Average Weekly Sell Through Calculator
Sell-through rate answers the buyer’s hardest question in one number: of the stock you brought in, how much actually sold? This average weekly sell-through calculator splits that answer into the parts a headline percentage hides. Enter units sold, units received and the weeks in the period, and you get the average weekly rate, the overall rate, sales velocity in units per week, weeks of supply left, and, when you add full-price units, how much of the selling happened at full price versus on markdown, all rated against the benchmark for your product category.
The worked example used throughout is a denim style: 600 units received, 390 sold in 8 weeks, 260 of them at full price. That is a 65.0% overall sell-through, 8.13% per week, with 210 units and about 4.3 weeks of stock left. Change any figure to your own style, store or category and the same breakdown follows.
Average weekly sell-through = (units sold / units received x 100) / weeks. The overall rate uses opening stock plus units received as the denominator when opening stock is entered. Weeks of supply = units remaining / units sold per week.
Quick Answer
Key takeaways
- Average weekly sell-through is the period rate spread across the weeks: (units sold / units received x 100) / weeks. It is a pacing average, not a score for any single week.
- The headline rate means little without its time window and category. 65% in eight weeks rates Good for apparel; the same 65% at the end of a season is a markdown problem.
- Full-price sell-through is the honest companion number: in the worked example, a third of all units sold needed a markdown to move.
- Weeks of supply is the forward-looking figure. It converts today’s pace into the date the shelf runs dry, which is the number reordering actually runs on.
- Quick Answer
- How to run a sell-through check in under a minute
- The formulas behind the weekly rate
- Worked example: a denim style over eight weeks
- What counts as good depends on the category
- Where the 600 units actually went
- Sell-through counts units; pair it with the dollar view
- When the rate runs too low, or suspiciously high
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to run a sell-through check in under a minute
Pull three numbers from your point-of-sale or marketplace dashboard for one item and one period: units sold, units received in that period, and the number of weeks. Enter them, pick the product category, and press Calculate Sell Through. Add units sold at full price if your system tracks ticket-price sales separately, and add opening stock if the item was already on the shelf when the period began.
Read the result in this order. The average weekly rate tells you the pace. The overall rate tells you how much of the buy is gone. Weeks of supply tells you what happens next if nothing changes. The full-price line tells you what the pace cost you in margin. A style can win on the first three and still lose money on the fourth, which is why this calculator refuses to show the headline rate alone.
The formulas behind the weekly rate
Four short formulas produce every number in the result box, and each one answers a different question.
One denominator detail is worth knowing, because rival tools rarely explain it. The headline weekly figure annualizes the buy itself: it divides by units received, the classic definition used by retail planning guides such as the Competera sell-through rate guide. The overall line divides by everything that was available to sell, opening stock included, which is the fairer rate for continuing lines that carried stock into the period. With no opening stock the two denominators are identical, as in the worked example below. If you carry stock across periods, judge the style on the overall line and use the weekly line for pacing.
Worked example: a denim style over eight weeks
A denim brand receives 600 units of one style on March 1 and sells 390 by late April, eight weeks later, with 260 of those sales at full price. The calculator above is pre-filled with exactly this case:
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Overall sell-through (390 / 600) | 65.0% |
| Average weekly sell-through (65.0 / 8) | 8.13% |
| Sales velocity (390 / 8) | 48.75 units per week |
| Units remaining (600 – 390) | 210 units |
| Weeks of supply (210 / 48.75) | 4.3 weeks |
| Full-price sell-through (260 / 600) | 43.3% |
| Sold on markdown ((390 – 260) / 390) | 33.3% of units sold |
| Category rating (apparel) | Good |
Read together, the story is a decent buy with a soft middle: the style is clearing at a good apparel pace, but a third of its sales needed a price cut, and at the current velocity the remaining 210 units clear in about four more weeks. If the season has six weeks left, that is comfortable. If it has three, the last units are heading for a deeper markdown, and a small early cut now usually beats a large late one.
What counts as good depends on the category
There is no single good sell-through rate, because a grocery staple and a sofa do not turn at anything like the same speed. This calculator rates your overall rate against the band for the category you select. The bands below are the ones built into the rating, set from the ranges retail planning sources publish for each trade:
| Category | Good from | Excellent from |
|---|---|---|
| General retail | 60% | 80% |
| Apparel and fashion | 60% | 80% |
| Electronics | 50% | 70% |
| FMCG / groceries | 80% | 95% |
| Beauty and personal care | 55% | 75% |
| Home and kitchen | 45% | 65% |
| Toys and seasonal | 70% | 90% |
Two reading rules apply to every row. First, judge the rate against the time left, not just the time passed: 65% with most of the season still to run is strong, while 65% in the final week means a third of the buy failed. Second, treat a very fast rate as a question, not a trophy. A style that sells out in week two was probably under-bought, and the profit lost to stockouts never appears in any sell-through report. Inventory writers make the same point about turnover generally: the Webretailer inventory metrics guide pairs sell-through with stock cover precisely because either number alone misleads.
Where the 600 units actually went
The percentage hides the split that decides whether the buy made money. Here is the worked example as units, not rates: 260 sold at full price, 130 sold on markdown, 210 still on the shelf.
That middle bar is the one buyers argue about. Markdown sales are not failure by themselves: a planned promotion can be the cheapest way to convert a slowing style into cash and shelf space. The warning sign is when the markdown bar grows week by week while the full-price bar stalls, because it means the ticket price, not the product, is what shoppers are rejecting.
Sell-through counts units; pair it with the dollar view
Sell-through is a unit metric. It will happily report 90% for a style that gave away its margin in week one. Two companion numbers keep it honest. The first is what each transaction was worth: a style clearing at full price and a style clearing at 40% off produce very different revenue per sale, which an average transaction value calculator puts into dollars. The second is the margin left after the markdowns land: run the discounted price through a 20 percent margin calculator style check and a 65% unit rate can turn into a very ordinary profit rate. Retailers who review all three together, units, ticket and margin, make fewer panic markdowns than retailers who watch the unit rate alone.
When the rate runs too low, or suspiciously high
A below-benchmark rate has four usual causes, and each has a different fix. Price too high for the perceived quality: test a modest cut on one size run before discounting the whole style. Wrong depth in the wrong sizes or colors: transfer stock between locations before marking down, because the style may be fine where the sizes are right. Weak placement or listing quality: in a store that means the rail position, online it means photos, title and reviews. Genuine demand miss: mark down early and decisively, since aged seasonal stock almost never recovers its price.
The forward number for all four decisions is demand per day, because reorder points and transfer quantities are set in days of cover. The average daily demand calculator converts the same sales history into a daily rate you can set reorder triggers against. Marketplace sellers should read velocity alongside visibility: a sudden velocity drop with steady traffic is a pricing signal, while a drop with falling traffic points at the listing, which an amazon sales rank calculator helps separate from demand.
What competing calculators miss
The best-known tool for this exact phrase, Brave Calculator, computes average units sold per week and calls it average weekly sell-through. That is velocity, not sell-through: it never divides by the stock you received, so it cannot tell a 90% clearance from a 20% flop if both sold the same units per week. AIMS360 publishes the strongest apparel benchmark article in the results and a solid calculator, but it frames everything around fashion and gives no category rating for electronics, grocery or home goods. Vendee Pro is clean and correct on the basic percentage, then stops: no weekly pacing, no weeks of supply, no full-price split. The XDage lab goes deepest on markdown timing, but wraps it in a simulator most buyers will not open for a quick style check.
This page keeps the standard formula the planning guides agree on, then adds the three numbers the others leave out: the weekly pacing rate, the weeks of supply at the current velocity, and the full-price versus markdown split, rated against the benchmark for the category you actually sell in.
Frequently asked questions
Divide units sold by units received and multiply by 100 to get the overall sell-through rate, then divide by the number of weeks. For 390 units sold of 600 received over 8 weeks: 390 / 600 x 100 = 65.0% overall, and 65.0 / 8 = 8.13% per week. If stock was already on hand when the period started, the overall rate in this calculator divides by opening stock plus units received instead.
It depends on the category and how much of the selling period is left. In the bands this calculator rates against, apparel and general retail rate Good from 60% and Excellent from 80%, groceries need 80% and 95%, and home and kitchen rates Good from 45%. A rate also needs its time window: 65% after eight weeks of a twelve-week season is healthy, while 65% in the final week leaves a third of the buy unsold.
No. Sell-through is a percentage of the stock you received, while velocity is units per week. The worked example has both: 8.13% per week and 48.75 units per week. Two styles can share the same velocity and have opposite sell-through if one was bought twice as deep as the other, which is why this calculator shows both.
Opening stock is added to units received to get total available stock, and the overall rate, full-price rate, units remaining and weeks of supply all use that total. The headline weekly figure keeps the classic definition and divides by units received, so for continuing lines with carried stock, judge the style on the overall line and use the weekly figure for pacing.
It shows how much of the buy sold at the original ticket price. In the worked example the headline rate is 65.0% but full-price sell-through is 43.3%, and 33.3% of the units sold needed a markdown. A high headline rate built on early discounting can be worth less than a lower rate sold mostly at full price.
Enough to cover your reorder lead time plus a safety margin, and no more than the season has left. The worked example holds 4.3 weeks of supply at the current pace. If your supplier needs three weeks to deliver, 4.3 weeks is workable but tight. If the season ends in three weeks, the same figure means leftover stock and a likely clearance markdown.
Yes. A style that hits 95 to 100% very early usually means the buy was too shallow: the units sold look perfect while the sales you missed during the stockout never appear in the report. Fast early sell-through on a reorderable line is a signal to reorder quickly and consider a deeper buy next time, not just a success to file away.
Weekly for seasonal and fashion lines, where a fortnight of slow sales changes the decision. Monthly is enough for staple lines with steady demand. Whichever rhythm you choose, use the same period definition and the same denominator every time, because a rate that changes method between reports cannot be trended.
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References
- Competera, “Sell-through rate: what it is, how to calculate it, and what it tells retailers” – the standard sold over received definition and how retailers act on the rate. Competera: Sell-Through Rate Explained. Accessed October 2026.
- Webretailer, “Inventory Turnover Ratio and Other Inventory Metrics for Ecommerce” – sell-through alongside turnover and inventory-to-sales as a metric set. Webretailer: Inventory Metrics for Ecommerce. Accessed October 2026.
- Dor, “Inventory Turnover Ratio: Formula, Benchmarks and Ways to Improve It” – week cover and sell-through ratio definitions used in retail planning. Dor: Inventory Turnover and Week Cover. Accessed October 2026.
- QodeNext, “Sell In, Sell Through and Sell Out: 3 Phases of Inventory Movement” – the distinction between sell-in, sell-through and sell-out that wholesale brands rely on. QodeNext: Sell-In vs Sell-Through vs Sell-Out. Accessed October 2026.
- WareIQ, “Impact of Sell Through Rate for eCommerce Sellers” – sell-through versus turnover timeframes and markdown strategy for online sellers. WareIQ: Sell Through Rate for eCommerce. Accessed October 2026.