Sell-Through Rate Formula: How to Calculate It

Sell-through rate tells you what percentage of your inventory actually sold in a given period. Here's the formula, a worked example, and how to use it before dead stock ties up your cash.

The formula

Worked example

96 ÷ 150 × 100 = 64%. There's no universal "good" number — it depends on category and how fast you reorder — but many retailers use 80% within a season as a rough target for staple items, and treat anything well under 50% as a markdown or reorder-pause candidate.

Why it matters more than sales dollars alone

Sales dollars alone don't tell you if a product is moving fast or slow, they just tell you what came in the door. A $10,000 category that received $9,500 of inventory and a $10,000 category that received $30,000 of inventory both post the same sales number, but one is performing dramatically better. Sell-through rate is what surfaces that difference.

Using it to catch slow movers early

Checked once a season, sell-through rate is a postmortem — it tells you what already went wrong. Checked weekly against fresh receiving numbers, it's an early warning that lets you reorder winners before they stock out and pull back on slow movers before they turn into a clearance rack.