Lost Sales Examples

Sold out is not the same as sold enough.

Styles that cleared at full price well before their season ended, each one read size by size against what the buy would be able to serve.

Styles read, across four national apparel brands

1,350

Units bought across the four styles, every one of them sold

$192,804

Demand at retail the four buys could not serve

The examples

Real styles and real sellout dates. The buy quantities are estimated.

National women’s apparel brand · $78

Half the Demand, a Third of the Buy

$40,872Demand the buy could not serve

300 units bought. Small carried half the demand and got a third of the buy. Gone at full ticket in 25 days.

Read the size run →

National women’s apparel retailer · $245

Sold Out, Under-Bought

$64,592Demand the buy could not serve

150 units bought. Gone at full price in 13 days. The curve was broken before the style ever hit the floor.

Read the size run →

National activewear brand · $58

The 74% Buy

$12,412Demand the buy could not serve

600 units bought. The buy covered three quarters of the demand it created, then ran dry in the middle sizes.

Read the size run →

National casual apparel brand · $168

Right Curve, Wrong Depth

$74,928Demand the buy could not serve

300 units bought. The size split was right. There were not enough of any of them.

Read the size run →

How the read works

Every number on these pages starts from one observed fact: the day a size went out of stock and stayed out. Nothing else is assumed.

Set the rate

Units bought in a size, divided by the days that size stayed on the floor. That is the daily rate the style earned, size by size.

Extend the window

Carry each rate across the window the style should have stayed in stock, then hold it at 85 percent to allow for the pull from early marketing fading.

Price the gap

Demand at 85 percent, priced at full retail, minus what the buy actually rang. What is left is the part of the style that never got to sell.