Question 1

What is a clearance ladder?

Accepted Answer

A clearance ladder is a markdown schedule that steps the discount up in stages rather than cutting to one price on day one. This tool builds you a three-step ladder (a starting discount, a mid-point step-up and a final push) that only steps up if you're falling behind the pace needed to clear your stock by your target date.

Question 2

What is sell-through rate?

Accepted Answer

Sell-through rate is how much of your stock you sell over a given period, usually shown as units sold per week or as a percentage of what you started with. This tool uses your current weekly sell-through at full price as the baseline it measures every markdown against, so it can tell whether a discount is actually needed to hit your clear-out date.

Question 3

What is price elasticity of demand, and how does this tool use it?

Accepted Answer

Price elasticity of demand measures how much a change in price changes how much people buy: highly elastic demand means a small discount drives a big jump in sales, while inelastic demand means price barely moves the needle. This tool turns that into a plain **How price-sensitive are your customers?** choice (cautious, average or deal-driven) and uses it to model how each markdown tier lifts your weekly sell-through, with a **Fine-tune** option to set the underlying elasticity value directly.

Question 4

How does the tool decide when to step up the discount?

Accepted Answer

Each step in the ladder only kicks in once you fall behind the pace needed to clear your units by the target date at the current discount. If your starting discount is already clearing stock in time, the tool never steps up to the deeper tiers, so you're not discounting further than you need to.

Question 5

Is marking down always worth it, or should I hold my price?

Accepted Answer

Not always. The **Is it worth it?** comparison weighs the markdown schedule against simply holding your price and riding out slower sales, accounting for the gross profit on what actually sells, the cost of the discount itself, and any storage cost on units left over. If holding wins, the tool will show that too.

Question 6

Does this account for storage costs on unsold stock?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if you enter one. The optional **storage / unit / week** field adds a holding cost for every week stock sits unsold, which is factored into the ride-it-out comparison, since stock quietly costs money the longer it sits.

Question 7

Where can I get help with the rest of my Black Friday plan?

Accepted Answer

Check your margin on the original discount with the [discount break-even calculator](/tools/discount-break-even), or see how you'd grade a whole Black Friday weekend with the [Black Friday report card](/tools/bf-report-card). Browse every tool in the [full Black Friday toolkit](/tools).

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