How to Read Sell-Through Reports and Time Your Reorder Push

Most small retailers send sell-through reports as informal emails or spreadsheets, not the polished dashboards you get from chains. You need to extract the right numbers, calculate velocity, and decide whether to wait or push for a reorder.

What a Small Retailer Sell-Through Report Contains

A typical report from an independent store includes:

Units sold per SKU in the reporting period (usually 30, 60 or 90 days)
Starting inventory (units on hand at period start)
Ending inventory (units remaining)
Sometimes: revenue per SKU, returns, damaged units

Smaller stores rarely provide daily or weekly breakdowns. You work with period totals. If the retailer does not send reports proactively, ask for units sold and units remaining for each SKU you placed.

Calculate Sell-Through Rate and Weekly Velocity

Sell-through rate is units sold divided by starting inventory, expressed as a percentage. If the store started with 12 units and sold 9 in 60 days, sell-through is 75 percent.

Weekly velocity is units sold divided by the number of weeks in the period. Nine units sold in 60 days (8.6 weeks) gives velocity of 1.05 units per week.

Velocity tells you how long current inventory will last. If the store has 3 units left and velocity is 1.05 per week, inventory runs out in roughly 3 weeks.

Four Signals That It Is Time to Push a Reorder

Inventory drops below four weeks of supply. At 1.05 units per week with 3 units remaining, the store has 2.9 weeks left. Contact the buyer now. Lead time for your next shipment plus the buyer's decision time means the shelf could go empty if you wait.
Sell-through exceeds 70 percent in the first 60 days. Strong early velocity indicates the product fits the customer base. The buyer has proof of demand and less reason to hesitate on a reorder.
The SKU outperforms other products in its category. If the retailer shares category data or you know what else they carry, compare velocity. A facial serum moving 1.2 units per week when the category average is 0.6 units per week justifies a larger reorder and possibly more facings.
Seasonal peak approaches and current stock will not cover it. If you placed a body lotion in July and velocity is steady at 0.8 units per week, calculate inventory through November. A store with 8 units on hand in early October has 10 weeks of supply at current velocity, but holiday and dry-weather demand will increase velocity. Push the reorder in early October, not mid-November.

When to Wait Instead of Pushing

Do not contact the buyer if:

Inventory still covers more than 8 weeks at current velocity, unless a seasonal peak is imminent.
Sell-through is below 40 percent after 90 days. The product is not moving fast enough to justify retailer cash and shelf space. Use this time to gather customer feedback from the store, test different packaging or pricing, or assess whether the store is the right fit.
The retailer explicitly said they reorder on a quarterly cycle and that date has not arrived. Pushing early wastes goodwill.

How to Frame the Reorder Conversation

Lead with the data. Write: "Your sell-through on [product name] hit 75 percent in 60 days, and you have about 3 weeks of inventory left at current velocity. I can ship a reorder of [quantity] to arrive in [timeframe]. Does that work for your next order cycle?"

Propose a specific quantity based on the velocity and the period you want to cover. If velocity is 1.05 units per week and you want to cover 12 weeks, suggest 13 units (rounding up). Do not ask the buyer to do the math.

If the retailer's first order was small (a test buy of 6 or 12 units), suggest a modest increase for the reorder: 18 or 24 units. Reference the velocity to justify the larger quantity.

If sell-through is strong but the buyer hesitates, ask what is blocking the reorder. Common answers: cash flow timing, waiting to reorder multiple brands together, shelf space allocated to a promotion. You can adjust ship date or quantity, but you cannot solve the problem if you do not know what it is.

What to Track Over Multiple Reorder Cycles

After the second or third order, track velocity consistency. If velocity was 1.05 units per week in the first period and 0.95 in the second, the product is stable. If it drops to 0.5, investigate: did the store reduce facings, did a competitor launch, did they raise the retail price?

Track reorder interval (weeks between orders). If the interval lengthens, the buyer is either ordering larger quantities or velocity is declining. Check both.

Track order size. A retailer who reorders the same 12 units every cycle is not growing with you. After three consistent cycles, propose a small increase and explain the reasoning: "You have been moving 1 unit per week steadily for four months. Increasing to 18 units per order reduces your reorder frequency and I can hold the same per-unit price."

Common Mistakes When Reading Reports

Do not confuse units sold with revenue. A report showing $180 in sales does not tell you how many units moved unless you know the retail price.

Do not assume starting inventory equals the quantity you shipped. The retailer may have received your shipment partway through the reporting period, or they may have damaged or returned units before the period started. Always confirm starting inventory with the buyer if the report is unclear.

Do not ignore returns and damages. If the report shows 2 units returned or damaged out of 12 placed, your effective sell-through is based on 10 units available to sell, not 12.

Do not calculate velocity using calendar months when the reporting period is not a clean multiple of 7 days. Sixty days is 8.6 weeks, not 8. Ninety days is 12.9 weeks. The difference matters when inventory is tight.

What to Do This Week

Email every retailer who placed an order 60 or more days ago and ask for current units sold and units remaining for each SKU.
Calculate weekly velocity and weeks of supply remaining for each account.
Draft reorder emails for any account with fewer than 4 weeks of supply, including a specific proposed quantity and ship date.
For accounts with strong sell-through (above 70 percent) but more than 4 weeks of supply, set a calendar reminder to follow up when they hit the 4-week mark.