Inventory glossary
What is Shelf life?
Shelf life is the length of time a product stays sellable before it expires, spoils, or becomes unfit to sell.
For a small Shopify store, shelf life decides how much stock you can safely hold without risking write-offs. A candle might last two years on a shelf, but a bag of coffee beans might only be good for six months. If you order too far ahead for a short shelf life product, you end up with dead stock you have to discount or throw away.
Use shelf life to set a ceiling on order quantities, not just a floor. When you decide how many units to reorder, check how fast you actually sell through that SKU against how long it stays fresh. If sell-through is slower than shelf life allows, cut the order size even if a supplier's case pack or minimum order quantity pushes you to buy more.
Example
A store sells a flavored coffee blend with a shelf life of 6 months from roast date. It sells 40 bags a month. Ordering 300 bags would take over 7 months to sell through, so some bags would expire before sale. Ordering 200 bags covers 5 months of sales, staying inside the shelf life with room to spare.
Common mistakes
- Ordering case pack sizes or minimum order quantities that exceed what you can sell before expiry.
- Not tracking roast, batch, or expiry dates separately from general stock counts.
- Treating shelf life the same for all variants, when flavors or formulations can expire at different rates.
Shelf life and SteadyShelf
SteadyShelf forecasts how fast each variant sells so you can compare that pace against its shelf life before approving a purchase order.
SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.
Related terms
Dead stock · Obsolete inventory · Sell-through rate · Case pack · Minimum order quantity
FAQ
What happens if I order more stock than my product's shelf life allows?
You risk ending up with unsellable stock. The excess units expire before customers buy them, forcing you to discount, donate, or discard them, which cuts into your margin.
Does shelf life apply to non-perishable products like apparel or candles?
Not in the spoilage sense, but a similar idea applies. Clothing can go out of season and candles can fade or discolor over time, so very long holding periods still carry a practical limit even without an expiry date.
Let SteadyShelf do this math for every SKU
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