Sales Mix Variance: Definition, Comparison, Formula, and Example

Use the sales mix and sales mix variance formulas to optimize your sales strategy this quarter. Sales mix is the proportion of each type of product sold in a business compared to the business’s total sales. The purpose of calculating sales mix is to understand how the sales of different types of products impact profits. The sales mix report is important, because it’s used by different departments in the business to make decisions. When adjusting the sales mix, it is of considerable importance to understand the impact on the company constraint. Some products require more bottleneck time than others, and so may leave little room for the production of additional units.

The sales team of business think they managed to sell 3700 units of product B and 1300 units of product the last year. As a business, your biggest asset is detailed data about your products and customers. Request a demo today, and watch Zendesk find the solutions to your sales mix at the touch of a button. You can also see the trend of the Appliances department in terms of sales, as well as its contribution to the business.

During this period, the company actually sold 1000 total units, consisting of 700 units of wired speakers and 300 units of Bluetooth speakers. Through these calculations, we can see that the more wired speakers you sell, the more profitable your sales mix is. It doesn’t mean your company should discontinue selling Bluetooth speakers, however, it could mean devoting more focus to selling wired speakers could lead to more profit.

  1. Sales mix variance is a useful tool in data analysis, but alone it may not give a complete picture of why something is the way it is (root cause).
  2. It’s also tracked over time to see the trends of each category, and spot opportunities to introduce new products or categories to the business and improve performance.
  3. Holding an MBA in Marketing, Hitesh manages several offline ventures, where he applies all the concepts of Marketing that he writes about.
  4. Companies review sales mix variances to identify which products and product lines are performing well and which ones are not.
  5. Factors impacting sales mix include market trends, consumer preferences, seasonality, and promotional strategies.

In 2022 it generated total sales of $10,000,000, out of which $6,000,000 came from apparel sales, $3,000,000 came from footwear and $1,000,000 came from accessories. When you analyze this report you can see that Appliances contributed 9.4% to the total revenue of Home Depot in 2021, and Building Materials contributed 6.5%, and so on. You’ve finished the calculations above and have a pile of numbers in front of you—now what? It’s not worth very much unless you know how to use the results to shift sales practices and plans within the company. This means for every $100 worth of Bluetooth speakers your company sells, it contributes $67 to the bottom line.

Sales Mix Break-even Point Calculation

Most commonly, sales mix refers to the proportion of sales a single product accounts for in a company’s total sales. It is used to determine which products are performing well and which products are sinking so that inventory adjustments can be made down the line. Sales mix digs deep into the individual percentages and profits of your products so you can determine what stays, what goes, and what gets an update. Not every product is a best-seller, but that doesn’t mean it can’t hold value for the company. Through these calculations, we can see the sales of wired speakers had a positive variance, meaning the company made an additional $606 dollars in sales of this product. For the Bluetooth speakers, there was an unfavorable variance, meaning the actual cost to produce and sell the Bluetooth speakers was $138.60 greater than the expected cost.

Internal decisions such as more incentives for an underperforming product, discounts and offers for less profitable products are also accomplished by the company so that it can boost the sales. Managing the sales mix is essential to maintain the profitability of the organization. Product A sold 500 units, and that was enough to hit the necessary sales mix percentage. Product B, however, sold 800 units when it needed to sell 895 units to meet its sales mix percentage. That’s a difference of 95 units, or 2 percent in sales mix percentage (14 percent instead of 16 percent).

Sales Mix: How to Calculate It For Increased Profits

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For example, companies use profit margins (net income/sales) to compare the profitability of different products. The sales mix contribution margin is the amount of actual dollars a company sees from the sales mix percentage in a given time period. This metric is used to calculate the number of product units a company needs to sell in order to remain at its sales mix goal.

However, B’s sales exceeded expectations by 200 units (1,800 budgeted units – 2,000 sold). Sales mix variance is the measure of the change in profitability to the variation in the ratio of different products from the available standard sales mix. Most of the times, the profitability overall seems to be fine, but which product is performing better would be a question. Sales mix offers clear visibility to the management as to which product gets more profit percentage and which is underperforming. Based on the decisions, the company can decide whether to continue a product in the market or to make any changes in the product to increase its profitability.

Learning Outcomes

With this volume and sales mix the company is planning to have a small operating loss. When the company realizes that a specific product is not getting enough profits, they can always ask for suggestions from the customers. Customer feedback, together with research and market intelligence team, can revamp the product and get it working in the market.

This company has been doing well, but it is currently experiencing lower net sales and wants to examine its expense t account to pinpoint the problem. Activa decides to compare its two most popular products from the previous year. This means for every $100 worth of wired speakers your company sells, it results in $75 of profit.

Conversely, if a company elects to drop a low-profit product line and instead push sales of a higher-profit product line, total profits can actually increase even as total sales decline. Sales mix is analyzed by management continually because a company’s sales mix directly affects the company’s breakeven point and cost volume profit analysis. This makes sense because businesses generally carry a variety of products in their inventory.

There are several ways to calculate sales mix; it depends on what aspect of sales you’re looking to analyze. Sales mix is all about understanding profit margin, which is the percentage of a product’s profit divided by its sale price. You can then compare the profit margins of multiple products to understand your sales mix.

The https://www.wave-accounting.net/ is related to the product mix but focuses specifically on the revenue contribution of each product, whereas the product mix considers the variety of products offered. To calculate the break-even point for multiple product lines, first determine the sales mix, which is the percent of overall sales each of the two products represents. As you can see, management must decide whether to create a sales mix that is heavy in high cost products or heavy in low cost products. Planning a sales mix is a strategy decision that management must make based on economic and market conditions. Analyzing the sales mix variance helps a company detect trends and consider the impact they on company profits. Another way to make informed inventory decisions is to integrate your sales mix data with a state-of-the-art CRM like Zendesk Sell.

In this post, we’ll break down what sales mix is, how to calculate it, and some examples of using it to make business decisions. An example of a sales mix ratio could be 40% Product A, 30% Product B, and 30% Product C. Discover the vision, mission, and team behind Kennect, and how we’re transforming incentive compensation management. Automate and simplify incentive calculations with Kennect’s seamless data management. Factors impacting sales mix include market trends, consumer preferences, seasonality, and promotional strategies. Understand key terms and concepts in incentive compensation management with our detailed glossary.

Assume, for example, that a hardware store sells a $100 trimmer and a $200 lawnmower and earns $20 per unit and $30 per unit, respectively. The profit margin on the trimmer is 20% ($20/$100), while the lawnmower’s profit margin is 15% ($30/$200). Although the lawnmower has a higher sales price and generates more revenue, the trimmer earns a higher profit per dollar sold. The hardware store budgets for the units sold and the profit generated for each product the business sells. Sales mix is the proportion of different products and services that comprise the total sales of a company. Thus, if a company introduces a new product that has a low profit, and which it sells aggressively, it is quite possible that profits will decline even as total sales increase.

Sales mix is a metric which can be done by calculating the proportion of every product that a business sells in its product portfolio along with the total sales volume. But keep in mind, this number only refers to the number of units sold, not the impact of the units on revenue. To improve your company’s sales mix, you need to understand sales mix variance. To calculate sales mix, begin by understanding the profitability of each product your company sells.