Sell-through is the
percentage
In mathematics, a percentage () is a number or ratio expressed as a fraction (mathematics), fraction of 100. It is often Denotation, denoted using the ''percent sign'' (%), although the abbreviations ''pct.'', ''pct'', and sometimes ''pc'' are ...
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 ''Sa ...
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, 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:
* three major comic distributors:
** Luna ...
, American
comic book
A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
s were sold to
news agents 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 a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
came to prominence under
Stan Lee
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...
'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, ...
, owned by
National Periodical Publications
National Comics Publications (NCP; later known as National Periodical Publications Inc. or simply National) was an American comic book publishing company. It was the direct predecessor of modern-day DC Comics.
History
The corporation was origin ...
(Now
DC Comics
DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
). 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.
See also
*
Electronic sell-through Electronic sell-through (EST) is a method of media distribution whereby consumers pay a one-time fee to download a media file for storage on a hard drive. Although EST is often described as a transaction that grants content "ownership" to the consum ...
References
Publishing
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