Tendlio gives each product a health color, based on how fast it sells compared with the other products in your store. The colors show you where to look first: which products sell well, which sell slowly, and which haven’t sold in a year.
What each color means #
Tendlio picks each color by comparing a product’s selling pace with your typical pace. A product’s selling pace is its Sales/mo: the units it sells in an average month while it’s in stock. Your typical pace is the one in the middle: of the products that sold in the last 12 months, half sell faster than it and half sell slower.
- Fast (green): sells well above your typical pace.
- Steady (yellow): sells at your typical pace or faster, but not fast enough to be Fast.
- Slow (orange): has sold in the last 12 months, but slower than your typical pace.
- Dead (red): hasn’t sold in the last 12 months.
- New (blue): you listed it in the last 90 days, and it hasn’t sold yet. Once it sells, the next analysis gives it Fast, Steady or Slow, like any other product. If it still hasn’t sold when those 90 days are up, it turns Dead.
- Seasonal (purple): a seasonal product that’s out of its season. Tendlio doesn’t count it as slow or dead while it waits for its season.
Tendlio learns which products are seasonal in three ways: Seasonal detection looks for them once you turn it on under Inventory → Seasonal, you can set a product’s season yourself with Seasonal handling, on the product’s page in WooCommerce, and you can give a whole category its season under Seasons by category on the Seasonal page. During its season, a seasonal product gets Fast, Steady, Slow or Dead like the others.
The numbers behind the colors #
Next to Last calculated at the top of Products & insights, a line gives your store’s numbers in units a month: Median is your typical pace, and Fast ≥ and Steady ≥ are the paces where those two colors start.
The colors count units, not money, so a product’s price isn’t part of its color. A pricey product that sells a few a month can be Slow and still be one of your top earners, so check its ABC class too.
Tendlio measures the pace only over the time a product was in stock. A product that sold out keeps the color it had while it was selling, until a whole year passes without a sale. The hover over its dot says the pace is from when it was in stock.
If you’ve ticked Bulky item on a product, it has to sell faster than other products to count as Fast or Steady, because storing it costs more.
When the colors update #
The colors come from your last analysis. Tendlio runs one every week, and Re-scan store runs one right away. So when you change something on a product, such as Bulky item or its season, the new color shows after the next analysis.
If your store has had too few orders in the last year, Tendlio puts the colors on hold, because with so few orders it can’t tell a slow product from a quiet month. Products & insights then shows a note that says Health colors are on hold, and the line with your store’s numbers isn’t there. Your products show a gray dot, except the ones that are New or Seasonal, and the Insights page of a product with a gray dot shows Not rated yet under Health. The colors fill in as orders come in and the next analysis runs.
Where you see the colors #
- Products & insights: the dot at the start of each row, and the chips above the table. Hover over a dot to read what the color means for that product. Each chip counts the products of one color, and clicking it shows only those products. Under the chips, Revenue / month by selling speed shows roughly what the products of each color bring in a month. It multiplies each product’s selling pace by its price, so a sold-out product still counts, at the pace it sold while it was in stock.
- A product’s Insights page, under Health. The Insights link is under the product’s name on Products & insights.
- Reports → Best sellers, in the Health column, and Reports → Categories, which shows the mix of colors in each category.
- The Dashboard, if you add the Dead stock value card with Customize cards. The card adds up the stock value of your Dead products.
What to do with each color #
- Fast and Steady: keep them in stock. When one sells out, Products & insights shows a RESTOCK badge under its name, and the Restock page lists it among the products you’re losing sales on.
- Slow: before you discount it, check its price, its photos and where it shows up in your store, and whether it could be seasonal.
- Dead: clear it with a discount, or bundle it with a best-seller. Auto outlet chooses what to discount among your Slow and Dead products, and makes the discount bigger step by step. Manual outlet lets you discount a product right away. For a product with variations, set the sale price on its variations in WooCommerce: neither outlet page discounts them for you.
- New and Seasonal: give them time.
If a product you know is seasonal shows as Slow or Dead while it’s out of season, set its season with Seasonal handling. It shows as Seasonal after the next analysis, for as long as it’s out of season. When a whole category is seasonal, give the category its season under Seasons by category on the Seasonal page instead: its products show as Seasonal right away. You can also turn on Detect seasonal products automatically from sales history under Inventory → Seasonal, but detection marks a product only when the same season repeats in at least two years. A product whose season hasn’t repeated yet lands under Needs review on the Seasonal page, for you to confirm.
Why the colors work this way #
Why the colors compare your products with each other #
Every store sells at its own pace, so Tendlio measures each product against yours. If Fast meant a fixed number, such as ten a month, a store whose typical product sells two a month would see almost every product as Slow, and the colors would stop telling your products apart.
Why only the time in stock counts #
A product can’t sell while it’s sold out. If those weeks counted, a best-seller that was out for a month would look slower, and it could drop from Fast to Steady when you most need to restock it.
Why a product that has sold waits 12 months to turn Dead #
A year covers every season once. A product that sells only around the holidays has sold within the last 12 months, so it doesn’t turn Dead in the summer. It can still look Slow then. Once it’s marked as seasonal, by Seasonal detection or by you, it shows as Seasonal out of its season.
Why a new product gets 90 days #
A product you listed last month hasn’t had time to sell. For its first 90 days without a sale, it’s New, not Dead.
Additional resources #
- Selling pace (Sales/mo): how the pace behind the colors is counted.
- ABC class (A / B / C): which products bring in most of your revenue.
- How to set up Auto outlet to clear your dead stock
- How to discount products yourself with Manual outlet
- How to set up seasonal detection
- How to use the Tendlio fields on a product: Bulky item and Seasonal handling.
- Sales velocity
- What to do with dead stock
Frequently asked questions #
Why is a product that sells every week Slow? #
Slow means it sells slower than the typical product in your store, not that it sells rarely. The line next to Last calculated on Products & insights shows the pace where Steady starts for your store.
Why does a sold-out best-seller still show as Fast? #
Tendlio measures the pace only over the time a product was in stock, so it keeps the color it earned while it was selling. The RESTOCK badge under its name tells you it's out.
Why do most of my products have a gray dot? #
Your store has had too few orders in the last year for Tendlio to tell a slow product from a quiet month, so the colors are on hold. New and Seasonal products keep their colors, and the rest fill in as orders come in.
Does a product's price change its color? #
No. The color counts units. The ABC class is where price and revenue come in.