What is dead stock?

Point of Sale (POS) Glossary

Dead stock (sometimes also referred to as deadstock) is inventory that has been sitting in a merchant’s store or warehouse for a long time and is not expected to sell in the near future. Seasonal merchandise may also sometimes be considered dead stock; however, this would depend on the company’s perspective since it would be salable the following year.

Dead stock is often considered a liability since it has little value to the store but takes up valuable space that could hold profitable items. Additionally, it ties up capital that could also be used for better selling merchandise.

A retailer may choose to program sales via their point of sale system to sell dead stock at a big discount in order to clear it out. A robust POS system offers a variety of ways to help a merchant implement sales to move undesirable merchandise.