Apparel Search Tools
Find the sell-through a clothing style or collection needs to cover its sampling, patterns, photography and production costs.
Launching a style means paying for sampling, patternmaking, photography and a factory order before you sell a single piece, and whatever does not sell at full price usually ends up in clearance. This Apparel Search planner shows the sell-through you need to break even, the profit at the sell-through you expect, and the lowest price that still covers your costs. It is built for clothing and accessory brands, designers and buyers. Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is saved.
Use the Landed Cost Calculator for your landed cost per unit. Sell-through is the share of the units you produced that sell at full price. The rest are assumed to clear at the percentage above.
Estimates only. This is not a sales forecast. Confirm with your own records and advisers.
Formula. Profit = units sold at full price x (price - per-unit costs) + unsold units x clearance value - production cost - one-time costs. Because profit rises in a straight line with sell-through, the break-even sell-through is the point where profit is zero.
Illustrative example (made-up figures). A designer makes 500 jackets at a landed cost of $10.89 and sells them for $45. Other costs are $4.00 per unit sold plus 3% fees ($5.35 in total per unit sold), unsold units clear at 40% of price ($18), and one-time costs are $6,000 (sampling $1,500, patterns $1,200, photography $1,800, website and marketing $1,500). Break-even sell-through is about 22.6%, or roughly 113 jackets. At 70% sell-through the profit is about $5,132.50, and at 100% about $8,380. To break even at 70% sell-through, the price could be as low as about $32.15.
It is the sell-through, or number of units sold, at which a style or collection has earned back its development, production and selling costs. Beyond that point each additional sale adds profit.
Use your own history for similar styles, seasons and channels. If you have none, test a range of values to see how sensitive your result is.
Most fashion brands do not throw unsold units away. They mark them down or sell them off-price, so ignoring that value would overstate your loss. You can set it to 0 for a stricter view.
See all Apparel Search tools for the apparel industry.
Estimates only. This tool is provided for general planning and informational purposes. Results depend on the information you enter and on assumptions that may not match your business. Apparel Search does not guarantee accuracy or completeness of any result. Confirm figures with your own records, suppliers, accountant or other qualified professionals before making business decisions. See our Legal page for terms of use.