Sell-Through Rate
The percentage of available inventory sold during a given period, used to gauge product demand relative to stock levels.
Full Definition
Sell-through rate is calculated by dividing units sold by units received (or on-hand at period start) and expressing the result as a percentage. It is a core metric in retail merchandise planning and markdown optimisation, indicating how efficiently a product is converting from stock to revenue. A low sell-through rate may signal overstocking, misaligned pricing, or poor placement, while an excessively high rate can indicate lost sales due to stockouts. Editors should hyphenate 'sell-through' when used as a compound modifier before a noun ('sell-through rate', 'sell-through percentage') but not when used predicatively ('the rate of sell through').
Usage
Usage note: Hyphenate as a compound modifier ('sell-through rate'). Do not confuse with 'inventory turnover', which counts how many times total inventory is sold in a period rather than a percentage of a specific intake.
In Context
- "A sell-through rate of 85% on the summer range confirmed the buyer's decision to increase the open-to-buy budget for the following season." — Merchandise planning report
- "The markdown schedule was triggered automatically when any SKU's sell-through rate dropped below 40% at the eight-week point." — Pricing analytics brief