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Cash Conversion Cycle Calculator

Punch in your inventory, revenue, AR, AP, and COGS. See your DIO, DSO, DPO, and CCC plus a percentile rank against 17 public DTC peers (Warby Parker, Lululemon, Olaplex, ELF, Hims, FIGS, YETI, Freshpet, and 9 more).

Cash conversion cycle (CCC) is the number of days between paying for inventory and getting paid by your customer. CCC = DIO + DSO - DPO. The lower it is, the less working capital you have to finance. Vertical drives this more than scale: subscription wellness brands run negative CCC, premium scrubs run 200+ days.

How to use it: Enter your last balance sheet inventory, trailing-12-month revenue, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and trailing-12-month COGS. Pick your vertical. The calculator returns your CCC and shows you where you rank in the public peer set, plus one specific lever to pull next.

Your numbers

Results update in real time.

Pick the closest match to your product mix. Beauty and wellness are combined because n=3 splits would be too small.
Net of returns and discounts. Use the same window as your COGS below.
Landed cost of goods sold for the same period as revenue. Include freight-in and duty.
Finished goods plus work-in-progress plus raw materials. Use period-end, not average.
If you only sell DTC via Stripe or Shopify, this is near zero (set to actual). If you wholesale, use the AR balance.
Trade payables to suppliers only. Exclude credit cards, accrued payroll, and loans.

Results

DIO
101
days inventory
DSO
1
days sales
DPO
30
days payable
Your CCC
72
days
Vs. your vertical peer set
Apparel median CCC: 112 days (n=5). You are 40 days tighter than the median.
Better than 4 of 5 public apparel peers.
Peers in this set: WRBY (32), LULU (104), COLM (112), LEVI (115), FIGS (209).
One lever to pull next
Your inventory days are at or below the vertical median. Focus on DPO next: push for net-60 with your top 5 suppliers.
If you are under $20M, also check the small-merchant reference
Wayflyer (2025) reports private DTC Shopify brands typically run CCC around 17 days, Amazon FBA sellers around 39 days, and multi-channel plus wholesale around 60 days. The 17 public peers are your aspirational benchmark, not your starting point. If you are at $50M+ revenue, the public median is the right comparison.

Vertical median CCC (FY2024 to FY2025)

Apparel
112 days
Beauty
132 days
Food/bev
86 days
Household
96 days
Electronics
45 days

Frequently asked questions

What is the cash conversion cycle formula?

CCC equals DIO plus DSO minus DPO. DIO is days inventory outstanding (inventory divided by COGS, times 365). DSO is days sales outstanding (AR divided by revenue, times 365). DPO is days payable outstanding (AP divided by COGS, times 365). Lower is better; a negative CCC means you collect cash from customers before you pay suppliers.

What is a good cash conversion cycle for a DTC brand?

It depends on your vertical. Across 17 public DTC peers (FY2024 to FY2025) the medians are: apparel 112 days, beauty and wellness 132 days, food and beverage 86 days, household 96 days, electronics 45 days. If you are under $20M in revenue, the small-merchant Shopify reference is closer to 17 days (Wayflyer lender data). Use the public median as your aspirational benchmark, not your starting point.

Why is the beauty median CCC higher than food and beverage?

Beauty brands carry high-margin SKUs that move slower per unit. Olaplex sits on inventory 210 days because prestige demand is slower-velocity, but 60 percent plus gross margins cover the carry. Food and beverage is the opposite: cold-chain perishables (Freshpet, Vital Farms) physically cannot sit, so DIO is forced down to 23 to 51 days.

Can a non-subscription DTC brand actually run a negative CCC?

Almost never. The only negative-CCC brand in our 17-company dataset is Hims and Hers at -31 days, and that is because subscription billing collects cash before COGS hits and contract fillers extend 110-day terms. If you sell one-time DTC purchases on Shopify with overseas manufacturers demanding deposits, your structural floor is positive. Subscription is the unlock.

Next step

Want a CFO to map your CCC against your peers and find the next $500K of cash?

A calculator gives you a snapshot. A fractional CFO gives you the actual playbook: which supplier to renegotiate, which SKU to slim, whether to move on subscription. Book a free 30-minute diagnostic call and we will run your DIO, DSO, and DPO against the 17-peer benchmark above.

Talk to a CFO

Or read the full post: Cash conversion cycle benchmark 2026: 17 public DTC peers, one calculator