Inventory operations
Sell-through rate
How much of what you received has actually sold.
Formula
Units sold / units received, over the period
Sell-through rate is the share of received stock that has sold in a period: units sold divided by units available, usually over a season or since a delivery. It answers a buying question rather than a cash one, and it is the fastest read on whether an order was the right size.
It complements turnover rather than repeating it. Turnover measures how hard the money works across a whole catalogue; sell-through measures whether a specific buy was right, which is what makes it the natural metric for seasonal ranges and new products.
Read it against elapsed time. Sixty percent sold is excellent three weeks into a twelve-week season and alarming in week ten, so a rate quoted without its window is a number that cannot be acted on.
It also decides markdown timing. A rate well behind its season is a signal to discount early, while stock still has demand, rather than late when the only remaining buyer is the clearance channel.