Individual metrics are only useful if something is looked at them on a schedule — a monthly review turns scattered numbers into one recurring habit that actually informs the following month's decisions.
The monthly review agenda
- 1
Pull the month's totals
Revenue, profit, and number of items sold for the month, from Analytics or a CSV export.
- 2
Check sell-through rate and compare to recent months
Is it trending up, down, or holding steady — and does that match what actually happened (a slow month, a big sourcing trip, a pricing change)?
- 3
Check cash tied up in unsold inventory
Is it growing, shrinking, or stable relative to last month — and does that suggest a sourcing pause is worth considering?
- 4
Review performance by category
Which categories carried the month, and which underperformed — worth a closer look or a pricing adjustment?
- 5
Review aging inventory
What's been sitting the longest, and does it need a markdown, a bundle, or a not-worth-listing decision?
- 6
Set one or two concrete actions for next month
A specific markdown list, a sourcing pause, a category to test — not a vague intention to "do better," but a written, checkable action.
Keeping it sustainable
A monthly review that takes half a day won't survive contact with a busy month. Once the habit is established and the underlying numbers are already being tracked as they happen (rather than reconstructed from scratch each time), this review is realistically a 20–30 minute pass through numbers that are already sitting there waiting to be read, not a research project.