This page is for a buyer, a retail planner, or a new entrant to retail who needs every retail calculation from this course sitting together against one style, so that no single figure has to be looked up from a separate note. This lesson mainly teaches the money flow: it takes Cedar & Co.'s own hybrid domestic business, its 12 own shops together with wholesale sales to smaller local shops, and closes out a full season with all six calculations recorded in one place.
Cedar & Co. buys the same 15,000-piece T-shirt style directly from Delta Garments at FOB USD 3.20 and sells it at its own shop price of USD 19.90, both through its own 12 shops and wholesale to a small number of local shops, a hybrid selling model. By the end of the season, every piece has sold. A buyer closing out this style needs margin, markup, sell-through rate, stock cover, average selling price and like-for-like growth all in one place to write a season report that stands on its own.
You need: no previous lesson, though lessons T20-C01-L01 to T20-C01-L04 cover each calculation in this lesson in more depth and are a useful start. Order A's own fixed FOB price of USD 3.20 and Cedar & Co.'s own shop price of USD 19.90 are enough to begin.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: any new calculation beyond the five introduced in lessons T20-C01-L01 to T20-C01-L04; this lesson only assembles them together.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Margin | Profit divided by the selling price, shown as a percentage of what a company sells for. |
| Markup | Profit divided by the cost, shown as a percentage of what a company paid. |
| Sell-through rate | The share of stock actually sold within a planned period, used to judge whether a forecast was right. |
| Stock cover | The number of weeks a brand's current stock is expected to last before it runs out, given its normal sales rate. |
| Average selling price | The total money taken from a style's sales divided by the number of pieces sold, once full-price and markdown sales are both counted. |
| Like-for-like growth | The change in sales of the same style, in the same set of stores, between two comparable periods, excluding any stores opened or closed since the last comparison. |
Margin, markup, sell-through rate, stock cover, average selling price and like-for-like growth can all be calculated from the same small set of closing figures: cost, shop price, order quantity, pieces sold at each price, weeks elapsed, and a comparable earlier period's own pieces sold in the same store base. A complete reference sheet lays out all six side by side, so a buyer closing a season never has to search a separate note to answer a question one of the other five could have answered from the start.
| What can differ | The shapes you will meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| A hybrid domestic business selling through its own shops and wholesale together | Cedar & Co. sells the same style through its own 12 shops and wholesale to smaller local shops, but calculates margin, markup and average selling price once against its own selling price, since the hybrid model does not change the calculations themselves. | A hybrid selling model changes how many routes a buyer must track sell-through rate and like-for-like growth across, but not the underlying formula for any of the six calculations. |
| An export retailer buying wholesale, as covered earlier in this course | Fairway Stores buys Order A wholesale from Northline Apparel and runs the same six calculations against its own higher cost and identical shop price. | The same six-part reference sheet applies to an export retailer exactly as it does to a domestic hybrid buyer, once each company's own cost and selling price are entered. |
| A season that closes with all stock sold, no leftover | Cedar & Co.'s season on this style closes with all 15,000 pieces sold, giving a sell-through rate of 100% and a stock cover of zero weeks remaining. | A sell-through rate of 100% at season close is the sign of a season that matched its own forecast, worth recording as a benchmark for planning the next season's order quantity. |
| A season compared against the previous year for like-for-like growth | Cedar & Co. compares this season's total of 15,000 pieces sold in its own 12 shops against 13,500 pieces of a comparable style sold in the same 12 shops last season. | Like-for-like growth belongs on the same reference sheet as the other five calculations, since a buyer closing a season needs to know both how the season performed and how it compares with the year before. |
Cedar & Co. buys the full 15,000 pieces directly from Delta Garments at USD 3.20 per piece and sells at its own shop price of USD 19.90 across its 12 own shops and wholesale to smaller local shops. By season close, all 15,000 pieces have sold: 12,000 at the full shop price and 3,000 at a markdown price of USD 15.92. In its own 12 shops alone, Cedar & Co. sold a comparable style last season at 13,500 pieces over the same period, illustrative sales figures kept for teaching purposes only. Cedar & Co.'s own buyer pulls every figure from this one season into a single reference sheet.
Every one of the six figures comes from the same season's own closing data, and each answers a different question a buyer needs closed out: how much profit against cost and against selling price, how completely the stock sold, how many weeks of cover remain, what customers actually paid on average, and how this season compares with the last one in the same shops.
The methodA common mistake is recording margin, markup and sell-through rate at season close, since those three are the easiest to reach for, and leaving out stock cover, average selling price and like-for-like growth simply because the season has already ended and the season itself feels finished. A season report missing average selling price hides how much markdown activity actually happened; a report missing like-for-like growth leaves the next buyer unable to judge whether the season's order quantity should rise or fall for next year. What this costs a buying team is real: a buyer planning next season's order quantity, working from an incomplete reference sheet, has to reconstruct the missing figures from raw sales data all over again, work the complete sheet would have already done.
A complete retail maths reference sheet records margin, markup, sell-through rate, stock cover, average selling price and like-for-like growth together, from the same closing set of sales data. Margin and markup are fixed once cost and shop price are set; sell-through rate, stock cover and average selling price move throughout the season and are worth recording at the point the season closes; like-for-like growth compares this season with a comparable earlier period in the same stores. A hybrid business selling through more than one route to market at once uses exactly the same six calculations as a business with only one route, since the formulas themselves never change, only how many times each one must be run.
Cedar & Co. hires a new buyer to plan next season's T-shirt order. The only document handed over from the previous buyer is a short note stating the style's own margin and markup. The new buyer needs to decide the order quantity for next season and has three days before the decision is due.
Here is the note the new buyer was given:
Is this note enough for the new buyer to plan next season's order quantity? Decide before opening the answer.
No, the note is not enough, based on what margin and markup can and cannot show.
First, margin and markup only describe profit against cost and against selling price; neither says anything about how many pieces sold, how fast they sold, or how the style compares with last season. Planning an order quantity needs sell-through rate, to judge whether last season's quantity was right, and like-for-like growth, to judge whether demand is rising or falling.
Second, without average selling price and stock cover from the previous season, the new buyer cannot tell whether the previous order needed a heavy markdown to clear, which would argue for a smaller order quantity next season, or sold through cleanly, which would argue for holding the quantity steady or raising it.
The new buyer should request the complete reference sheet, or rebuild it from raw sales data, covering all six calculations, before committing to next season's order quantity.
Using Cedar & Co.'s own complete season figures:
A new buyer working only from margin and markup has no way to see that this season's style sold through completely and grew 11.1% like-for-like in Cedar & Co.'s own shops, evidence that would support raising the order quantity for next season. Holding the order quantity flat, in the absence of that evidence, risks under-ordering by around 1,665 pieces against the demand the previous season's own figures already showed.
Open the course workbook's "Complete reference sheet" sheet. It draws figures from the "Core retail maths", "Sell-through and stock cover", "Markup, margin and ASP" and "Like-for-like growth" sheets into one combined view for a single style: margin, markup, sell-through rate, stock cover, average selling price and like-for-like growth, all calculated automatically from the same inputs. Enter a different style's own season figures to close out any order with one complete sheet.
[Download the Retail maths reference workbook](../../templates/T20-C01-retail-maths-reference-workbook.xlsx)
1. A season shows margin 83.9%, markup 521.9%, sell-through rate 100.0%, stock cover 0.0 weeks, average selling price USD 19.10, and like-for-like growth of 11.1%. Which figure tells a buyer whether to raise next season's order quantity?
2. A style sold through completely last season (sell-through rate 100.0%) but showed a like-for-like decline of 6.0% against the season before. What does this suggest for next season's order quantity?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Margin | الهامش | Marge | Marj | Profit divided by the selling price, shown as a percentage of what a company sells for. |
| Markup | الزيادة على التكلفة | Majoration (marge sur coût) | Kâr yüzdesi (markup) | Profit divided by the cost, shown as a percentage of what a company paid. |
| Sell-through rate | معدل البيع الفعلي | Taux d'écoulement | Satış oranı | The share of stock actually sold within a planned period, used to judge whether a forecast was right. |
| Stock cover | تغطية المخزون | Couverture de stock | Stok kapsama süresi | The number of weeks a brand's current stock is expected to last before it runs out, given its normal sales rate. |
| Average selling price | متوسط سعر البيع | Prix de vente moyen | Ortalama satış fiyatı | The total money taken from a style's sales divided by the number of pieces sold, once full-price and markdown sales are both counted. |
| Like-for-like growth | نمو المتاجر القائمة | Croissance à magasins comparables | Aynı mağaza büyümesi | The change in sales of the same style, in the same set of stores, between two comparable periods, excluding any stores opened or closed since the last comparison. |
You now have a complete retail maths reference sheet covering margin, markup, sell-through rate, stock cover, average selling price and like-for-like growth. The next course in Track 20 builds on these six calculations for full season and range planning. Back to the course map