---
title: "Dead stock inventory: how to find it and clear it | Product Metrics"
description: "Dead stock is inventory that has stopped selling. See when stock counts as dead, what it costs to hold and what to do per product, with a worked example."
canonical: "https://www.productmetrics.io/blog/dead-stock-inventory"
pageType: article
language: en
publisher: "Product Metrics"
author: "Berend Vrakking"
datePublished: 2026-10-07
dateModified: 2026-10-08
image: "https://www.productmetrics.io/og/blog/dead-stock-inventory.png"
---

> Content index: https://www.productmetrics.io/llms.txt

# Dead stock inventory: how to find it and clear it

## Key takeaways

- Dead stock is inventory with no sale for a period you set. Guides range from 90 days to 12 months; use 180 days for at risk and 365 for dead.
- In the worked example, €2,100.00 of €6,000.00 of stock (35%), valued at cost, has not sold for 180 days and costs €525.00 a year to hold at an assumed 25%.
- The ads can cost more than the shelf: two products with no sale in 90 days took 38.2% of Shopping spend for a POAS of 0.00.
- Decide per product: hold, bundle or discount, sell in bulk or write down, and lower its priority in campaigns meanwhile.

**Dead stock** (also called dead inventory, and often obsolete inventory) is stock that has stopped selling and is unlikely to sell at full price again. Below: how to find it, price it and clear it, with four example products you can check by hand.

It is not about "deadstock" in fashion, where the word means unused fabric, unsold garments or never-worn vintage and sneakers. It is not about shares either.

## 1. What counts as dead stock?

Dead stock is stock that no longer sells at the normal price. The neighbouring terms differ mainly in whether it still sells at all.

- **Slow-moving** (still sells, slowly): cover is far above your other products. See [slow-moving inventory](https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/slow-moving-inventory).
- **Excess** (still sells): a salvageable surplus, which Ryder calls an opportunity rather than a liability.
- **Dead stock** (no longer sells): no sale for a period you set.
- **Obsolete** (no longer sells): end of its life, with no buyer. Salsify uses it as a synonym for dead stock; Flowspace says obsolete stock can become dead stock, but not all dead stock is obsolete.

Lightspeed draws the practical line: slow-moving stock "still has a chance to sell", while obsolete inventory "is unsellable". From here on, dead stock means stock that has stopped selling at your normal price.

## 2. When does stock count as dead?

Nobody agrees on the line. Six public guides draw it between three and twelve months without a sale, so you have to set your own.

**Figure: After how many months without a sale public guides call stock dead.** Each pair of bars is the range one guide gives: the shortest and longest time without a sale before stock counts as dead. Equal bars mean a single cut-off. Together the guides put the line anywhere from 3 to 12 months, which is why you set your own.

| Published guide | Shortest cut-off (months without a sale) | Longest cut-off (months without a sale) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lightspeed | 3 | 3 |
| Cleverence, retail | 3 | 6 |
| Cleverence, industrial and seasonal | 6 | 12 |
| Alexander Jarvis | 6 | 6 |
| DOSS | 6 | 12 |
| Fidelitone | 6 | 12 |

_Source: Lightspeed (17 Dec 2025), Cleverence, Alexander Jarvis, DOSS (1 Apr 2026) and Fidelitone (updated 6 Mar 2026), checked 7 Oct 2026; days converted at 30 days a month_

This guide uses two lines: at risk after 180 days without a sale, and dead after 365. Both sit inside the guides' ranges. DOSS says most industries treat six to twelve months unsold as dead stock, and Fidelitone says no movement in six months signals risk while roughly a year marks non-seasonal stock as dead.

Count from the later of the last sale and the day the stock arrived, so a new product is never dead. Move the lines per category: Fidelitone notes seasonal stock can be dead within weeks of missing its selling window, so judge it against its season, not the calendar.

![Four states of stock by days since last sale: selling, slow-moving, at risk from 180 days and dead stock from 365 days, with example products A to D](https://www.productmetrics.io/images/blog/dead-stock-inventory/dead-stock-states.png)

_Slow-moving stock still sells; at risk and dead are about days since the last sale. The 180 and 365 day lines are a working rule._

## 3. Find it by valuing every product at cost

For each product, take units on hand × unit cost and the days since its last sale. Cover, units on hand ÷ units sold per day, separates slow-moving from selling: see [days of inventory](https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/days-of-inventory).

| Product | Units × unit cost | Value at cost | Sold in 90 days | Last sale | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 120 × €22.50 | €2,700.00 | 60 | 2 days ago | Selling |
| B | 80 × €15.00 | €1,200.00 | 5 | 12 days ago | Slow-moving |
| C | 45 × €30.00 | €1,350.00 | 0 | 426 days ago | Dead |
| D | 75 × €10.00 | €750.00 | 0 | 240 days ago | At risk |

*Illustrative data.*

Total stock is €6,000.00. Cover is units on hand ÷ units sold per day: A has 120 ÷ (60 ÷ 90) = 180 days and B has 80 ÷ (5 ÷ 90) = 1,440 days. B holds €1,200.00, yet it is not dead because it still sells.

**Figure: Days since each of four example products last sold.** Each bar is how many days ago the product last sold. The dashed line is the 365-day cut-off for dead stock. Product C, at 426 days, is past it and dead; product D, at 240 days, is at risk. A and B sold within the last two weeks.

| Product | Days since last sale |
| --- | --- |
| A, selling | 2 |
| B, slow-moving | 12 |
| C | 426 |
| D | 240 |

Reference line: Dead stock cut-off (days) (365).

_Source: Illustrative data_

Of the €6,000.00, €3,900.00 (65%) sold in the last 90 days. Products C and D hold €2,100.00, which is 35%. Cleverence lists the percentage of inventory value older than 180 days as a figure to track. I'd track it monthly, next to total stock value.

**Figure: Stock value at cost (€), grouped by days since last sale.** Each bar is the cost value of the products whose last sale falls in that band. €2,100.00 of the €6,000.00 stock, 35%, has not sold for more than 180 days.

| Days since last sale | Stock value at cost |
| --- | --- |
| 0 to 90 days | €3,900.00 |
| 91 to 180 days | €0.00 |
| 181 to 365 days | €750.00 |
| Over 365 days | €1,350.00 |

_Source: Calculated as units on hand × unit cost. Illustrative data_

Guides value dead stock in two ways. Flowspace counts what you spent on it, including purchase price, shipping, handling and storage, while Sage multiplies the units by the price they would have sold for (100 × $7 = $700). This guide values stock at cost, and the write-down below uses what it can still fetch.

## 4. How much dead stock is normal?

None of the guides checked gives an ecommerce benchmark, so use your own share as the benchmark and watch it fall. The only survey with a spread of answers is from Phocas: 46% of 100+ wholesale distributors reported 2 to 10% dead stock.

**Figure: How much dead stock wholesale distributors report (% of distributors).** Each bar is the share of the 100+ wholesale distributors in Phocas's survey that reported that level of dead stock. 46% report 2 to 10% of their inventory as dead stock, and 22% cannot say how much they have.

| Dead stock as a share of inventory | Share of distributors |
| --- | --- |
| None | 1% |
| Under 2% | 19% |
| 2 to 5% | 20% |
| 6 to 10% | 26% |
| 11 to 15% | 9% |
| Over 20% | 3% |
| Don't know | 22% |

_Source: Phocas inventory trends survey of 100+ wholesale distributors, last financial year (phocassoftware.com), checked 7 Oct 2026. Wholesale, not ecommerce_

Sage says to aim for an annual average of 5 to 10% without citing a source for that range, and other guides quote shares up to 30% with none. The definitions differ, so compare nothing until you count the same way every month: stock value with no sale for 180 days or more, divided by total stock value. In the example, C alone is 22.5% and C with D is 35%.

## 5. The cost of holding it

Holding cost per year = stock value at cost × carrying cost rate. The rate covers warehouse space and handling, insurance, and the capital that could have gone to faster-selling products, according to Cleverence.

Cleverence says many teams use a rule of thumb of 20 to 30 percent a year, though your own rate may vary. This guide assumes 25% as an input, not a benchmark. Build your own from what you pay: interest on the money tied up, storage per unit and insurance.

At 25%, product C costs 25% × €1,350.00 = €337.50 a year to keep and product D costs €187.50. Together that is €525.00 a year, or €131.25 a quarter.

**Figure: Cumulative cost (€) of holding the dead and at-risk products C and D.** The line is the total cost of keeping the €2,100.00 of products C and D, at an assumed holding cost of 25% of stock value a year. It reaches €131.25 after a quarter and €525.00 after a year.

| Time held | Cumulative holding cost |
| --- | --- |
| 3 months | €131.25 |
| 6 months | €262.50 |
| 9 months | €393.75 |
| 12 months | €525.00 |

_Source: Calculated as stock value × 25% × months held ÷ 12. The 25% is an assumed input. Illustrative data_

Every quarter spent deciding adds another €131.25 in the example. If demand will not return, a sale at any price above zero net beats holding the unit another year.

## 6. Dead stock can still eat your ad budget

A product can keep winning paid clicks while it sells nothing, and every click is paid for.

For the last 90 days, assume every sale came from the ads. Contribution profit per unit is the price excl. VAT minus unit cost minus €6.00 of order costs (shipping, packing, payment fees), so A earns €45.00 − €22.50 − €6.00 = €16.50 a unit. POAS is contribution profit ÷ ad spend, and 1.0 is break-even: see [POAS vs ROAS](https://www.productmetrics.io/blog/poas-vs-roas).

| Product | Clicks × CPC = ad spend | Units sold | Contribution profit | POAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1,500 × €0.40 = €600.00 | 60 | 60 × €16.50 = €990.00 | 1.65 |
| B | 500 × €0.50 = €250.00 | 5 | 5 × €9.00 = €45.00 | 0.18 |
| C | 900 × €0.45 = €405.00 | 0 | €0.00 | 0.00 |
| D | 400 × €0.30 = €120.00 | 0 | €0.00 | 0.00 |

Prices excl. VAT are €45.00 (A), €30.00 (B), €50.00 (C) and €20.00 (D).

**Figure: POAS of each product over the last 90 days.** Each bar is a product's contribution profit divided by its ad spend. The dashed line is break-even, a POAS of 1. Green is profit above it; red is how far a product falls short. Only A clears it, at 1.65. B returns 0.18, and C and D took €525.00 of ad spend for a POAS of 0.

| Product | POAS (contribution profit ÷ ad spend) |
| --- | --- |
| A | 1.65 |
| B | 0.18 |
| C | 0.00 |
| D | 0.00 |

Reference line: Break-even POAS (1.00).

_Source: Calculated as contribution profit ÷ ad spend. Illustrative data_

Products C and D took €525.00 of the €1,375.00 spend, 38.2%, and returned nothing. At its current rate, C's clicks cost 4 × €405.00 = €1,620.00 a year, 4.8 times its €337.50 holding cost. The [break-even ROAS calculator](https://www.productmetrics.io/break-even-roas-calculator) gives the floor for any product.

Google's help pages say custom labels let you "subdivide products in your campaign based on criteria you define", and Merchant Center names clearance as an example. Put dead stock behind a label such as `clearance` and give that group lower priority. Labels can take up to 24 to 48 hours to appear in Google Ads. More on the feed side in [optimise Google Shopping ads](https://www.productmetrics.io/blog/optimize-google-shopping-ads).

## 7. Find out why it stopped selling

Before you lower spend, find the cause, because the exits differ. A product nobody sees needs exposure, while one many click but few buy needs less spend. Product C is the second kind.

| Cause | Signal | Usual exit |
|---|---|---|
| The season ended | Sales and impressions cluster in one quarter | Hold with a review date |
| A newer model replaced it | Sales fell after the successor launched | Discount, bundle or sell in bulk |
| You bought too much | Cover at purchase was far above demand | Stop reordering, then discount |
| Nobody sees it | Few or no impressions, or not approved in the feed | Fix visibility first |
| Seen but not bought | Many clicks, no sales, a price above comparable products | Lower its priority, then [compare its price with competitors](https://www.productmetrics.io/competitor-prices) |

## 8. What should you do with dead stock?

Pick the exit that nets the most per unit by your deadline. Net per unit = selling price − order costs − ad cost per sale. Compare it with holding: cost × carrying rate for every year you wait. To see the margin a clearance price leaves, enter the cost and the new price in the [margin calculator](https://www.productmetrics.io/margin-calculator).

![Decision tree for one product: no sale for 180 days, then visible, then will demand return, then shop versus bulk buyer, ending in hold, bundle or discount, sell in bulk or write down](https://www.productmetrics.io/images/blog/dead-stock-inventory/dead-stock-decision.png)

_Four questions per product. Fix visibility before you call anything dead, and stop reordering in every case._

Take product C: 45 units, €30.00 cost, €50.00 regular price. Clearing at €30.00 nets €30.00 − €6.00 = €24.00 a unit, €1,080.00 in total, if all 45 sell. At €22.00 it nets €16.00 (€720.00). A bulk buyer paying an assumed €8.00 with no order costs nets €8.00 (€360.00).

**Figure: Cash each exit recovers per unit of product C (€), against its €30.00 cost.** Each bar is the cash one unit brings in after order costs. The dashed line is the €30.00 each unit cost. Every exit recovers less, from €24.00 down to €8.00, but if demand does not return, holding recovers nothing and adds €7.50 a unit a year.

| Exit route and price | Net cash per unit |
| --- | --- |
| Clear at €30.00 | €24.00 |
| Clear at €22.00 | €16.00 |
| Bulk sale at €8.00 | €8.00 |

Reference line: What each unit cost (€30.00).

_Source: Calculated as selling price − €6.00 order costs (bulk sale: no order costs). Illustrative data_

The ad cost per clearance sale has a ceiling. At €22.00 the shop nets €16.00 before ads and the bulk buyer €8.00, so you can pay at most €16.00 − €8.00 = €8.00 in ads per sale before bulk is the better exit.

Holding C costs 25% × €30.00 = €7.50 a unit a year and recovers nothing, so hold only if you expect demand to return.

- **A (selling):** reorder from cover and lead time: see [reorder point](https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/reorder-point) and [lead time](https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/lead-time).
- **B (slow-moving):** stop buying. Its POAS of 0.18 says to lower its priority; try a bundle with A.
- **C (dead):** clear at €22.00 with a deadline, then sell what is left in bulk. Lower its priority outside the clearance group.
- **D (at risk):** check it is visible and when its season is. Review at 365 days, and lower its priority meanwhile.

## 9. Can you write dead stock down or off?

Write down stock whose net recovery is below its cost. IAS 2 says inventories are measured "at the lower of cost and net realisable value", which is the estimated selling price less the estimated costs necessary to make the sale.

For product C: €22.00 − €6.00 = €16.00 net realisable value against €30.00 cost. The write-down is €14.00 × 45 = €630.00, and the carrying amount falls from €1,350.00 to €720.00.

Tax is a separate question. In the US, IRS Publication 538 (January 2022) says goods that cannot be sold should be valued "at their bona fide selling price minus direct cost of disposition", the same logic as net realisable value.

> **Sidenote:** This is how the books and one tax authority treat the stock, not tax advice. Tax treatment of write-downs and write-offs depends on your country, and which accounting standard applies depends on where you report. Ask your accountant.

## 10. The five-step check

**Find your dead stock in five steps**

1. **Export stock and sales.** Per product: units on hand, unit cost, date of the last sale, date the stock arrived and units sold in the last 90 days.
2. **Set your lines.** At risk after 180 days without a sale and dead after 365, or your own lines per category. Count from the later of last sale and goods received.
3. **Value what is past the lines.** Units on hand × unit cost for each product, then the total as a share of all stock value.
4. **Check visibility and ad spend.** Is each product in the feed, approved and getting impressions? What did it spend in the last 90 days, and what is its POAS?
5. **Choose an exit and a deadline.** Per product: hold with a review date, bundle or discount, sell in bulk, or write down to net realisable value. Then stop reordering.

Do it per category if your lines differ. A spreadsheet is enough for a few hundred products.

## 11. Where Product Metrics fits

[Inventory Insights](https://www.productmetrics.io/inventory-insights) shows each slow product with the reason it is slow, from exposure, product age, seasonality, stock quantity and value, and expected demand. A product nobody sees needs exposure; one everyone clicks but few buy needs less spend. Product C is the second kind.

Stock cover also feeds Product Score and lands in Merchant Center as a custom label: see [Product Segmentation](https://www.productmetrics.io/product-segmentation). On the Inventory Insights page, a fleece crew with 1,520 units, 38 weeks of cover, 2,960 clicks and a POAS of 0.80 against 2.00 goes from medium to low priority, to free the capital instead of buying more clicks. You decide; Product Metrics never acts for you.

## Sources

- DOSS, [Dead Stock: How to Identify, Prevent, and Liquidate](https://www.doss.com/blog/dead-stock-how-to-identify-prevent-and-liquidate), 1 April 2026.
- Lightspeed, [What Is Obsolete Inventory?](https://www.lightspeedhq.com/blog/understanding-obsolete-inventory/), 17 December 2025.
- Cleverence, [What is dead inventory?](https://www.cleverence.com/articles/for-business/what-is-dead-inventory-6402/) and [Dead inventory: causes, costs and how to fix it](https://www.cleverence.com/articles/for-business/dead-inventory-4582/).
- Alexander Jarvis, [Inventory aging in ecommerce](https://www.alexanderjarvis.com/what-is-inventory-aging-in-ecommerce/).
- Fidelitone, [What is dead stock?](https://www.fidelitone.com/blog/what-is-dead-stock-meaning-and-how-to-avoid-excess-inventory/), updated 6 March 2026.
- Phocas, [What is dead stock and how to eliminate it](https://www.phocassoftware.com/resources/blog/how-to-avoid-and-eliminate-dead-stock): survey of 100+ wholesale distributors.
- Sage, [What is dead stock inventory and how do you avoid it?](https://www.sage.com/en-us/blog/avoiding-dead-stock/), updated 9 July 2026.
- Flowspace, [Dead stock](https://flow.space/blog/dead-stock), updated 7 May 2026.
- ChannelEngine, [Strategies to reduce dead stock](https://channelengine.com/en/blog/reduce-dead-stock-avoid-obsolete-inventory).
- IRS, [Publication 538](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p538), January 2022.
- Ryder, [Dead stock: what it means and how to prevent it](https://www.ryder.com/en-us/insights/blogs/e-comm/preventing-dead-stock).
- Salsify, [Obsolete inventory](https://www.salsify.com/glossary/obsolete-inventory-meaning).
- Glossy, [Why deadstock isn't the redheaded stepchild of fashion anymore](https://www.glossy.co/fashion/glossy-101-why-deadstock-isnt-the-redheaded-stepchild-of-fashion-anymore/), 3 April 2017: fashion deadstock is "unused fabric that accumulates in the corners of factories and unsold products".
- IFRS Foundation, [IAS 2 Inventories](https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/list-of-standards/ias-2-inventories/).
- Google Ads Help, [Use custom labels for Shopping ads](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6275295), and Google Merchant Center Help, [Custom label 0–4](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324473) and [Sale price](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324471).

## Start with one export

Export your products with their last sale dates and total the value older than 180 days. That one share tells you whether dead stock is worth a week of work.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is dead stock in ecommerce?

Dead stock, also called dead inventory, is stock that has had no sale for a period you set and is unlikely to sell at full price again. Public guides draw the line anywhere from 90 days to 12 months without a sale. It is a different thing from fashion deadstock, which means unused fabric or never-worn vintage items, and ChannelEngine notes the collectible kind can command premium prices.

### What is the difference between dead stock, slow-moving and obsolete inventory?

Slow-moving stock still sells, only slowly, so its cover is far above your other products. Dead stock has had no sale for a period you set. Obsolete inventory has reached the end of its life and no longer has a buyer. Guides disagree: Salsify treats it as a synonym for dead stock, while Flowspace says not all dead stock is obsolete.

### How long until stock is dead?

There is no standard threshold: guides put it between 90 days and 12 months without a sale, from Lightspeed's 90-day starting point and Cleverence's 90 to 180 days for retail to six to twelve months at DOSS and about a year for non-seasonal stock at Fidelitone. This guide uses 180 days as at risk and 365 days as dead.

### What should you do with dead stock?

Stop reordering, then pick the exit that nets the most per unit by a deadline: hold it if demand will return, bundle or discount it, sell it in bulk, return it to the supplier or donate it. If the net recovery is below cost, write the stock down. Lower its priority in your Shopping campaigns while you clear it.

### How much dead stock is normal?

The guides checked give no ecommerce benchmark. Phocas surveyed 100+ wholesale distributors and 46% reported 2 to 10% dead stock, 12% more than 10% and 22% could not say. Sage says to aim for an annual average of 5 to 10% without a source. Track the share of your own stock value with no sale for 180 days or more.

### Can obsolete inventory be written off?

Under IAS 2, inventories are measured at the lower of cost and net realisable value, so stock that will sell for less than it cost is written down to that lower amount. Net realisable value is the estimated selling price less the estimated costs necessary to make the sale. Tax treatment is separate and depends on your country, so ask your accountant.

### Can you deduct dead stock on your tax return?

It depends on the country and is not decided by the accounting write-down. In the US, IRS Publication 538 (January 2022) says goods that cannot be sold should be valued at their bona fide selling price minus direct cost of disposition. That mirrors net realisable value, but ask an accountant what applies to you.

### Can I still advertise dead stock?

Yes, if it is in stock and approved in your feed. Put it behind a custom label such as clearance and give that group lower priority, and use the sale price attribute in Merchant Center to show the discounted price. Keep the ad cost per sale below what a clearance sale nets above the bulk-sale price.

---

Written by Berend Vrakking, founder of Product Metrics. Last updated 2026-10-08.

HTML version: https://www.productmetrics.io/blog/dead-stock-inventory