Dead stock: what counts, and how it shows up in your numbers
Dead stock is inventory you already own that has stopped selling and is unlikely to sell at full price. In the numbers a reorder tool watches, it is a SKU whose sales velocity has sat at or near zero long enough that reordering it would be a mistake.
What dead stock means
Dead stock is stock you have already paid for that is no longer selling, and is not expected to sell at its normal price. It is the opposite problem to running out: the cash sits on the shelf instead of in the till, and it stays there.
There is no official cut-off. Most merchants land on a working rule that sounds like this: a SKU is dead when it has sold nothing, or next to nothing, across a window long enough to rule out a quiet patch, and nothing is coming that would change that. Seasonality matters. Wrapping paper in February is not dead. Wrapping paper in a design you discontinued two Decembers ago is.
The word carries a judgement, not just a measurement. You are deciding the units will not sell at full price. That makes the next move a markdown, a bundle, a donation or a write-off. Nobody enjoys that call, which is why dead stock often sits unnamed for a long time.
A worked example
Say you stock a candle in six colours. Five sell between twenty and sixty units a month. The sixth sold four units in the last ninety days, and three of those were one order from the same customer. Current stock is a hundred and eighty units. At that rate the shelf clears in roughly eleven years, which is not a reorder question at all. The only live decisions are what price moves it and whether you keep the shelf space.
Where dead stock turns up in your own numbers
| What you look at | What dead stock looks like | What to check next |
|---|---|---|
| Sales velocity | Units per day at or near zero across a 30 day window, and the same across 90 | Whether the SKU is seasonal, or newly launched with no history yet |
| Days of inventory remaining | A figure so large it stops being useful, or no figure at all because the divisor is zero | Units on hand against the last date the SKU actually sold |
| Reorder point | Calculates to zero or close to it, so the SKU never asks to be reordered | That the zero comes from genuinely no demand, not from missing sales history |
| Cash tied up | Cost price times units on hand, sitting in a line you never think about | What that money would buy in the SKUs that do move |
| Shelf and bin space | Your fastest sellers squeezed into the awkward corner | Whether a markdown now beats storing it another quarter |
The numbers Restoc is built to put in front of you
Sales velocity over a window you choose
The reorder point engine works from a configurable sales velocity window of 7, 14 or 30 days and the lead time you enter per SKU. That velocity figure is the same number you read to decide a SKU has stopped.
Days of inventory remaining, per active SKU
The dashboard shows current stock and days of inventory remaining for each active SKU, so a SKU with months of cover and no recent sales stands out from one that clears in a fortnight.
Reorder status, read SKU by SKU
Each active SKU carries its own reorder status on the dashboard. Reading it per SKU rather than as one store-wide average is what keeps a stalled line from flattering your overall cover.
A weekly reorder report, exportable as CSV
The weekly report lists the SKUs below their reorder point with a suggested order quantity, viewable in the app and exportable. Your ordering list stays the SKUs that are selling.
Alerts on the crossing, not a month later
When a SKU crosses its reorder point, Restoc is built to send an alert by email, and by Slack webhook on Growth and above.
A per-SKU window on Pro
Starter and Growth use one store-wide velocity window. Pro adds custom reorder rules: a per-SKU override, so a genuinely slow mover can be measured over 30 days while the rest of the catalogue runs shorter.
Related terms, and how they differ
Dead stock sits in a family of terms that get used interchangeably and should not be.
- Slow-moving stock still sells, just not often. It needs a longer velocity window and a smaller reorder quantity, not a markdown.
- Overstock is too much of something that sells fine. The order quantity was wrong, demand was not. Left alone long enough, overstock can age into dead stock.
- Obsolete inventory is dead stock with a reason attached: a discontinued line, a superseded version, an expired batch, old packaging.
- Aged inventory is a time measure, not a demand measure. A SKU can be old on the shelf and still turning over steadily.
- A stockout is the mirror image: demand with nothing to sell against it. Our page on what running out actually costs a small store covers that side.
The practical link is sales velocity. Every term above is a different answer to the same question, how fast does this SKU move, so read the sales velocity and days of inventory on hand pages alongside this one. The page on choosing a 7, 14 or 30 day window helps if slow movers keep flipping between dead and alive depending on the month. The carrying cost page covers what the units cost you while they sit, and the ABC analysis page covers ranking SKUs so your attention lands on the ones that earn it.
Questions
How long does a SKU have to sit before it counts as dead stock?
There is no standard threshold. Pick one you can defend and apply it consistently. A common working rule for a small store is zero or near-zero sales across ninety days, with a longer window for anything genuinely seasonal, plus a note of when the SKU last sold at all.
Is dead stock the same as obsolete inventory?
Close, but not identical. Obsolete inventory is dead stock with a cause attached, such as a discontinued line, old packaging or an expired batch. Dead stock is the broader term. It includes units that are still perfectly sellable in theory and simply are not selling.
Does dead stock affect my reorder point?
It drives it towards zero. A reorder point is built from sales velocity and lead time, and a dead SKU has no velocity. The risk is the reverse case: a SKU showing zero velocity because its sales history is missing, not because demand is gone. Check the history before treating a zero as a verdict.
Should I exclude dead stock from days of inventory on hand?
Per SKU it makes no difference, since a dead SKU returns a very large number or none at all. Store-wide it matters. Dead stock inflates the average and makes your cover look better than it is. Read the figure per SKU, which is how the Restoc dashboard shows it.
Can I set a different velocity window for one slow-moving SKU?
On Starter and Growth the window is store-wide. You pick 7, 14 or 30 days and every SKU is measured the same way. Pro adds custom reorder rules, a per-SKU override of that window. A slow mover can then be read over 30 days while the rest of the catalogue runs shorter.
What does Restoc show for a SKU that has stopped selling?
It stays on the dashboard as an active SKU, with its current stock, days of inventory remaining and reorder status. A SKU with no sales in your window has next to no reorder point to cross, so your weekly reorder report stays pointed at the SKUs that are moving.
What does Restoc cost when it opens?
Starter is $29 a month for up to 200 tracked SKUs. Growth is $59 a month for up to 1,000 and adds Slack alerts. Pro is $99 a month for up to 2,000 and adds the per-SKU window override. Paid yearly, each is ten months' price for twelve. Every plan starts with a 60-day free trial, billed by Shopify on your Shopify invoice.