Products, SEO & shipping · Calculators · Free tool

How fast does my stock sell through?

Last updated

Inventory turnover in the period—
Step 1 of 3
Which period are you measuring?

Use the same period for cost of goods sold and stock.

Display only. Your figures are read in the currency you pick — nothing is converted and no exchange rate is applied.

Period length
Step 2 of 3
What did the goods you sold cost?

Cost of goods sold for the period, at cost, not at selling price.

Step 3 of 3
How much stock did you hold?

At cost. Start and end values, or an average if you track it monthly.

Inventory turnover in the period

Enter the cost of goods sold over a period, the stock value (start and end, or an average) and how long the period was.

  • Cost of goods sold for the periodNeeded
  • Stock value: start and end, or an averageNeeded
  • Period lengthHave

Planning to clear slow stock with a price cut? Check what it costs first with the discount impact calculator, or move it in a set with the bundle pricing calculator.

No benchmark ratio is used. The currency is a label only and nothing is converted. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Cost of goods, average stock and days on hand

Inventory turnover counts how many times your average stock sold through in a period, and days of inventory turns that into how long what you hold would last, so a boutique that sold 90,000 dollars of goods at cost in a quarter while holding 36,000 dollars on average turned its stock 2.5 times and holds about 36 days of it.

No industry ratio is used: the answer comes from your own cost of goods and stock values. Pricing slow lines to move? Check the margin first with the markup calculator.

Everything here is valued at cost. Mixing a retail-price stock figure with a cost-of-goods figure is the most common way this ratio comes out wrong.

Cost of goods sold
What the products you sold in the period cost you to buy or make, not what you sold them for. Your accounting app or the cost column in your sales report gives it.
Beginning and ending stock
The value of what you had on hand, at cost, on the first and last day of the period. Their midpoint stands in for the average when you have nothing better.
Average stock
If you track stock value month by month, an average of those readings is more accurate than two end points, especially across a season with a big buy-in. Switch the input to average and enter it directly.
Turnover
How many times the average stock was sold and replaced in the period. Two turns in a quarter means the typical unit sat for about half the quarter.
Days of inventory
How long the stock you hold would last at the pace you sold in the period, if nothing new came in. It is the same fact as turnover, told in days.
Yearly pace
For a period shorter or longer than a year, the turnover the same pace would give over twelve months. It makes a monthly figure comparable with an annual one.

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How fast five stores sell through their stock

Invented stores in US dollars, not real books. The calculator above and this table call the same function.

Worked examples: store and period, average stock at cost, turnover, days of stock on hand and the yearly pace
StoreAverage stockTurnoverDays on handYearly paceVerdict
Fashion boutique, one quarter$36,000.002.50 times36 days10.0 timesStock lasts about 36 days
Specialty coffee, one month$6,000.003.00 times10 days36.5 timesStock lasts about 10 days
Furniture store, one year$160,000.003.00 times122 days3.00 timesStock lasts about 122 days
Jewellery, one month$95,000.000.13 times238 days1.54 timesStock outlasts the period
Supplements, a 60 day stretch$23,000.002.17 times28 days13.2 timesStock lasts about 28 days
Compare the coffee and jewellery rows. Coffee turns three times in a single month and holds about ten days of stock; the jeweller sells 12,000 dollars at cost against 95,000 on hand, so its stock would last about eight months at that pace.

What a turnover ratio hides

An average across every product

One figure blends fast sellers with the stock that has not moved in months. A healthy overall ratio can hide a corner of dead stock; run the calculator on a single collection or category to find it.

Seasonal buying skews the end points

If the period ends just after a big delivery, ending stock is high and turnover looks slow. Use an average of monthly stock readings, or pick a period that does not start or end on a buy-in.

Cost and retail values must match

Stock counted at retail price against cost of goods sold at cost understates turnover. Keep both at cost.

Faster is not always better

Very high turnover can mean you are running out and losing sales. The ratio says how quickly stock moves, not whether you had enough of the right items.

Pre-orders and dropshipping

Products you never hold do not belong in either figure. Leave their cost out of cost of goods sold, or the ratio will be inflated by sales with no stock behind them.

Inventory turnover questions

How do I calculate inventory turnover for my store?

Enter the cost of goods sold for a period, your stock value at the start and end of that period (or an average) and how long it was. The calculator returns the turnover, the days of stock you hold and the yearly pace. A boutique with 90,000 dollars of cost of goods sold in a quarter and 36,000 dollars of average stock turned it 2.5 times.

What is a good inventory turnover ratio?

It depends so much on the product that a single number would mislead: fresh food turns weekly, fine jewellery might turn once a year. Compare your ratio with your own past periods, and with the cash you want freed up, rather than with a published average.

What is the difference between turnover and days of inventory?

They are the same measurement from two sides. Turnover says how many times stock sold through in the period; days of inventory says how long what you hold would last at that pace. Three turns in a year is about 122 days of stock.

Should I use retail value or cost for stock?

Cost, to match cost of goods sold. Mixing the two understates turnover by roughly your markup.

How can I improve a slow turnover?

Buy in smaller, more frequent batches, stop reordering the lines that do not move, and clear the slow ones with a time-limited offer rather than an open-ended sale. Run the calculator on the slow category before and after to see the change.

Is my stock data sent anywhere?

No. The figures stay in the page, and nothing about your store is stored or sent.

Get started

Knowing which stock sits is half of it. Moving it is the other half.

Nudgesmart can run a clearance offer as a notification bar or a discount popup, shown to shoppers already browsing your store.

Inventory Turnover Calculator & Days of Stock | Nudgesmart