Analysing bestsellers in your salon: how to read your top list without distortion
The product at the top of your sales list looks like the safest one to reorder. Yet that spot tells you less than you think. A shampoo that was sold out for three weeks ranks too low. A spray that was on promotion ranks too high. And a product with lots of units sold sometimes earns less than one that sold half as many. In this article you will learn how to make your top list fair before you act on it: four distortions to remove, a simple calculation for the order and the question to ask before you drop a slow product.
Why your top list does not tell the truth on its own
A bestseller is by definition a product that ends up high on a list based on sales figures. What sits at the top therefore depends on how the list was made: over which period, which products you include and whether you sort by units or by revenue. Change one of those choices and the order shifts.
For a salon this is not theory. Your shelf is small, you buy in small quantities and one wrong order sits in the cupboard for months. That is why it pays to clean up the list before you base purchasing decisions on it.
This article is about that clean-up. If you want to divide your whole shelf into groups (drivers, hidden opportunities, slow movers), read our quarterly retail shelf review. The conversation with the client is covered in the guide on increasing retail sales in your salon.
Distortion 1: weeks when the product was out of stock
A product that is not on the shelf cannot sell. Yet an ordinary sales list still counts those empty weeks. The result: your most popular products, the ones that sell out most often, rank too low.
So calculate sales per available week. Divide the number of units sold by the number of weeks the product was actually for sale.
An example over twelve weeks. Shampoo A sold 24 bottles but was out of stock for three weeks. That is 24 divided by 9, roughly 2.7 per week. Shampoo B sold 30 bottles and was never out: 30 divided by 12 is 2.5 per week. On the ordinary list B wins. Corrected, A sells faster, and with enough stock you would probably have sold more of A.
You can tell when a product was out of stock from your stock movements. In Salonnare's inventory management you see the history of what came in and went out per product, and you get an alert as soon as stock runs low. That alert keeps your next list from being distorted again.
Distortion 2: promotions and discounts
If a product was on offer for a few weeks, the sales in those weeks mainly tell you something about the discount. Reorder based on that peak and the extra stock is still there long after the promotion has ended.
Split the period into two parts: the promotion weeks and the normal weeks. Work out sales per week for both. The normal weeks are your basis for the order. The promotion weeks tell you how much extra a promotion brings in, which is useful the next time you plan one.
Watch the margin as well. A promotion that doubles the number of units but halves the profit per unit has achieved little overall. The same applies to a large one-off purchase, such as a client taking ten bottles as gifts: record it separately, otherwise an ordinary product suddenly looks like a bestseller.
Distortion 3: season and new products
Hair oil with sun protection sells in summer, a rich mask in winter. Compare July with October and you are measuring the season, not the product.
Compare a seasonal product with the same period last year, not with last month. If you do not have those figures yet, only judge the product after a full season.
Something similar applies to new products. A product that arrived in week eight of a quarter has had five weeks, not thirteen. Calculate per week here too, from the day it was on the shelf. And bear in mind that the first weeks are often higher because your team is enthusiastic about it; check whether sales hold up afterwards before you buy in bulk.
Distortion 4: mixing up units, revenue and margin
Sort by units and the cheap product wins. Sort by revenue and the expensive one wins. Neither tells you what is left after the purchase cost.
An example with amounts excluding VAT. A mask costs €24 and you buy it for €10: you keep €14 per unit. You sold 10, €140 in total. A styling spray costs €12 and you buy it for €7: €5 per unit. You sold 25, €125 in total. By units the spray is well ahead; by what it earns, the mask wins.
So put three columns side by side: units per available week, revenue and gross profit (selling price minus purchase price, times the number sold). A product that scores high on all three is a true bestseller. A product that only scores high on units should stay in stock, but does not deserve an extra spot at eye level.
In Salonnare's reporting you see, for a period you choose, which products generated the most revenue, with the number of units sold next to it. You record the purchase price per product in inventory management; you calculate gross profit yourself by putting the two side by side. Which other figures are worth tracking is covered in our article on salon reporting, and why revenue is not yet profit in the guide on revenue reporting.
From a cleaned-up list to an order
With the corrected figures you can reorder without guessing. Ask four questions for every product at the top.
How many do I sell per available week, without promotion weeks? That number is your basis.
Does the season play a role? If so, look at the same period last year.
How many are left right now? Count them if you doubt the records.
How long until the next order arrives? Add the delivery time to the number of weeks until your next regular ordering moment.
Then comes a simple calculation: sales per week times the number of weeks the order has to cover, minus what is still in stock. If you sell 2.7 bottles a week, delivery takes one week and you order every four weeks, you need about 14 bottles for five weeks. If 5 are left, you order 9, possibly with a small buffer for busy weeks.
Do not drop a product at the bottom of the list straight away. First ask whether it had a fair chance: was it visible, was it in stock, and does your team know it? Only if the answer is yes three times and sales stay low does it go. Note briefly why you make each choice, so you can check at the next round whether it was right.
How to keep track of the figures without extra work
The fairer your list, the less you need to correct afterwards. That starts at the till: every product sale that goes through the point-of-sale system lands on the right product line straight away and deducts the stock immediately. A periodic stock count in inventory management compares the records with what is really on the shelf, so a difference does not quietly pollute your sales figures.
In Salonnare the till is already included in the free plan (Free, €0). Inventory management and reporting come with Starter (€29 per month); Pro (€59 per month) adds unlimited staff and email campaigns, among other things. So you can start small and expand as soon as you want to analyse your retail sales seriously.
Want to base your next order on fair figures? Start free with Salonnare and bring your product sales, stock and top list together in one place.
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Start freeFrequently asked questions
Over what period should a salon analyse its bestsellers?
Choose a period long enough to even out chance peaks, for example a quarter, and use the same length every round. For seasonal products, compare with the same period last year. Within that period always calculate per available week, so sold-out weeks and new products do not skew the comparison.
Should I always reorder a bestseller?
No. First check whether the high position comes from a promotion, the season or a one-off large purchase. Then work out how many you sell in a normal week and how many you need until the next order arrives, minus the stock still on hand. Only then do you know how many to order.
What is better: sorting by units or by revenue?
Each tells only part of the story. Units show what clients often choose, revenue shows what comes in. Add gross profit, meaning selling price minus purchase price times the number sold, to see what a product really earns. A true bestseller scores well on all three.
Do I need software to analyse my bestsellers?
You can do it with a till list and a spreadsheet, but then you count by hand every round. With a point-of-sale system that records product sales per item and deducts stock immediately, you have the figures per period at hand and only need to correct for promotions and season.