Field Notes
Reading weeks of cover beside sell-through
Sell-through without cover can push you into aggressive markdowns; cover without sell-through hides dead options. Use them together.
A high sell-through on a thin intake can look triumphant while the store runs empty before the weekend. A low sell-through with heavy cover is the opposite problem: cash and rail space stuck on options that will not exit.
When we commission inventory sell-through rate dashboards, we place weeks of cover in the same visual family as sell-through — same filters, same hierarchy — so buyers do not flip between two packs. Thresholds should be category-specific; outerwear cover bands rarely match fashion jewellery.
In the weekly readout, ask two questions in order: “Are we exiting at the planned rate?” and “Do we have enough (or too much) left to finish the planned life?” Either answer alone is incomplete.