What is Shopify inventory management analytics?

Sell-through velocity, days of stock remaining, reorder alerts, and dead stock detection

Definition

What it is

Shopify inventory management analytics is the practice of tracking and analysing stock levels, sales velocity, and inventory health metrics to prevent stockouts and dead stock. Key metrics include: current inventory levels by variant, daily/weekly sell-through velocity, days of stock remaining (a forward-looking projection), reorder point (when to repurchase), and dead stock (items that haven't sold in 90+ days). These metrics are available in Shopify's inventory tables and can be queried directly.

Formula

Days of Stock Remaining Formula

Formula

Days of Stock Remaining = Current Inventory Quantity ÷ Average Daily Units Sold (last 30 days)

Calculate average daily units sold from order line items over the last 30 days. Items with fewer than 14 days of stock should be flagged for reorder. Items with more than 180 days of stock may be candidates for promotion or markdown to free up working capital.

Business impact

Why it matters

Stockouts and dead stock are the two most costly inventory problems in eCommerce. A stockout on a bestselling Shopify product means lost sales and potentially lost ad spend (you're paying to drive traffic to an out-of-stock listing). Dead stock ties up working capital in inventory that isn't generating revenue. Days of stock remaining — calculated per variant — is the single metric that prevents both problems when monitored regularly.

The challenge

How most teams track this today

Shopify's built-in inventory reports show current stock levels but do not calculate sell-through velocity or days of stock remaining. Merchants typically manage reorder points manually in a spreadsheet, tracking sales velocity separately from inventory levels.

Run it on your data

Calculate this automatically with Taptic Data

Connect your Shopify account and Taptic generates this calculation from plain English against your actual data — no Excel exports, no manual joins. The SQL runs against your real schema, your real tables, your real numbers.

SQL query for Shopify product performance — a starting point for inventory analysis →Connect Shopify →Try Free — $29.99/mo

FAQ

Common questions

What is sell-through rate in Shopify?

Sell-through rate is the percentage of available inventory (opening stock + received) that was sold in a period: (Units Sold ÷ (Opening Inventory + Units Received)) × 100. A high sell-through rate (above 80%) indicates strong demand; a low rate (below 40%) suggests the product is overstocked or underperforming.

What counts as dead stock in Shopify?

Dead stock is inventory that hasn't been sold in a defined period — commonly 90 or 180 days. Identify it by querying product variants with inventory quantity > 0 and no corresponding order line items in the last 90 days. Dead stock ties up working capital and generates ongoing storage costs.

Can Taptic alert me when a Shopify product is about to stock out?

Yes. Taptic's alert system can evaluate a days-of-stock-remaining calculation after every data refresh and send a notification when any variant drops below your threshold (e.g., less than 14 days of stock). The alert includes the product name, variant, current quantity, and estimated stockout date.

Does Taptic import Shopify inventory levels?

Yes. Taptic imports the inventory_levels table from Shopify, which contains current quantity on hand per variant per location. Combined with the order_line_items table (for sales velocity), Taptic can calculate days of stock remaining for every variant in your store.

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