Calculate product sales velocity to rank SKU performance. Enter units sold and time period to identify fast and slow movers in your catalog.
Product velocity measures how quickly a specific product sells over a given time period, typically expressed as units per day, week, or month. It is the foundation of inventory planning because it directly drives reorder timing, safety stock levels, and purchasing quantities.
Fast-velocity products need frequent replenishment and tight inventory monitoring. Slow-velocity products may be candidates for markdown, discontinuation, or switching to made-to-order or dropship fulfillment. Understanding velocity across your catalog helps you allocate warehouse space, marketing budget, and working capital to your highest-performing SKUs.
This calculator computes velocity from sales data and projects future demand at current rates, helping you plan inventory purchases and identify performance trends. Whether you are a beginner or experienced professional, this free online tool provides instant, reliable results without manual computation. By automating the calculation, you save time and reduce the risk of costly errors in your planning and decision-making process. This tool handles all the complex arithmetic so you can focus on interpreting results and making informed decisions based on accurate data.
Velocity ranking reveals your winners and losers at a glance. Instead of looking at absolute revenue alone, velocity shows you which products move fastest relative to their inventory investment, enabling smarter allocation of shelf space, ad spend, and capital. Having a precise figure at your fingertips empowers better planning and more confident decisions.
Daily Velocity = Units Sold / Days in Period Weekly Velocity = Daily Velocity × 7 Monthly Velocity = Daily Velocity × 30 Annual Projected = Daily Velocity × 365
Result: Velocity: 15 units/day | 105/week | 450/month
With 450 units sold over 30 days: Daily velocity = 450 / 30 = 15 units/day. Weekly = 15 × 7 = 105. Monthly = 450. Annual projection = 15 × 365 = 5,475 units. This is a high-velocity product requiring frequent replenishment.
Velocity is a key input to ABC analysis. A items (top 20% by velocity or revenue) deserve the tightest inventory monitoring and highest service levels. C items (bottom 50%) may be candidates for less frequent replenishment, reduced safety stock, or dropship fulfillment.
While point-in-time velocity is useful, the trend is even more important. A product with declining velocity over 3+ months may be approaching end-of-life. Accelerating velocity signals growing demand that requires increased purchasing. Use rolling 4-week averages to smooth noise and reveal trends.
Place your highest-velocity products in the most accessible warehouse locations (ground level, near packing stations) to reduce pick times. Low-velocity items can be stored in less accessible locations. This velocity-based slotting approach can reduce labor costs by 10–20%.
There is no universal benchmark because velocity depends entirely on your business size and category. What matters is relative velocity: how each product ranks against others in your catalog. Use velocity percentiles (top 20%, middle 30%, bottom 50%) rather than absolute numbers.
Velocity measures the absolute speed of sales (units per day). Sell-through measures the percentage of available inventory sold. A product can have high velocity but low sell-through if you overstocked it, or low velocity but high sell-through if you had limited stock.
For baseline velocity used in inventory planning, yes — promotions inflate demand temporarily. Calculate a "base velocity" excluding promotional periods and a separate "promo velocity" for planning promotional inventory needs.
Divide units sold by days IN STOCK, not calendar days. If you sold 100 units in 30 days but were out of stock for 10 days, your true velocity is 100/20 = 5 units/day, not 100/30 = 3.3. This prevents understating demand.
Yes. If velocity is very high, you may have room to raise prices without significantly impacting unit volume. If velocity is declining despite stable market conditions, a price adjustment or promotional push may be needed to maintain performance.
Recalculate weekly for fast-moving products and monthly for your broader catalog. Always recalculate after significant events like price changes, new competitors, seasonal shifts, or marketing campaigns that could alter demand patterns.