Meaning & use
stockout
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Meanings
nouncountablebusiness
A situation in which a shop or warehouse has run out of an item that customers want to buy.
Grammar: Countable: one stockout, many stockouts.
Patterns
- a stockout of something
- a stockout at someone
A stockout of flour left the bakery with empty shelves.
The retailer lost sales because of repeated stockouts in December.
Better forecasting reduced stockouts by half.
noununcountablebusiness
The point or event at which a product's supply in a store or system is completely used up.
Grammar: Often used as a measure: the rate of stockout.
Patterns
- the risk of stockout
The risk of stockout rises sharply before holidays.
Managers track stockout by store and by product.
Safety stock protects against stockout when deliveries are late.
Word forms
| plural | stockouts |
|---|
Common combinations
- avoid a stockout
- We reorder weekly to avoid a stockout.
- risk of a stockout
- The risk of a stockout is high for fresh bread.
- cause stockouts
- Port delays caused stockouts across the country.
- stockout rate
- The stockout rate dropped after the new system started.
- costly stockout
- A costly stockout cost the company a major client.
Synonyms and how they differ
- shortage
- A shortage can affect a whole market or country, while a stockout is local to one seller's stock.
- out of stock
- This phrase describes the state of an item, whereas stockout names the event as a business problem.
- depletion
- Depletion is a slower and more general word for using up a supply, with no link to sales.
- backorder
- A backorder is an order waiting for stock to return, which is a result of a stockout rather than the stockout itself.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: stockout or shortage?
stockout vs shortage
A shortage means too little supply in general, while a stockout is when a particular seller has none left.
Practice
The supermarket suffered a ____ of bottled water after the storm warning.
Choose one answer.
A stockout is running completely out of an item. A stockpile is a large store kept in reserve, which is the opposite idea.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stockout”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.