Fashion brands and manufacturers
ADVISORY AND ANALYTICS · 03
Assortment, product and buying
Collections, SKU and size ranges, buying and allocation decisions.
Decision Decide what to buy and distribute.
Hands-on merchandise and seasonal buying policy.
Who benefits
Department store buying teams
Multi-brand retailers and distributors
Problems addressed
- The seasonal buy budget is concentrated in the wrong styles and sizes.
- Excess stock coexists with out-of-stocks in high-demand items.
- Assortment decisions arrive too late in the season.
Scope and capabilities
Collection and assortment
- Category breadth, SKU depth, basics and seasonal styles.
- Size runs and category roles in the range.
Trading decisions
- Orders, allocations, replenishment and reorder windows.
- Inter-store transfers and end-of-season exit.
Work delivered
- Design assortment architecture and category roles.
- Review SKU depth, size curves and collection balance.
- Define purchase, allocation and replenishment rules.
- Support seasonal trade-off decisions with the buying team.
Deliverables
- Assortment architecture and seasonal buy plan.
- Allocation, transfer and replenishment decision rules.
- Merchandising calendar with review and exit triggers.
Engagement stages
- Agree season goals, timelines and constraints.
- Evaluate historical stock and assortment performance.
- Produce the buy plan and action thresholds.
- Test the rules against real trading results.
What we need
- SKU, stock, sales, returns and size-level history.
- Suppliers, lead times, prices and buying limits.
Scope and limits. Merchandising decisions are separate from implementing reporting infrastructure and predictive BI.
OTHER AREAS