Short answer: dead stock is anything that hasn't sold a unit in 90 days, or where current inventory will take more than 90 days to clear at the last 30-day velocity. The earlier you spot it, the more rupees you save — Amazon's storage clock keeps ticking even when your SKU stops selling.
This guide shows Indian Amazon sellers exactly how to find dead stock in Seller Central using the reports already available to them, why FBA dead stock is uniquely dangerous, and what to do once you've identified the bleeding SKUs.
There's no single Amazon-blessed definition. Most experienced sellers use one of these three rules:
SLM uses a hybrid: a SKU is flagged as dead stock when it satisfies both the zero-sales rule AND the days-of-cover rule, weighted by category storage cost.
1Open Inventory Health report.
Seller Central → Reports → Fulfillment → Inventory Health. Set the time window to 30 days minimum, 90 days preferred.
2Filter for zero-velocity SKUs.
Sort by "Units Sold (Last 30 Days)" ascending. Every SKU at the top with 0 sales but Available > 0 is suspect.
3Cross-check days-of-cover.
Look at "Days of Cover" column (or compute: Available / (Units Sold 90d / 90)). Anything > 90 is yellow. Anything > 180 is red.
4Pull the FBA Aged Inventory surcharge report.
Reports → Fulfillment → FBA Aged Inventory Surcharge. This shows exactly which SKUs are paying long-term storage. Treat every row here as confirmed dead stock unless you have a clearance plan in the next 30 days.
5Group by SKU family.
One dead variant in a parent listing usually means the size/colour mix is wrong. Don't react SKU-by-SKU — react at the parent level.
| Days held | Typical monthly fee load | What's happening |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 90 | Base storage only | Normal operating cost. |
| 91 – 270 | Base storage, growing in monthly average | Capital opportunity loss starts dominating. |
| 271 – 365 | Base storage + aged-inventory surcharge | Margin disappears on slow movers. |
| 365 + | Base + long-term storage surcharge | You're paying Amazon to babysit losses. |
Two SKUs with the same unit cost can have wildly different effective cost-of-goods because of how long they sit. SLM's Net Take-Home calculation subtracts FBA storage and aged-inventory surcharges directly from realised margin — so a SKU's "P&L per unit" reflects actual rupees in your bank account, not Seller Central's gross-revenue illusion.
Drop price 10 – 15 %. Wait one full demand cycle (7 days minimum). If velocity returns, you have a pricing problem, not a dead-stock problem.
If the SKU has zero ad impressions, it may be invisible. Run a small Sponsored Products auto-campaign for one week. ₹500 budget is enough to confirm signal.
Pair the slow SKU with a fast-mover at a small bundle discount. Both move; storage clock resets on the slow one.
Amazon Liquidations recovers 5 – 10 % of retail. Off-platform B2B brokers in India (FlipB2B, IndiaMART bulk) often pay better. Take the loss and free the cash.
For high-value SKUs you can re-sell elsewhere, request an FBA removal. Adds shipping cost but stops the storage bleed instantly.
Inventory that hasn't sold in 90 days, or where current stock will take > 90 days to clear at trailing-30-day velocity.
Reports → Fulfillment → Inventory Health, then filter for zero units sold in 30 days. Cross-check with the FBA Aged Inventory Surcharge report for confirmed slow movers.
For FBA India, inventory over 365 days incurs an additional monthly long-term storage surcharge on top of base storage. Rates change each year — check the latest fee schedule in Seller Central.
Discount first. If two cycles of price-down don't move units, liquidate. Holding pure dead stock past 180 days usually destroys more value than the discount you tried to avoid.
See your own dead stock in 7 seconds per SKU — try SLM →