> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Top SKUs, Shopify > Top SKUs for Shopify stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Top N SKUs ranked by units sold in the 30D window. The unit-velocity view; pair with [Top Products by Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/top-products-by-revenue) for the £-weighted version. | | | | ----------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `SUM(lineItem.quantity) GROUP BY sku ORDER BY sum DESC LIMIT 50`. Units sold per SKU, regardless of price. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | Not applicable, count metric. | | **Shipping** | Not applicable. | | **Discounts** | Units count regardless of discount; the £-implications are visible in [Top Products by Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/top-products-by-revenue). | | **Refunds** | Refunded units are NOT subtracted from the velocity here. A SKU with high refunds appears as high-velocity even though net is lower. | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | Excluded if Shopify removed them from the index. | | **Currency** | Not applicable. | | **Channels / sources** | All channels. POS contributes; B2B bulk orders may dominate top of list if you sell wholesale. | | **Time window** | `30D` (default 30D rolling) | | **Alert trigger** | None directly; pair with stockout-velocity for ops alerts. | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Shopify data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US apparel DTC brand on Shopify, \~1,800 active variants. 30D window 12 Apr 26 to 12 May 26. | Rank | SKU | Product | Units sold (30D) | Revenue (30D) | Note | | ----------------- | -------------- | --------------------------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------------------------------- | | 1 | LIN-TEE-SAND-M | Linen tee, Sand, M | 240 | \$7,200 | Unit price \$30 | | 2 | LIN-TEE-WHT-M | Linen tee, White, M | 195 | \$5,850 | Same product, different colour | | 3 | LIN-TEE-SAND-L | Linen tee, Sand, L | 220 | \$6,600 | | | 4 | TROUS-BLK-10 | Wide-leg trouser, Black, 10 | 180 | \$14,400 | Higher unit price \$80 | | 5 | TROUS-BLK-12 | Wide-leg trouser, Black, 12 | 165 | \$13,200 | | | ... | | | | | | | 50 | SOCK-PACK-3 | Sock pack of 3 | 38 | \$570 | \$15 unit price | | **Top-50 totals** | | | **4,820** | **\$162,400** | \~38% of total units, \~31% of revenue | Six things to notice: 1. **The Pareto signature.** Top 50 SKUs (\~3% of catalogue) drive 38% of unit sales. Nearly every Shopify store sees this concentration; it's healthy. 2. **Unit-velocity isn't revenue-velocity.** SKU rank-1 (Linen tee Sand M) sells most units but rank-4 (trouser Black 10) sells more revenue. Ranking by units alone misleads margin discussions; pair with [Top Products by Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/top-products-by-revenue). 3. **Variant concentration matters.** 3 of the top 5 are colour/size variants of one product (Linen tee). The brand has one viral product with deep variant assortment. Operationally this means stocking strategy is more about size-mix than SKU breadth. 4. **Sock pack at rank-50 is the threshold.** 38 units/30D ≈ 1.3 units/day. Below this, SKUs aren't candidates for safety-stock or ad-spend; they're long-tail. 5. **Refund-impact hidden.** If 20% of Linen Tee Sand M is refunded, gross velocity 240 hides net velocity 192. Pair with refund rates by SKU for net view. 6. **Marketplace orders included.** If the brand sells via Shop Pay Buy Button on partner blogs, those order line items still attribute SKUs. The aggregate may include surprise top-rankers from one popular blog post. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together Top SKUs is the unit-velocity view. Companions: | Card | Why pair it with Top SKUs | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Top Products by Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/top-products-by-revenue) | The £-weighted version; differs when unit prices vary across catalogue. | | [Stock vs Sales Velocity](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/stock-vs-sales-velocity) | Combines top-velocity with on-hand to predict OOS. | | [Inventory Distribution](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/inventory-distribution) | Aggregate band view; helps see whether top-velocity SKUs are well-stocked. | | [Products with Zero/Negative Stock](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/products-with-zero-negative-stock) | Cross-reference: any top-50 SKU on this list is a five-alarm fire. | | [Bottom Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/slow-moving-products) | The flip-side; slow-movers worth de-listing or marking down. | | [Total Orders](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-orders) | Denominator for Pareto-share calculations. | | [Top Refunded](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/top-refunding-customers) | Refund-rate companion; refund-heavy top SKUs may need quality investigation. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Shopify Admin:** > **Shopify Admin → Analytics → Reports → "Sales by product variant SKU"** (under *Sales*) The most direct equivalent. Pick the same window. SKU ranking should match this card to within sync-lag tolerance. Other Shopify Admin views: * **Reports → Sales by product**: aggregates variants under parent product; this card splits by SKU. * **Reports → Inventory snapshot** (Plus): inventory-side companion. * **Apps like Stocky / Inventory Planner**: typically expose unit-velocity rankings. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Shopify Admin:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **SKU vs variant ID** | Either | Shopify can group by either; we use SKU string. Variants without SKU populated will not appear here (see [SKU Coverage](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/sku-coverage)). | | **Refund treatment** | Theirs may differ | Shopify Net Sales by SKU subtracts refunded units; we count gross. | | **Time zone** | Boundary | UTC vs store time zone. | | **Bundle / kit handling** | Either | Bundles' component SKUs may surface separately or as the parent bundle SKU; depends on app config. | | **Sync lag** | Ours lower for "today" | Most-recent 5-15 min may not be in. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`amazon_sp.amazon_top_asins`](/nerve-centre/amazon_sp/amazon_top_asins) | Independent inventory channel | Top SKU on Shopify may not be top ASIN on Amazon; different channel demographics. | | WMS / 3PL pick-velocity reports | Should align | 3PL pick reports show actually-picked-units; minor diff vs ordered-units due to substitutions and pick errors. | ***
Documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`bigcommerce.shp_top_skus`](/nerve-centre/bigcommerce/shp_top_skus) * [`adobe_commerce.shp_top_skus`](/nerve-centre/adobe_commerce/shp_top_skus)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is my top SKU not what I expected?** Three usual causes: 1. **Variant deep-dive surprise**: a single colour/size combination can dominate. Often the "best-selling" colour in a product line is not the marketed hero. 2. **One-off bulk order**: a B2B customer placing 200 of one SKU in a single order skews the 30D window. 3. **Influencer feature**: a single creator's post drove disproportionate demand on one SKU. **My catalogue has thousands of SKUs. How do I make sense of this?** Use Pareto-tier segmentation: * **Top 1-2% (the "A" tier)**: stock deeply, market hard, monitor daily. * **Next 5-10% (the "B" tier)**: stock moderately, market periodically. * **Bottom 80%+ (the "C" tier)**: minimum stock, optional discontinue. This card is the A-tier identification tool. **Why are my SKUs missing? Where did the data go?** Variants without populated SKU strings don't appear here. Pair with [SKU Coverage](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/sku-coverage). If coverage \<95%, fix the catalogue first; this card is meaningless without it. **Does this include POS sales?** Yes. POS-sold units count toward the SKU velocity. For a brand with retail presence, SKUs popular in-store may dominate the rankings; the online-only velocity is different. Filter by sales channel in Shopify Admin for the online-only view. **Why does my B2B account dominate the list?** B2B buyers place bulk orders (50-500 units of one SKU per PO). On a 30D window, one B2B PO can move a SKU into the top 10. To filter B2B out: tag B2B orders with `tag = "wholesale"` and exclude in your reading. **Should I rank by units or revenue?** Both. Units = volume strain on ops and inventory. Revenue = financial weight. The top-by-units list tells you which SKUs to stock deeply; the top-by-revenue list tells you which SKUs to invest marketing in. They overlap but are not identical. **Why does refund not lower SKU velocity?** Design choice; we count gross sales. Refund-adjusted net-velocity is on the roadmap. For now, pair with refund-rate by SKU for context. **My subscription store, do recurring billings count units?** Yes. Each subscription billing creates a line item; the underlying SKU's units count. Subscription SKUs often dominate top-velocity rankings even with modest customer counts because each customer recurs monthly. **Action playbook for using Top SKUs:** 1. **Daily ops check**: confirm top-50 SKUs are not in OOS or Critical bands of [Inventory Distribution](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/inventory-distribution). 2. **Weekly reorder review**: pace POs based on current top-50 velocity, with safety stock for top-10. 3. **Monthly catalogue rationalisation**: identify SKUs that haven't appeared in top-300 in 6 months; candidates for clearance or discontinue. 4. **Quarterly merch refresh**: top SKUs deserve premium PDPs, professional photography, hero placement. 5. **Marketing alignment**: paid-media budget should bias toward top-50 SKUs; spending on long-tail SKUs is usually inefficient. 6. **Bundle building**: top-velocity SKUs make natural bundle anchors; pair with complementary slow-movers to clear surplus. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Top SKUs* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Shopify and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.