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Getting started

Install Dead Stock Detective, run your first scan, and read your dead-stock dashboard.

This page walks you through installing the app, running the first scan, and reading the dashboard.

What you’ll need

  • A Shopify store on any plan
  • Products with inventory and some order history — a brand-new store with no sales has nothing dormant to show yet
  • A few minutes for the first scan

1. Install the app

  1. Open the Dead Stock Detective listing on the Shopify App Store
  2. Click Install and approve the read-only permissions
  3. You’ll land on the app’s welcome screen

2. Run the first scan

  1. On the welcome screen, click Start scanning
  2. The app reads your catalogue, inventory, and up to a year of order history. Most stores finish in 2–10 minutes; the screen updates on its own.
  3. When it’s done you’ll see a one-time summary of what it found, then View full dashboard

You only do this once. After the first scan, the dashboard refreshes automatically every day.

3. Read your dashboard

  • Total capital trapped — the cash tied up in dead stock across your store
  • Inventory ageing — how that capital splits across dormancy bands
  • The dead-stock table — every dead SKU (top 15 on Free), ranked by capital, each with a recommended action

Click any row to expand it for the 12-month sales history, stock by location, the recommended action, and the reasoning behind it.

Next steps

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Overview

Dead Stock Detective surfaces the inventory that has stopped selling and the capital tied up in it, then recommends what to do with each SKU.

How it works

How Dead Stock Detective decides a SKU is dead, calculates trapped capital, and chooses a recommended action.

On this page

What you’ll need1. Install the app2. Run the first scan3. Read your dashboardNext steps