Ecommerce
Dead stock is capital that has stopped moving, and it keeps costing storage for as long as you hold it.
The stock that has stalled
Units that are not selling.
Cost per unit, in your local currency.
All units held across the catalogue.
What holding it costs
Cost to store one unit for a month, in your local currency.
Dead Stock Value
2,400.00
Capital tied up in unsold units, in your local currency.
Formula verified 13 September 2026
Dead Stock % of Inventory
10.00%
Share of total units that is dead stock.
Annual Storage Cost Wasted
240.00
Yearly storage spend on stock that is not selling.
Estimate only — platform fees and costs vary; verify current rates. Read the full disclaimer ↓
Where your dead stock sits as a percentage of total units, with the rough health story each band tells. Lower is better, but the right threshold depends on your margins and product type — read this against your own trend over time, not as a fixed standard.
| Dead stock % of inventory | What it typically suggests | |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5% | Healthy — a small, normal tail of slow movers; keep clearing it before it grows. | |
| 5% – 10% | Watch — a noticeable slice of inventory is stagnant; review what is stuck and why. | |
| 10% – 20% | Elevated — a meaningful drag on capital and space; act on discounting, bundling, or returns. | ◀ your result (10.0%) |
| Over 20% | Serious — a large share of stock is not selling; aggressive clearance and tighter buying are warranted. |
Estimates only — not financial, tax, or professional advice.
100% private — every number you enter is calculated in your browser and never sent to our servers.
What it calculates: Dead Stock Value, Dead Stock % of Inventory, Annual Storage Cost Wasted.
Updated 5 June 2026 · Transparent assumptions
The money spent buying dead stock is unrecoverable whatever you do next, so it should not influence the decision. What is still live is the storage cost, which continues every month you hold on hoping the stock will move.
This is why the calculator reports monthly storage separately from the stock value. Holding stock that will not sell in order to avoid admitting the loss simply adds a running cost to a loss already taken.
The dead stock percentage puts the problem in context. A small share is the ordinary cost of carrying variety — some products always fail. A large share points upstream to how buying decisions are made.
Where the share is high, the fix is in the purchasing process rather than in clearance pricing: smaller initial orders on unproven lines, and a reorder decision gated on actual sell-through.
Discounting recovers the most where demand exists at a lower price. Bundling moves dead stock alongside something that does sell and protects the headline price of both. Liquidators pay little but clear volume quickly and free the space.
Donation may carry a tax deduction depending on jurisdiction, and disposal recovers nothing but stops the storage cost. The right choice depends on how much storage is costing you against what each route would return.
A line that has not sold in ninety days rarely recovers on its own. Sell-through rate and stock coverage both flag a slowing line months before it qualifies as dead, when a modest discount would still clear it.
Setting a review trigger — any line above a coverage threshold, or below a sell-through threshold — turns this from an annual write-off into a routine decision taken while the options are still cheap.
Figures on this page are checked against primary, authoritative sources. Links open in a new tab.
Business disclaimer
Results are estimates for planning and analysis based on the figures you enter. They are not accounting, tax, or financial advice — verify with your own records and a qualified professional before making decisions.
How we calculate · Found an error? email us
Published 13 September 2026