell which SKUs exist and what they are worth. |
read_inventory | Reads on-hand quantities, so the value sitting in each slow-moving SKU can be calculated rather than guessed. |
read_orders | Reads order line items to work out when each SKU last sold and how fast it is moving. This is the signal the whole dead-stock classification rests on. |
read_locations | Reads your location list so multi-location stores see stock split by warehouse instead of one merged number. |
write_products | Writes a clearance price back to the variants you explicitly select — and nothing else. Used only when you press Apply, and reversible with Revert. |
One caveat belongs next to that table rather than in the small print: read_orders only covers orders from the last 60 days, so the sales history behind every dead-stock verdict is capped at that. It is a Shopify permission boundary that applies to every inventory app without a separate grant, and it is the single most common reason a scan overstates how much of a catalogue is dead. The full explanation, and how to test any app for it.
The only thing it writes
One permission on that list is not read-only, and it would be wrong to bury it. write_products exists so the app can put a clearance price on the variants you choose. It is used when you press Apply, never during a scan, and Revert restores the original price.
- Variant price — set to the clearance price you chose.
- Variant compare-at price — set to the original price, so the storefront shows the markdown.
What it can never touch
- Your theme or storefront code — no script tags, no theme edits, nothing to uninstall.
- Customer records. The app requests no customer scopes at all, so it cannot read names, emails or addresses.
- Orders themselves. Order data is read to date your sales; orders are never created, edited or cancelled.
- Inventory quantities. Stock levels are read, never adjusted.
- Products you did not select. A scan classifies; only an Apply you press changes a price.
The app also honours Shopify’s mandatory privacy webhooks — customer data requests, customer redaction and shop redaction — and removes your data when you uninstall. The full detail is in the privacy policy.
What happens after you install
- 1Install from the App Store. The app is embedded in your Shopify admin — there is nothing to host and no theme change.
- 2A first scan runs straight away, reading your catalogue, stock levels and order history.
- 3You get a report splitting your SKUs into dead, slow-moving and healthy, with the capital sitting in each.
- 4You choose what to act on. Apply a clearance price to the variants you pick, or leave the report as a read-only view and act elsewhere.
If you want to see the numbers before installing anything, the dead stock cost calculator does the same arithmetic on a single SKU with no signup. Moving off Stocky? The Stocky shutdown checklist covers what to export before the read-only window closes.
Questions merchants ask first
- Is Inventory Surplus read-only?
- Almost, but not entirely — and the honest answer matters here. Four of its five permissions are read-only. The fifth, write_products, exists so it can put a clearance price on the variants you pick. Nothing is written until you press Apply, and Revert puts the original price back.
- Will installing it change anything on my storefront?
- No. Installing runs a scan and shows you a report. Prices only change on products you select and confirm, and the app makes no theme changes, so there is nothing left behind if you uninstall.
- Does it collect customer data?
- No. The app requests no customer scopes, so it has no access to names, emails or addresses. It also honours Shopify's mandatory privacy webhooks for data requests, customer redaction and shop redaction.
- Does it work with multi-location inventory?
- Yes. It reads your location list, so stock is shown split by location rather than as one merged figure.
- Will it conflict with my other inventory apps?
- It should not. It makes no theme changes and the only thing it writes is a variant price on products you select, so it sits alongside forecasting, reporting and sync apps rather than competing for the same hooks.
- How long does the first scan take?
- Install takes under a minute and the first scan runs immediately afterwards. Catalogue size drives the rest — a few thousand SKUs is a matter of minutes.
More on how the app decides what counts as dead stock, and what it does about dead stock and overstock. Other questions are answered in the FAQ.
Install in 60 seconds
Free for your first 100 SKUs. The first scan runs on install, and nothing in your store changes until you say so.
No theme changes · no customer data · reversible pricing