What to do with excess inventory after the holidays

Sort your excess into three groups

Not all leftover stock needs the same treatment. Split it into: items that will keep selling at a normal pace (just overbought), items that were holiday-only and will not sell again until next season, and items that are genuinely slow everywhere. The action is different for each group, so do not run one blanket sale on all of it.

Cut off reordering first

Before you think about discounts, stop replenishing the excess SKUs. If a supplier order is already in transit, check if you can delay or reduce the next one. Carrying a markdown plan while new stock keeps arriving undoes the work.

Markdown in stages, not all at once

Start with a modest discount and a time limit, for example two weeks at 20 percent off. If that does not move enough units, step down again. Discounting too deep too fast trains customers to wait for sales and gives away margin you did not need to give away.

Use bundles and placement for holiday-only items

Seasonal items that will not sell again for months are better bundled with regular-sellers or cleared through a flash sale than left on the shelf until next year, since storage and tied-up cash cost you too. Decide a hard sell-by date and stick to it rather than letting it drift.

Decide on true dead stock

For items that still do not move after markdowns, consider liquidating through a clearance channel, donating for a tax deduction, or writing them off. Keeping dead stock on the shelf "just in case" is usually more expensive than admitting the loss.

Step by step

1. Pull a report of units sold in the last 28 to 60 days per SKU and compare to units still on hand.
2. Flag any SKU with more than 60 to 90 days of stock at current sales pace as excess.
3. Pause or shrink upcoming purchase orders for those SKUs first.
4. Split flagged SKUs into normal-pace overbuys, seasonal-only items, and true dead stock.
5. Run a first-round markdown with an end date on the seasonal and overbuy groups.
6. Bundle slow seasonal items with fast-sellers instead of discounting them alone.
7. Set a final decision date for anything left over: liquidate, donate, or write off.

Worked example

A store ends December with 400 units of a holiday mug on hand and is now selling only 2 per day, which is 200 days of stock. The owner stops the next purchase order, runs a 20 percent off sale for two weeks which moves 120 units, then bundles the remaining 280 with a fast-selling gift set. After three weeks only 60 mugs are left, so the owner marks them as clearance and moves them through a liquidation channel rather than holding them until next December.

How SteadyShelf helps

SteadyShelf can show you daily sales pace and days of stock per variant so you can quickly spot which SKUs are excess and stop their reorder suggestions. It does not run markdowns, bundles, or liquidation for you, those decisions and actions are manual.

$29/month flat, unlimited products and suppliers, 30-day free trial. Run the numbers now with the free reorder point calculator.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related guides

• What to include on a purchase order
• What to look for in inventory software for Shopify
• What to track in an inventory spreadsheet
• What to do when your forecast is wrong

All inventory how-to guides · Inventory glossary

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