Inventory turnover ratio ITR definition, explanation, formula, example and interpretation

That said, low turnover ratios suggest lackluster demand from customers and the build-up of excess inventory. The inventory turnover ratio is a financial metric that portrays the efficiency at which the inventory of a company is converted into finished goods and sold to customers. The Inventory Turnover Ratio measures the number of times that a company replaced its inventory balance across a specific time period. Simply put, the higher the inventory ratio, the more efficiently the company maintains its inventory.

Some compilers of industry data (e.g., Dun & Bradstreet) use sales as the numerator instead of cost of sales. Cost of sales yields a more realistic turnover ratio, but it is often necessary to use sales for purposes of comparative analysis. Cost of sales is considered to be more realistic because of the difference in which sales and the cost of sales are recorded. Sales are generally recorded at market value, i.e. the value at which the marketplace paid for the good or service provided by the firm. In the event that the firm had an exceptional year and the market paid a premium for the firm’s goods and services then the numerator may be an inaccurate measure. However, cost of sales is recorded by the firm at what the firm actually paid for the materials available for sale.

Can an Inventory Ratio Be Too High?

If we wanted to know home many days it takes The Home Depot to turn its inventory once, we could divide the number of days in the year by the inventory turnover ratio we just calculated. If your small business has inventory, knowing how fast it is selling will help you better understand the financial health of your business. Here’s why inventory turnover ratio is important and how to calculate it. Identify which products are likely to be “impulse buys” for your customers and move them to high-traffic areas of your store. You can apply this same principle when you build your e-commerce website by featuring a particular product on your homepage or making a particular product image larger and more prominent within a section.

Among tangible goods, the “retail” and “consumer discretionary” sectors have the highest turnover ratios. Retail industries have a turnover ratio of 10.86, meaning that they replenish their entire inventory more than ten times in one year. Consumer discretionary refers to goods that are nonessential but desirable to those with a sufficient income, such as high-end fashion and entertainment. Businesses in the consumer discretionary sector replenish their inventory nearly seven times per year.

Move products around

It is calculated on the arrival of an average of stock at the beginning and end of the period. The inventory turnover ratio formula comes in handy in calculating the inventory turnover ratio. The inventory turnover ratio is a simple but effective tool for measuring your business performance. It’s also an excellent indicator for determining whether you’re operating at peak efficiency.

• What many businesses have found, though, is that spreadsheets are better for displaying data than harvesting insights.
• Businesses rely on inventory turnover to evaluate product effectiveness, as this is the business’s primary source of revenue.
• Regardless of the specific approach a business takes, real-time inventory records are essential for effective decision-making.
• In other words, it is a ratio which shows the number of times a company has sold and replaced the stock or inventory in a given time period.
• Measuring this ratio at regular intervals will reveal when different SKUs’ sales rise and fall and by how much.

SKU rationalization is the process of identifying whether a product on the SKU level should be discontinued due to declining sales and overall profitability. If the SKU doesn’t have a big profit margin, you may want to consider cheaper warehousing alternatives. Before you make drastic decisions regarding your inventory, analyze your marketing to ensure that your messaging, visuals, and navigation are on point (on both desktop and mobile).

Formula to calculate inventory turnover ratio

Sorry, there’s no silver bullet for this — you need to dive into your data and income statements to find out what’s best for your profitability and growth. The answer to the question, “What is a good inventory turnover ratio?” is the midpoint between two extremes. You don’t want your merchandise gathering dust; however, you don’t want to have to restock inventory too often.

Maintaining inventory in larger quantity than needed indicates poor efficiency on the part of inventory management because it involves blocking funds that could have been used in other business operations. Moreover, excessive quantities in stock always pose a risk of loss due to factors like damage, theft, spoilage, shrinkage and stock obsolescence. In this question, the only available information is the net sales and closing balance of inventory.

Improving Inventory Turnover With Inventory Management Software

The purpose of increasing inventory turns is to reduce inventory for three reasons. Over-ordering or producing larger batches of a product than you can sell is a common culprit of a low inventory turnover ratio. While you never want to order so little product that your shelves are bare, it’s typically in your best interest to order conservatively, especially for a new product that you’ve never offered before. Small-business owners should consider their product type and which inventory turnover ratio range is considered normal for their industry.