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Sales & Retail vocabulary · Merchandising & Stock

Stocktake

Meaning in sales & retail, with examples

/ˈstɑːkteɪk/nounCommon term

In sales & retail, stocktake means: A full count of all the goods a shop or warehouse has, done to check that the real stock matches the records.

In Turkish: stok sayımı, sayım, envanter sayımı

How it is used

UK English; in the US people usually say inventory count or physical inventory. Stores do a full stocktake once or twice a year, often at night or before opening, and smaller cycle counts more often. Any differences are recorded as shrinkage.

Example sentences

  1. The store will close early on Sunday for the annual stocktake.

  2. After the stocktake, we found 40 more units than the system showed.

Common collocations

  • do a stocktake
  • annual stocktake
  • stocktake results
  • inventory count
  • inventoryAll the goods a business has in stock and available to sell, or a detailed list of them.
  • shrinkageThe difference between the stock a shop should have according to its records and what it actually has, caused by theft, damage, mistakes or fraud.
  • SKUStock keeping unit: a unique code a retailer gives to each version of a product, so that each size, colour or pack type can be tracked separately.
  • stockroomA room at the back of a shop where extra goods are kept until they are needed on the sales floor.

More terms: Merchandising & Stock

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