Best inventory software for Canadian small retail and ecommerce

A Smithville shop selling online and from a folding table needs to know whether the last blue hoodie is in the bin or already sold. They do not need a warehouse WMS priced like a 3PL. US roundups skip the part that changes the bill: CAD or an honest USD label, whether “inventory” means a SKU counter or purchase orders, and the difference between GST/HST on purchases and COGS in the ledger.

This comparison is four options Canadians actually open: Shopify (SKU tracking on the plan; counts and POs on POS Pro), Lightspeed (Montreal retail POS, USD list), inFlow Inventory (Toronto; CAD and USD on one page), and QuickBooks Online Canada Plus/Advanced inventory — not QuickBooks Commerce. Inventory-software prices checked against public vendor pages, 6 September 2026. Buttons are official marketing URLs, not affiliate trackers.

The till that sells the unit is POS systems in Canada. The ledger that books COGS is accounting software. The storefront that lists the SKU is website builders. Shopify vs Square vs Lightspeed (rates, Interac) is a separate money page: Shopify vs Square vs Lightspeed.

Who this page is for

• A small retailer or ecommerce seller who needs quantity on hand, not a consulting engagement.
• Someone already on Shopify who was told they “have inventory” and wants to know what POS Pro actually adds.
• A buyer who googled QuickBooks Commerce and needs the 2023 sunset in writing.
• Not a 20-aisle grocery DC. Not a customs-brokerage opinion.

Snapshot (public pages, 6 September 2026)

Shopify — SKU tracking is included; counts and POs are POS Pro

Official shopify.com/ca/pricing (retrieved for this site’s POS and website pages) and shopify.com/ca/pos/pricing (6 September 2026): Basic $49 CAD/month or $37 CAD/month billed yearly yearly. POS Pro is $119 CAD/month per location. Shopify’s own Canada blog says inventory management is built into the Shopify subscription (SKU quantities, multi-location stock, adjustment history). Shopify’s Canada POS page puts inventory counts, purchase orders, and low-stock alerts on POS Pro at $119 CAD/month per location — not on casual in-person selling. Do not treat Basic as a warehouse WMS. Sources: https://www.shopify.com/ca/pricing; https://www.shopify.com/ca/pos/pricing.

Honesty: if you only sell from a Shopify storefront and need quantity on the product page, the plan’s built-in inventory is usually enough. If you need cycle counts, purchase orders, and low-stock alerts at a counter, budget POS Pro on top of Basic or Grow. That is still not inFlow. Interac and card rates sit on POS systems.

Lightspeed — Montreal POS with inventory on the retail card

Official lightspeedhq.com/pos/retail/pricing (6 September 2026): Basic $89 USD/month, Core $149 USD/month, Plus $289 USD/month. The compare table lists Inventory Management. Official public Retail (X-Series) pricing page lists USD. Confirm CAD billing and Canadian Interac/Visa rates with Lightspeed — do not treat the US card-present promo rate on that page as a Canadian Interac rate. Source: https://www.lightspeedhq.com/pos/retail/pricing/.

Lightspeed is the usual step-up when the counter and the stock room are the same job. Get a Canadian quote for Interac. Do not paste the USD page’s 1.5% card-present promo as a Canadian debit rate. Hardware and till context: Shopify vs Square vs Lightspeed.

inFlow — Toronto, CAD table next to USD

Official inflowinventory.com/software-pricing-inflow (6 September 2026): Entrepreneur US$129/month billed annually (US$161/month on the monthly CAD/USD table). Entrepreneur CAD $2148/year billed annually, or CAD $224/month monthly. Small Business US$349/month billed annually (US$436/month monthly on that table). Small Business CAD $5628/year billed annually, or CAD $586/month monthly. Mid-Size US$699/month billed annually (US$874/month monthly on that table). Mid-Size CAD $11,388/year billed annually, or CAD $1,186/month monthly. inflowinventory.com/software-pricing-inflow prints USD on the plan cards (Entrepreneur US$129/mo billed annually) and a currency table that includes CAD. Cite both. Do not convert USD to CAD yourself. Entrepreneur 2 team members and 1 location (no sublocations), 1,200 sales orders/year. Small Business 5 members, unlimited locations, 12,000 orders/year. Extra sales orders 0.20 USD each. Small Business onboarding is a required one-time US$499 on the compare table. Training/professional services listed at US$199/hour. Source: https://www.inflowinventory.com/software-pricing-inflow.

Archon Systems, creator of inFlow, prints 260 Carlaw Ave. Unit 209A, Toronto, Canada, M4M 3L1 on archonsystems.com. inFlow’s company page names Toronto offices. Active integrations listed: Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Zapier, Extensiv, Xero, and QuickBooks Online. Entrepreneur includes 1 integration; Small Business 3; Mid-Size 5. Entrepreneur includes one integration — if Shopify plus QBO both need to stay live, read the Small Business integration count or budget the extra-integration add-on (CAD $69/month on the Entrepreneur table).

This is the standalone inventory pick when Shopify’s SKU counter is not enough and you are not ready for a Lightspeed retail stack. It still does not file your GST/HST return.

QuickBooks Online — Plus inventory, Commerce is gone

Official Intuit Canada inventory help and Intuit’s Commerce sunset thread: Official Intuit Canada help: inventory features are available for QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. If you do not have Plus or Advanced, upgrade to start tracking inventory. This site cites Plus at $110 CAD/month and Advanced at $220 CAD/month from Intuit Canada marketing — confirm live rates. The same CA inventory help: inventory added without a bill is assumed already in Cost of Goods Sold; items without bills can be assigned a zero-dollar COGS value. That is Intuit’s bookkeeping behaviour, not a GST/HST engine. QuickBooks Commerce (formerly TradeGecko) is not a current product. Intuit’s community moderator (LisaNullar): the standalone QuickBooks Commerce inventory product was discontinued and not available after 31 August 2023. Amazon/Shopify/eBay payout connectors inside QuickBooks Online were not discontinued. Do not buy a “QuickBooks Commerce” SKU from an old blog. Sources: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-ca/help-article/inventory-management/set-track-inventory-quickbooks-online/L22FZLBGN_CA_en_CA; https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/other-questions/commerce-sunsetting/00/1243491. Plan stickers: Plus $110 CAD/month, Advanced $220 CAD/month (Listed on Intuit Canada marketing pages with 90% intro offers. Confirm live rates at quickbooks.intuit.com/ca/pricing/.).

QBO inventory is a ledger feature: quantity, reorder points, bills that set cost. It is not a barcode warehouse. If you sell on Shopify and keep books in QBO, you still need a connector or a dedicated inventory tool — inFlow lists QBO as an integration; Intuit says Shopify payout connectors inside QBO were not sunset with Commerce.

A practical pick

1. Ecommerce-first, one or two people, SKU quantities on the product page: Shopify Basic. Add POS Pro ($119 CAD/month per location) when you need counts and purchase orders at a counter.
2. Counter-first specialty retail, multiple locations: Lightspeed Retail — get a CAD + Interac quote.
3. Wholesale / multi-channel stock that Shopify’s built-in tracker cannot hold: inFlow Entrepreneur in CAD ($2148/year) if two seats and one integration are enough; Small Business if you need more locations and the $499 USD onboarding.
4. You only needed quantity and COGS in the ledger: QuickBooks Online Plus — not a Commerce SKU, not a warehouse.
5. The till and Interac rates: POS systems for Canadian small businesses.
6. The GST/HST return and the wage journal: accounting software for Canadian small businesses.
7. The brochure or storefront itself: website builders for Canadian small businesses.