Sales volume definition

What is Sales Volume?

Sales volume is the number of units sold within a reporting period . This figure is monitored by investors to see if a business is expanding or contracting. Within a business, sales volume may be monitored at the level of the product, product line , customer , subsidiary , or sales region. This information may be used to alter the investments targeted at any of these areas.

A business may also monitor its break even sales volume, which is the number of units it must sell in order to earn a profit of zero. The concept is useful when sales are contracting, so that management can determine when it should implement cost reductions. This can be a difficult concept to employ when there are many different products, and especially when each product has a different contribution margin .

The sales volume concept can also be applied to services. For example, the sales volume of a consulting firm may be considered the total number of hours billed in a month.

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