What is sell-through rate?
Sell-through rate is the share of the stock you received that sold in a period: units sold divided by units received, written as a percentage. Buy 200 jackets for fall, sell 140 by the end of October, and the rate is 70%. It counts units, not dollars.
How do you calculate sell-through rate?
Sell-through rate = units sold ÷ units received × 100. Units received are starting stock plus what arrived in the period. Shopify's report divides units sold by units sold plus units left at the end. With every order shipped and nothing returned, lost or moved, both match: 140 ÷ (140 + 60) = 70%. Pick one window, a month or a season, and keep it.
What is a good sell-through rate?
Shopify's guide calls 70% to 80% healthy for stock bought to sell within one period. For basics you always carry, it accepts 40% to 60% a month or a quarter, as long as turnover stays on plan and margin holds.
Read it per size and color. Say those 200 jackets came in four sizes, 50 of each. Small sold 45, so 90%: reorder before it runs out. Extra large sold 15, so 30%: mark it down while the season has weeks left. Near 100% within weeks can mean you bought too few. A product stuck at 0% for months is dead stock.
Sell-through rate vs inventory turnover
Sell-through rate counts units of one product or one season's buy over weeks. Inventory turnover ratio counts money across all your stock over a year: cost of goods sold divided by average inventory. A 70% on fall jackets says nothing about your socks, and turnover blends both.
Where does Shopify show sell-through rate?
On the Products page, the bar above the list shows "Average sell-through rate" for the last 30 days. The full report, "Products by sell-through rate", sits under Analytics, then Reports: set the Category filter to Inventory. Each product and size gets a row: starting stock, ending stock, units sold and the rate. Change the report's 30-day period to your season's dates. It counts only products with tracked inventory. The merchandising guide reads it beside click-through and add-to-cart rates.
Before you reorder, with Sledge
Sledge does not calculate sell-through rate. When a product sells out, Sledge Back in Stock, on Accelerate and up, takes the emails of shoppers who want it. Its "Subscribed products" tab counts them beside your available stock. From the first paid plan, Growth Intelligence reads 90 days of orders and can flag products that sold none, then suggest a merchandising rule to lift them in collections and search. Its fixes from your store's data add up to one dollar figure, labeled "Est. potential".
