Sell-through refers to the

percentage In mathematics, a percentage (from la, per centum, "by a hundred") is a number or ratio expressed as a fraction of 100. It is often denoted using the percent sign, "%", although the abbreviations "pct.", "pct" and sometimes "pc" are also us ...

of a product that is sold by a retailer after being shipped by its supplier, typically expressed as a percentage.

Net sales In bookkeeping, accounting, and financial accounting, net sales are operating revenues earned by a company for selling its products or rendering its services. Also referred to as revenue, they are reported directly on the income statement as ''Sal ...

essentially refers to the same thing, in absolute numbers. Sell-through is calculated during a period (usually 1 month). Sell through refers to sales made directly (Direct sales).

Sell in Sell can refer to: People * Brenda Sell (born 1955), American martial arts instructor and highest ranking non-Korean female practitioner of taekwondo * Brian Sell (born 1978), American retired long-distance runner * Edward Sell (priest) (1839– ...

, on the other hand, refers to sales made through a channel.

Example

Before the rise of the

direct market The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of: * four major comic distributors: ** Lunar ...

, American

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s were sold to

News agent A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency (Australian English) or newsstand (American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of local ...

s through distributors in anticipation that a significant portion of the print run would eventually be unsold, then returned to the distributors who invalidated each returned copy by deliberately damaging the cover for return to the publisher for refunds where the material was pulped. Thus the business goal of the publisher would be to attempt to minimise those returns to maximise their income. By that measure, a sell-through percentage of a print run of roughly 50% was considered break-even by the standard fiscal measures of the comic book market. When

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

came to prominence under

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...

's new artistic direction in the early 1960s, his publishing line by title quantity was highly restricted because their distributor was

Independent News Independent News Co. was a magazine and comic book distribution business owned by National Periodical Publications, the parent company of DC Comics. Independent News distributed all DC publications, as well as those of a few rival publishers, such ...

, owned by

National Periodical Publications National Comics Publications, Inc. (also known as NCP or simply National) was an American comic book publishing company, and the direct predecessor of modern-day DC Comics. History The corporation was originally two companies: National Allied P ...

(Now

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

). However, although Marvel's titles could not compete with National in absolute volume of sales due to that restriction, the company's sell-through percentage soon caught National's attention in a way it could not ignore: Marvel's print runs were selling-through at 70% while National's were much closer to 50%. That meant that while Marvel's product might not have sold as much as National's in simple numbers, Marvel had to refund the distributors significantly less money for unsold product and thus was becoming much more profitable.

References

Publishing {{Economics-stub

Example

See also

References