SKULabs gives you several powerful reporting and insights tools to help you stay ahead of inventory problems — from spotting slow-moving stock before it ties up capital, to forecasting when you'll run out of your best sellers. This guide walks you through how to use these tools together for a complete inventory planning workflow.
Before you start: The Insights page (stockout forecasting, sales velocity, COGS, profit) requires the SKULabs Growth plan. Basic mover ratings, last sold dates, and CSV exports are available on all plans.
Step 1: Check your A, B, C mover ratings
Mover ratings rank every item in your catalog by recent sales volume, helping you quickly identify which products need attention.
Go to Inventory > Items and click the Advanced tab.
Click Columns and check the Mover box to enable the column.
Sort by Mover rating to group your items:
A movers — your top 20% by sales volume. Prioritize keeping these in stock.
B movers — the middle 60%. Monitor regularly.
C movers — the bottom 20%. Review for potential discontinuation or reduced reorder quantities.
Tip: Filter by a specific warehouse or store to see mover rankings for each sales channel separately.
Step 2: Identify items approaching stockout
Go to Inventory > Items and click the Advanced tab.
Click Columns and check the Stockout box to enable the column.
Click Filters and select the stores and date range you want to analyze.
Sort by the Stockout column to surface items running out soonest.
Items showing "now" are already out of stock.
Items showing "never" have no sales history for the selected filters.
Tip: Set your date range to match your typical supplier lead time. If your supplier takes 14 days to deliver, look for items with a Stockout date within the next 14 days — those need a PO today.
Step 3: Review sales velocity for forecasting
Sales velocity tells you how quickly an item is selling and projects future demand.
Go to Inventory > Items > Menu > Sales Velocity.
Set your date range (e.g., last 30 or 90 days) and your Forecasted time (days) — typically your reorder cycle or lead time.
Click Columns and enable any additional columns you want, such as Mover.
Review these key columns:
Velocity — average units sold per day.
Projected — expected sales over your forecasted window.
Days left — the number of days before selling out available inventory at the current velocity.
Mover — A, B, or C ranking based on recent sales volume (must be enabled via Columns).
Export the results using the Export button to use in a spreadsheet for further planning.
Note: Sales velocity is calculated from the date of first sale to today. It doesn't account for seasonality or periods when an item was out of stock, so treat projections as a guide rather than a guarantee.
Step 4: Analyze top sellers and revenue by channel
Go to Insights > Inventory to see a full financial breakdown of your catalog. Set your date range, warehouse, store, and tag filters as needed, then review these key metrics:
Goods on Hand — the total value of your current stock based on average cost. Use this to understand how much capital is tied up in inventory.
Potential Sales — the estimated revenue you could generate if all current stock were sold at the average retail price.
Potential Wholesale — the estimated revenue if all current stock were sold at the average wholesale price.
Product Sales — the actual revenue generated from sales of each item over the selected date range.
COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) — the total cost of the inventory sold over the selected date range, based on average cost per unit.
Profit — the difference between Product Sales and COGS, showing how much you actually made after accounting for the cost of goods.
For a view of top sellers, go to Insights > Listings and review Top sellers by quantity and Top sellers by revenue filtered by date range and store.
Tip: Compare top sellers by revenue vs. by quantity — high-volume, low-margin items and low-volume, high-margin items often need very different inventory strategies.
Step 5: Set stock alert levels to stay proactive
Once you know your velocity and lead times, set stock alerts so SKULabs warns you before you run out.
Go to Inventory > Items and open an item.
Set the Stock Alert level to the quantity that triggers a reorder (e.g., if lead time is 14 days and you sell 5/day, set alert at 70).
You'll receive alerts when stock drops to or below this level.
See also: How to set Item Stock Alert levels and Automating purchasing: How to set up reorder rules.
Step 6: Schedule a low stock report for purchasing
Set up a scheduled low stock report to receive a regular email listing all items that have dropped to or below their alert level — ready to use as your purchase order input.
Go to Settings > Advanced > Schedule Automation.
Click Add to create a new automation rule.
Enter your email address, select Low Stock as the Action, then choose your preferred Frequency and Time.
Click Save. SKULabs will email you the low stock report on your chosen schedule.
Tip: Pair this with reorder rules to have SKULabs generate draft purchase orders automatically when stock hits your alert threshold.
Frequently asked questions
Why are all my items showing as C movers?
This usually means SKULabs doesn't have enough sales data to differentiate between items. A, B, and C rankings are relative — if total sales volume is low or evenly spread, most items will land in the C tier. Here are the most common causes:
The date range is too narrow. Try extending it to 30, 60, or 90 days so there's enough sales history to rank items against each other.
Low overall order volume. If your account is new or you haven't imported much order history, there isn't enough data to separate A and B movers from C movers yet.
You're filtering by a low-activity store or warehouse. A single channel with light sales will show mostly C movers. Try removing store or warehouse filters to see your global rankings.
Orders aren't being deducted. Mover ratings are based on deducted orders. If the Sold column shows zeros, check that your stores are connected and that orders are being deducted in SKULabs.
Why does an item show "never" under Stockout?
An item shows "never" when there's no sales history for the stores and date range you have selected in your filters. Try widening your date range or removing store filters. If the item genuinely has no sales history, it will always show "never" until orders start coming in.
How accurate is the sales velocity forecast?
Sales velocity is a useful planning guide but not a precise prediction. It calculates the average units sold per day from the date of first sale to today — it doesn't account for seasonality, promotional spikes, or periods when the item was out of stock. For slowly selling products it may over-estimate velocity; for items that had stockout periods it may under-estimate. Use it directionally alongside your own knowledge of demand patterns.
Do I need the Growth plan to use these features?
The Insights page (sales velocity, stockout forecasting, COGS, profit, top sellers by revenue) requires the Growth plan. Basic mover ratings, the Last Sold column, stock alert levels, and CSV export reports are available on all plans. See Insights Feature Overview for a full breakdown of what's included.
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