[RetailEdge Moderator]

Here is a forum link that describes a couple of scenarios and how the sell through reports work.

http://www.retailedge.com/phpBB/viewtop ... 882&p=2933

Question 1.

I ran three sell through reports for the period for department Accessories:

check department only
uncheck exclude zero sales
uncheck exclude zero received
Sell Through 26%

check department only
uncheck exclude zero sales
check exclude zero receiving
Sell Through 40.5%

check department only
check exclude zero sales
check exclude zero receiving
Sell Through 51.72%

Please explain why they would all give different results AND in your opinion, which one is most meaningful in terms of looking at the forest (total department) then looking at the trees (vendor, department and individual skus) and finding where you are selling through properly for a proper return on investment.

Answer 1

In your scenarios to summarize your options your reports do the following.

1. You are displaying every item for the period regardless of sales or receiving history. This is the sell through for the entire department regardless of whether the items are active or not. This could include some dead items and so might not really be reflective of how effective newer/active items are selling.

2. You are displaying items that may or may not have had sales for the period and have been received during the period. This is the sell through for items that you might have received during the period (actively ordered items) and showing the items whether or not they have been sold. This would be a pretty comprehensive sell through report.

3. Your are only display items that have been received AND were sold during the period. This will remove all your non-ordered/received items and also non-sellers. This is going to give you a higher sell through rate and will not give you an idea of items that have 0% sell through (things that did not sell at all).

So the best report would be the Number 2. This would minimize the amount of information displayed and also give you the most useful information about your "active" items. However reports 1 and 3 are also useful to run since it brackets the high and the low range of sell through, and gives you some meaningful data about dead and inactive products and how high your sell through might be if you managed the zero sellers (if you can).

Question 2.

I am not sure exactly sure what beginning on hand and received quantify. For one item begining on hand 6, received 4 = 10 available for sale, sold 3, 3 left (why not 7?), and a 50% sell through (why not 3 divided by 10 = 30% ?)

Answer 2

There should be a check box that allows you to include receiving in your beginning of month inventory quantity. It does not really matter what you use here and it is just personal preference. Remember that sell though is really a value to give you another way of determining what is selling and what is not. Different businesses have different sell throughs that they feel is a good value. These reports are useful for trending and comparison with other like inventory items. But whether it is 50% or 30% is not as relevant. You will be able to determine over time and comparing to other like businesses what is a good number.