What is Sell-in vs sell-through?

Small store owners often judge a product's success by how much they ordered, not by how much actually sold. Sell-in vs sell-through separates those two numbers so an owner can see if a product is genuinely moving or just sitting in boxes.

Use it before placing the next purchase order. If sell-through is low relative to sell-in, cut the next order or stop reordering that variant. If sell-through is high, the store may be under-ordering and risking a stockout.

Formula

Example

A candle store orders 400 units of a new scent from its supplier. That is the sell-in. Over the next 60 days it sells 160 of those candles to customers, giving a sell-through rate of 160 / 400 = 40 percent. The gap tells the owner the next order should be smaller.

Common mistakes

• Confusing sell-in with real demand, as if receiving stock means it is selling.
• Not tracking sell-through by variant, which hides slow colors or sizes inside a decent overall number.
• Reordering based on last order size instead of actual units sold.

Sell-in vs sell-through and SteadyShelf

SteadyShelf forecasts sell-through per variant and uses it to size future order quantities, instead of basing the next purchase order on what was simply ordered last time.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related terms

Sell-through rate · Demand forecasting · Overstock · Slow-moving inventory

Full inventory glossary

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