Fill Rate Formula
How apparel allocators calculate fill rate, how wholesale shortfalls turn into chargebacks, and the root causes to trace before the next floor set.
What Fill Rate measures
Fill rate is the percentage of ordered units a brand ships on time. It is the operational output of the allocation, planning, and supply chain functions working together.
Fill Rate % = Units Shipped ÷ Units Ordered × 100Depending on the context, fill rate can be measured three ways:
- Unit fill rate — units shipped ÷ units ordered
- Order fill rate — orders fully shipped ÷ total orders
- Line fill rate — order lines fully shipped ÷ total order lines
Wholesale vendor agreements specify which one applies — line or unit. In DTC, order fill rate (with back-orders tracked separately) is the one the customer feels.
Worked apparel example
A wholesale brand received orders for 2,500 units across a floor-set delivery window. 2,340 units shipped on time.
Fill Rate = 2,340 ÷ 2,500 = 93.6%
If the account's vendor compliance terms set a 97% floor, chargebacks are coming. Before the next floor set, the brand has to trace the 160-unit shortfall — late receipts from the factory? Wrong size curve on the ship plan? Reallocation errors at the DC? Each root cause points at a different fix.
93.6% fill is close — check it against each account's vendor compliance floor, because chargebacks apply below it.
Illustrative planning ranges
Illustrative reference points, not a published benchmark — set targets from your own history.
These are illustrative reference points, not a published benchmark. Wholesale is the unforgiving channel: the account's vendor agreement sets the floor and chargebacks scale below it, so plan against the agreement, not this table. DTC has more tolerance but the back-order experience hurts LTV.
Failure modes we see
Fill rate measured in aggregate, not at the account or order grain. 96% chain-wide fill masks a 82% fill at a key account. The account service team only finds out when chargebacks land the following month.
Specific patterns:
- No root-cause tagging. Short-fill recorded without the reason — late receipts, wrong curves, allocation error, PO cancellation after ship plan. Fixing anything requires knowing which.
- Size-curve mismatches missed. Fill at 100% on Ms and 60% on Ss / Ls. The total looks healthy; the account is furious because the floor set is unsellable without the size range.
- Delivery-window interpretation. "Fill rate" measured at the "final delivered" point, not the "on-time promise" point. A ship that made the deadline by a week gets the same credit as one that shipped two days late and triggered a chargeback.
How RetailNorthstar handles fill rate
Fill rate tracks at account, door, and order-line grain with root-cause tagging at short. The system links the short back to the planning decision that caused it — late PO, mis-forecast size curve, allocation override — so the fix lives at the source, not at the ship.
Fill rate is a lagging indicator of every upstream planning choice. A brand hitting 98% fill is not "good at shipping" — it is running a plan where the OTB, size curve, and receipt timing were right. Improving fill rate means improving those, not the warehouse.
Related formulas
- Weeks of Supply — insufficient WOS at ship time causes shorts
- Sell-Through Rate — the input that should have informed the size curve
- Open-to-Buy — late PO cancellations often drive wholesale shorts
See how RetailNorthstar traces every wholesale short back to the specific planning or allocation decision that caused it.
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Frequently asked about Fill Rate
What is the fill rate formula?
Fill Rate % = Units Shipped ÷ Units Ordered × 100. Apparel brands also track order fill rate (orders fully shipped ÷ total orders) and line fill rate (order lines fully shipped ÷ total lines). Wholesale vendor agreements specify which applies.
What is a healthy wholesale fill rate?
The number that matters is the one in your account agreements — where a vendor compliance manual sets a fill-rate floor, chargebacks apply below it. As illustrative reference points, not a published benchmark, this page uses 95–98%+ for both wholesale and DTC. DTC carries no chargeback, but back-order experiences hurt LTV.
What causes wholesale fill shortfalls?
Late factory receipts, wrong size curves allocated to the ship plan, allocation overrides at the DC, and PO cancellations between commit and ship. Each root cause points at a different upstream fix in the planning workflow.
How is fill rate different from service level?
Service level is broader — it includes fill rate plus on-time delivery, quality, and order accuracy. Fill rate is the unit/line subset. A wholesale agreement can combine them into a single compliance score, so check how yours is defined.