Dead stock removal

Dead stock refers to inventory items that have not been sold for an extended period and are unlikely to be sold in the foreseeable future. These items effectively sit “dead” in your inventory, taking up valuable storage space and tying up capital that could be used elsewhere.

The common reasons for a stock to become dead are:

The price is too high;
Products became obsolete or outdated;
Seasonal items missed their selling window;

Identifying dead stock

The Stock Roll app shows such items in a “Dead stock” report right in the Shopify admin interface. It shows all the tracked in-stock inventory that has not seen sales in Shopify during the lookback window.

By default, the table is sorted by the retail inventory value. It is unlikely that items can be sold for this value because they are already stuck at the current price; however, the total retail inventory value allows a rough estimation and a way to prioritize items before taking action steps.

Handling dead stock

In many cases, it is worth clearing the dead stock to release the storage space and money it holds. Here are a few ideas on what to do with such items:

Review the sale price by comparing it to similar competitors’ offerings. Your price might have become inadequate due to a vendor pricing policy change, an inefficient supply chain, or other factors. If that is the case, try setting the price to follow the actual market condition.
Set up a clearance sale with significant discounts to stimulate sales. Sometimes, selling even cheaper than the original cost value makes sense. Show the products on sale on the store’s home page, mention the sale in a newsletter, and use social media to bring attention to the discounts.
Bundle the items with other products or give them away when another product is ordered to make your offerings more attractive.
Donate the excess inventory to someone who can require it and benefit from the media event created by the donation: write down an article about it and spread the word on social media to raise your brand reputation.