Inventory glossary
What is Inventory aging?
Inventory aging is a breakdown of how long each item has been sitting in stock, usually grouped into buckets like 0-30, 31-60, 61-90 and 90+ days since it arrived.
For a small Shopify store, inventory aging tells you where your cash is stuck. If half your candle stock is over 90 days old, that money is not coming back until you discount it or it sells on its own, and it is not available to buy new scents customers actually want.
Use it by running the report monthly and looking at the oldest buckets first. Anything sitting past 90 days without selling is a candidate for a bundle, a markdown, or dropping from future purchase orders.
Example
A store buys 100 units of a wool scarf in October. By January, 70 have sold, leaving 30 units that are now 90 days old. By April those 30 are 180 days old and still unsold. The aging report flags that batch in the 90+ day bucket, signaling it is time to mark it down before winter demand disappears completely.
Common mistakes
- Looking at total inventory value without breaking it down by age, which hides slow sellers mixed in with fresh stock.
- Treating all aged stock the same instead of checking if it is seasonal (expected to sell later) or genuinely dead.
- Not acting on the report, so aging stock just sits there quarter after quarter.
Inventory aging and SteadyShelf
SteadyShelf's forecasts are based on actual sales pace per variant, so it naturally avoids reordering SKUs that are already aging and not moving.
SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.
Related terms
Dead stock · Slow-moving inventory · Days inventory outstanding · Aged inventory report · Obsolete inventory
FAQ
How is inventory aging different from dead stock?
Inventory aging is the full breakdown by age for all stock, including items that are still selling fine. Dead stock is the specific subset that has stopped selling entirely, which usually shows up in the oldest aging buckets.
How often should a small store check inventory aging?
Monthly is enough for most small stores. Checking more often rarely changes decisions, since stock does not shift buckets quickly.
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