Retail Inventory KPIs: The Metrics Every Brand Must Track to Improve Cash Flow & Profitability - Part 1
A saying you’ll often hear parroted by the Boon team is, “Know your numbers!” More than just a catchy phrase, it’s a guiding principle that can make or break your retail business. “Knowing your numbers” is our short-hand for being aware of your retail inventory KPIs and critical sales and margin metrics. These numbers are the backbone of effective demand planning, sales forecasting, and inventory planning.
Read on to understand what “knowing your numbers” actually means, which retail KPIs matter most, and how tracking them consistently can improve your cash flow and profitability.
Knowing Your Numbers: Understanding the Key Metrics Driving Your Retail Business
From sales cadence to inventory turnover, small and large retail businesses alike need to be well-versed in the metrics behind their brands if they want to confidently navigate the complex retail industry. Strong retail analytics and data-driven reporting are what separate brands that scale from those constantly fighting fires.
In this article, we’ll:
Dive into what it really means to “know your numbers”
Outline the key performance indicators (KPIs) every retailer should be tracking
Highlight the challenges that pop up when you’re not regularly reviewing your sales and inventory data
Just a warning—there’s a lot to this topic! We’ve done our best to lay it out clearly, and we’re actually dividing it into two parts to keep things digestible. As you read both parts, if you’re unsure where to start, contact our team to learn how we can help you build a customized KPI and reporting plan for your retail or DTC business.
So, what numbers do I actually need to know?
For many retail founders—especially those who love the creative side of building a brand—“knowing your numbers” can feel intimidating.
The good news: you don’t need an advanced degree in math.
“Knowing your numbers” simply means having a thorough understanding of the metrics that drive your business forward. At Boon, we look at a brand’s retail inventory KPIs and sales numbers in two primary buckets:
Core KPIs (the non-negotiables)
These are the retail performance metrics you should know like the back of your hand—the ones that give you a pulse check on your business’s overall health. Examples include:
Cost
Sales plan
Initial markup percentage (IMU%)
Average weekly sales (AWS)
These KPIs are foundational for demand planning, merchandise planning, and retail cash flow management.
2. Supporting data (the context)
This data helps you understand seasonality, channel performance, and the nuances of your specific business model. For example:
A bakery might track raw material costs, production capacity, and spoilage
A sportswear brand might focus on SKU sales distribution, size curves, and seasonal demand patterns
Supporting data tends to change more frequently and often includes standard retail inventory metrics like:
Open-to-buy (OTB)
On-hand inventory
Sales by SKU
Week-over-week (WOW) sales
When it comes to tracking retail numbers, the list is long. So in Part 1, we’re focusing on the sales metrics and KPIs that drive revenue and inform your overall demand plan. In Part 2, we’ll dive into the inventory KPIs that help you improve inventory productivity and cash flow.
A Beginner’s Glossary of Key Retail Sales Metrics & KPIs
Understanding your industry’s nuances will help you prioritize the most impactful KPIs for your retail or product-based business. Below, we’ve compiled a list of commonly tracked sales metrics used by brands that sell physical products.
Not every metric will apply to every business, but skipping too many details in favor of high-level averages can create blind spots in your sales forecasting and inventory planning (Spoiler: it doesn’t end well).
Let’s start with the basics: costs and prices.
Cost and Price- Key Retail Metrics for Analyzing Items and Margin Rates
** indicates a KPI that we recommend you know off the top of your head.
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The total cost for you to produce a single product, including raw materials and production costs.
Understanding unit cost is essential for margin planning, pricing strategy, and inventory investment decisions.
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A common retail metric used to determine the initial retail price of your products.
Formula:
($ Original Price – $ Cost) / $ Original Price = Initial Markup %This KPI is a cornerstone of merchandise planning and profitability, helping you understand how much room you have for promotions and markdowns while still protecting margin.
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How much it costs you to buy the materials needed to produce an item for sale. Critical for brands with manufacturing, CPG, or apparel production.
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The price your customer pays for your product.
Strategic retail pricing, when paired with your IMU% and margin targets, is one of the biggest levers for improving profitability and cash flow.
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How much it costs to create your finished product—labor, packaging, and any value-added steps in your production process.
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How much it costs for your product to get to a customer. This will affect your margin, promotion strategy (like free shipping thresholds), and unit economics.
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How much it costs your warehouse or 3PL to store inventory.
High storage costs are one of the reasons we emphasize lean inventory planning and inventory turnover in all of our work with clients.
Sales - Key Retail Metrics for Revenue, Rate of Sale, and Profit
** indicates a KPI that we recommend you know off the top of your head.
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Represents the increase in sales you see in response to an advertising campaign or marketing promotion.
Your ad lift should typically be at least a little higher than your average weekly sales (AWS) to justify the investment. This number ties directly into marketing ROI and promo effectiveness.
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Helps you track the velocity of sales during a specific period of time. Most retailers track this weekly and use it as a comparison tool across products, weeks, and channels.
Average sales is a foundational metric in demand planning and inventory forecasting.
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The sum of a company’s gross sales minus returns, allowances, and discounts. It’s helpful to review this in both dollars and units to understand promo impact and true performance.
Net sales is typically:
Gross Sales – Returns – Discounts – Allowances = Net SalesNet sales is a core retail KPI and a better indicator of actual revenue than gross sales alone.
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A metric used to estimate the sales opportunity you missed due to stockouts or limited inventory.
For example:
If you planned to sell 100 units over 7 days, but you sold out of all 100 units in 4 days, you under-planned demand. The next time you run a similar promotion, you can use rate of sale and potential sales to plan more realistic inventory levels.Potential sales should be considered when:
Forecasting future promotions
Adjusting your plan sales
Evaluating whether your inventory planning and stock levels are aligned with demand
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Your sales forecast shows how your business is tracking relative to your sales plan. It can be measured in dollars, units, and percentages, and it will change throughout the year.
We recommend:
Updating your forecast monthly (at minimum)
Using updated forecasts to adjust inventory buys, reorders, and OTB
Consistent forecasting is one of the most effective ways to avoid overbuying, underbuying, and cash flow crunches.
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Similar to sales by item, but focused on where sales are happening in your business.
If you sell across DTC, wholesale, and retail stores, reviewing sales by location or channel can help you identify regional trends, underperforming doors, and pockets of opportunity.
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Sales should be tracked at the item (SKU) level and then rolled up into categories so you can view performance across:
Category
Color
Size
Fabrication
Use case / purpose
This is a critical step for any brand looking to improve assortment planning, demand planning, and inventory optimization.
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Your sales plan is your best educated guess at how your sales will go for the year. It should be broken down by:
Month or week
Category
Item (for mature businesses with enough data)
Most businesses create a sales plan at least once a year, far in advance of the selling period. It functions as your anchor—your forecast will flex, but your plan gives you a fixed point of comparison.
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The total time you anticipate selling a particular item—from launch through full price selling, markdowns, promo periods, and finally clearance or liquidation.
This metric is especially important for seasonal, trend, or limited-lifecycle products.
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Indicated by a percentage or a decimal, sell-through measures how much of your inventory sells during a given time period compared to how much was available.
This is one of the most important retail inventory KPIs you can track and is central to:
Inventory productivity
Markdown strategy
Reorder and rebuy decisions
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A comparison of this week’s sales versus last week’s sales.
WOW trends help you see early inflection points in demand, making it easier to respond quickly with inventory and marketing adjustments.
OK. Take a breather, and remember you don’t have to be an expert overnight —or ever.
The numbers associated with sales tell the story of how money flows into your business. Your sales plan and forecast are a foundational part of your demand plan, which then informs your inventory planning and buying strategy.
If you’re early-stage and operating out of your home, you might already know many of these numbers instinctively because you’re close to every order. The goal is to move that intuition into a repeatable reporting and KPI tracking process that can scale with you.
Just like learning any new skill, understanding the why behind these KPIs will help you:
Plan for future seasons with more confidence
Avoid rework and costly mistakes
Make smarter decisions around inventory, promos, and cash flow
There can be a lot to keep track of when you’re “making it rain,” but it’s also exciting to think about how these numbers can support the growth you’re aiming for.
What should I do next?
We know this is a lot—so here are some practical next steps:
Option 1 - Create a Demand Plan for Your Business
If you like a DIY challenge, set aside time to create a sales plan and forecast for yourself. Most selling platforms (like Shopify) have reports you can export and analyze.
Start by:
Reviewing historical sales by week, item, and category
Building a forward-looking forecast by month or week
Setting up a simple, repeatable process to recap and compare plan vs. actuals
This becomes the foundation of your demand planning and inventory planning process.
Option 2 - Download our Sales Recap Tool
Maybe you have the math and Excel skills—but not the time. Our Sales Recap Tool is built to help product-based brands:
Analyze sales by category, time frame, and top/bottom items
Capture essential retail sales KPIs in one place
Turn raw data into insights you can act on
It’s built for use with Shopify, but easily modifiable for any POS platform. You can use it month after month to strengthen your retail analytics and reporting.
Option 3 - Set up time for a discovery call
The Boon team has over 200 years of combined experience in sales and inventory planning, demand forecasting, and retail KPI tracking. If your business is getting more complex—or you’re not sure which KPIs to prioritize—we can help.
We’ll:
Identify the right retail inventory KPIs and sales metrics for your business
Build or refine your reporting toolkit
Help you turn data into better decisions, not just more spreadsheets
Stay Tuned for Part 2: Key Inventory Metrics Coming Your Way
Sales metrics show you what’s coming in. Inventory metrics help you understand what’s going out, what’s stuck, and what’s tying up your cash. In Part 2, we’ll walk through the critical inventory KPIs and retail inventory planning metrics that every brand should track to improve cash flow, inventory productivity, and profitability.
Keep yourself in the know.
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