Sell-through rate: formula, example and what is good

Sell-through rate is the share of the stock you received that has sold. It is the quickest way to see whether a product is moving at the pace you planned, while there is still time to act.

The sell-through formula

Sell-through rate = units sold ÷ units received × 100

If you received 500 units and sold 320 in the first eight weeks, your sell-through is 320 ÷ 500, or 64%.

Some reports use units sold ÷ (units sold + units on hand) instead, which gives the same answer here, because 180 are left. Check which one your report uses, and fix a time period, because sell-through means little without one.

What is a good sell-through rate?

No single number fits every product. Published retail guidance often puts typical rates at 40% to 80%, with about 80% over the planned selling period a common goal. Compare yourself with your own plan for each category.

Very high is not always good. If an item reaches 100% early, you may have bought too little or priced it too low.

Track it against a pace

Turn your goal into a weekly pace. If you want 80% sold over 12 weeks, that is about 6.7% a week, so you should be near 27% by week 4. An item at 15% in week 4 needs attention now, not at the end of the season.

The free sell-through rate calculator works out your pace for you.

Sell-through vs inventory turnover

	Sell-through	Inventory turnover
Measures	Share of received stock sold	How many times stock sold through in a period
Unit	Percent	Times per year
Time frame	Weeks or a season	Usually 12 months
Best for	Reacting to a product or buy	Judging the whole business

See what a good inventory turnover ratio is, or use the turnover calculator.

What to do with the number

• Well below pace: mark it down, bundle it, move it to a store where it sells, or stop reordering.
• Well above pace: reorder if you can, and check whether the price is too low.
• On pace: leave it alone.

Items that stop selling altogether need a different approach. See how to find dead stock. Use sell-through with GMROI when you divide your open-to-buy budget.

Where the Optimization Lab fits

Store health in the Statadventure Optimization Lab measures sell-through for each item in each store over the last 90 days, and flags items with no sale in that time. See our page on retail inventory management software.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate sell-through rate?

Divide units sold by units received over a set period, and multiply by 100.

What is a good sell-through rate?

It depends on the product and the period. Published guidance often ranges from 40% to 80%, so compare with your own plan for each category.

Is a 100% sell-through rate good?

Not always. If it happens early, you may have lost sales by buying too little or pricing too low.