Five reports that change what you buy, price and staff
Most garment and footwear owners look at one number every evening: today's sales. It tells you whether the day was busy, but not what to reorder, what to clear, or which brand deserves the front rack. Five reports answer those questions: sell-through by design and size, dead stock ageing, margin by brand and category, sales by staff member and exchange and return rate.
This article explains what each report shows, how to read it, and the decision it should lead to. It ends with a simple weekly and monthly routine. It assumes your billing is already recording the right size, colour and price on every sale; if not, start with our guide to setting up size and colour variants, because every report below depends on it.
Sell-through by design and size
Sell-through is the share of what you received that has sold in a given period. If 40 pieces of a design arrived and 30 sold in four weeks, sell-through for that period is 30 divided by 40, or 75%. (These are illustrative numbers.) It is the quickest way to separate designs that are working from those that only look good on the rack.
Read it at two levels. At design level it tells you what to reorder and what to push. At size level it tells you whether you are buying the wrong size mix: a design with strong sell-through in M and L but very little in XXL is telling you to change the next order, not to stop buying the design. Footwear owners will recognise the same pattern in size runs, covered in our guide to footwear size tracking.
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| High sell-through in the first two weeks | The design is in demand and may sell out early. | Reorder the sizes that are selling, if the supplier can deliver in time. |
| High in some sizes, low in others | The size mix of the purchase was wrong. | Change the size split on the next order. |
| Low across all sizes after a month | Wrong design, wrong price or poor display. | Move it to a better position or plan a markdown. |
| Low only at one branch | Customer profile differs between outlets. | Transfer stock to the branch where it sells. |
If your software does not show sell-through as a ready report, you can build it: export purchases and sales for the same designs and period to Excel and divide one by the other.
Dead stock ageing: how long each piece has sat
An ageing report groups your current stock by how long it has been in the shop since purchase, for example up to 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 days. These bands are only a starting point; choose limits that suit how quickly each category moves in your shop. The value of stock in each band, taken from your stock valuation, shows how much cash is sitting on the racks without moving.
The value of ageing is that it forces a decision before stock becomes truly dead. Pieces crossing your first limit should be checked for display and price. Pieces crossing the second should be considered for a festival offer, a transfer to another branch or a return to the supplier where your terms allow. Pieces beyond the last band need a clear decision, even if that means a deep markdown, because each month they stay also takes rack space from new stock.
Ageing is only accurate if purchase dates are right. When old stock was entered as opening stock on a single date, its true age is unknown; mark it separately and clear it on its own timeline.
Margin by brand and category
Gross margin is what remains from sales after the purchase cost of the goods sold, shown as a share of sales. A brand can be your biggest seller and still earn you less than a smaller label, because its purchase cost is high or because it needs heavy discounts to move.
| Brand | Sales | Purchase cost of items sold | Gross margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand A | ₹2,00,000 | ₹1,50,000 | 25% |
| Brand B | ₹80,000 | ₹48,000 | 40% |
| Own label | ₹50,000 | ₹25,000 | 50% |
In this example Brand A brings footfall but Brand B and the own label pay for the shop. That does not mean dropping Brand A. It might mean negotiating better terms, limiting discounts on it, or giving the higher-margin labels better display. Look at margin by category too: men's formal shirts, kids' wear and ladies' sandals often behave very differently in the same shop.
Margin reports are only as good as purchase costs. If items were created without a cost, or costs were not updated when the supplier's rate changed, the report will mislead you.
Sales by staff member
When each bill records who made the sale, you can see sales value, number of bills, average bill value, discounts given and exchanges handled per person. This helps you plan who works the busy evenings, spot who needs product training, and notice when one person's discounts are far higher than everyone else's.
Use it with care. A salesperson on the morning shift will always sell less than one on festival evenings, and someone who handles exchanges may show lower figures while doing useful work. Compare like with like, and talk to staff about the numbers before attaching incentives to them. A report used fairly improves selling; a report used as a stick tends to produce unrecorded discounts and off-system exchanges.
Exchange and return rate
Exchange rate here means the share of pieces or pairs sold that come back, either swapped or refunded. Look at it by design, brand, size and staff member. A design with far more returns than its neighbours usually has a fit problem, a size label that does not match the actual size, or a quality issue that customers notice at home.
In footwear, a brand where most exchanges are for a bigger size probably runs small, and staff should be told. In garments, a high return rate on one supplier's stock is worth raising before the next purchase. If one salesperson's exchanges are much higher than others', it may mean customers are being sold the wrong size to close the sale quickly.
A weekly and monthly reading routine
Reports help only if someone reads them on a fixed day and acts. A routine that fits a single-outlet shop looks like this; a multi-branch owner would add a branch comparison to each step.
| When | Report | Question to answer | Typical action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every week | Sell-through by design and size | What is selling fast and what is not moving? | Reorder selling sizes; move or reprice slow designs. |
| Every week | Size-wise stock of fast-selling designs | Which designs have lost their core sizes? | Reorder or transfer the missing sizes. |
| Every month | Stock ageing with valuation | How much money is sitting in old stock? | Plan offers, transfers or supplier returns. |
| Every month | Margin by brand and category | Which labels earn their rack space? | Adjust display, discounts and buying terms. |
| Every month | Staff sales and exchanges | Who needs support or training? | Discuss with staff; adjust shifts. |
| Before each season's buying | All of the above for last season | What should we buy more or less of? | Set the brand, design and size mix for the order. |
If you sell on credit to regular customers or institutions, add a look at outstanding dues to the monthly sitting. Our guide on credit control and collections in retail covers that side.
What MATROP's software reports, and what to check in a demo
The reports module in our garments and footwear shop software covers daily sales, sales, purchase and stock reports, stock valuation, fast-moving items, and category-wise and brand-wise performance. Return reports show what came back against which invoices, HSN and tax reports support GST work, and profit reports are available as an option. With the optional multi-branch module you also get branch-wise sales reports and consolidated owner reports. Everything can be exported to Excel or PDF, and reports can be restricted to the owner and managers while counter staff only bill.
Sell-through percentages, ageing bands and salesperson-wise sales are not listed as standard named reports. In a demo, ask to see how each would be produced for your shop: directly on screen, from an Excel export, or as a customisation. Bring a real export from your current system so you are looking at your own designs rather than sample data.
If you run a single small shop and personally bill most sales, you may not need much more than a monthly export and an hour with a spreadsheet. The routine above becomes worth automating when you have several staff, a second outlet, or enough designs that you can no longer remember which sizes sold.
Questions people ask
What is a good sell-through percentage for a garment shop?
There is no single right number, because it depends on category, season and how long the stock has been in. Compare your designs against each other and against the same weeks last season, and act on the ones well below your own average.
How often should a small shop owner look at reports?
A short weekly look at sell-through and broken sizes, and a monthly sitting for stock ageing, brand margins, staff sales and exchanges, is enough for most single-outlet shops.
Why do my margin figures look wrong?
The usual causes are missing or outdated purchase costs on items, discounts entered by changing the selling price, and exchanges done outside the software. Fix those entries and the margin report usually corrects itself.
Can I check these reports on my phone?
MATROP's software is available in an online (cloud) version and with an optional mobile app, so owners can check figures away from the shop. Confirm in a demo which reports appear on the screen you plan to use.
