Producing the report is the job
Most of the planning week goes into consolidating exports into one spreadsheet. By the time the numbers agree with each other, they describe a situation that has already moved.
Inventory planning
Inventory planning for fashion, beauty, and interior brands
Inventory planning should make the next decision obvious: what to reorder, in which sizes, and what to leave alone. Fashion Planner combines inventory planning software with practical fashion planning expertise, so the numbers and the judgement come from the same place.
- See future stock at size level instead of only at style level
- Spend the planning week acting on exceptions, not rebuilding reports in Excel
- Review core products often enough to protect availability without tying up cash
- Built by planners who know the operational reality behind inventory decisions
The challenge
Why inventory planning breaks down in a seasonal business
These are the bottlenecks we keep meeting in planning teams, and the reason brands start looking for a different setup.
Sizes stay invisible until it hurts
Future stock is readable at style level and guesswork at size level. The size run breaks in the middle of the season, and what is left is the half of the curve nobody asked for.
Cash sits in the wrong products
Coverage is set once and rarely revisited, so core products run thin while slow sellers keep their stock. Both are expensive, and neither is obvious until the season is over.
Everyone asks the planner
Sales and management need answers about stock-outs and future availability. Answering by hand crowds out the analysis that would have prevented the questions.
Generic tools do not speak fashion
Inventory planning tools built for continuous replenishment assume stable demand and a stable assortment. Generic inventory optimization software has no concept of size runs, drops, or carryover, which is most of what a seasonal assortment is.
30 seconds
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How Fashion Planner solves it
Inventory planning software built around the planning week
Fashion Planner is a planning and forecasting platform for textile, interior, beauty, and fashion businesses. Use it on its own, or together with our planning specialists.
Forecasts you can act on
Sales history, seasonality, and current sales signals become a forecast per product, so the next buy is a decision rather than a guess.
Coverage measured against lead time
NOOS and carryover products are reviewed against coverage, lead time, and size availability, so core availability is protected without buying more than the period needs.
Order suggestions with a size split
Quantities are proposed and broken down into sizes from how the product actually sells, with minimum order quantities and delivery dates part of the picture.
Connected to your ERP, and to your colleagues
Integration is a full service on our side, minimising what your IT department has to take on, and planning figures can be shared with the people who act on them.
Fashion planning expertise on tap
Software alone rarely fixes a planning process. BZIMPLE 360 reviews buying processes, resources, and workflows, and Planning as a Service puts an experienced planner in the seat when yours is empty.
Trusted by fashion customers including Rains, Barons and DK Company brands. See customer cases
In practice
What changes in the planning week
Most brands start with the products carrying the largest share of turnover and the largest share of the stock value. Core products need coverage measured against real lead time and reviewed at size level, which is the routine we walk through in our guide to NOOS planning. The frequency is the point: a review that happens once a quarter cannot protect availability on a product with a long lead time.
The forecast underneath those decisions has to survive a seasonal assortment, where a large part of the range has no sales history of its own. How we approach that, from sales history and seasonality to forecast precision and daily sales signals, is covered in our piece on forecasting in fashion. A forecast is only worth having if it reaches the order in time to change it.
Then comes the part that actually commits the money: quantities, sizes, minimums, and dates. Fashion Planner turns the plan into concrete order suggestions with a size split derived from real sales, which we break down in the article on order suggestions and size breakdown. The planner stays in control: a suggestion is a starting point, not an automatic order.
What changes
Less time producing numbers, more time using them
The strongest gains usually come from moving planning effort out of data collection and into decisions.
Less money tied up in stock, because inventory is reviewed with stronger analysis and clearer priorities
More frequent product reviews, because the data arrives ready to use instead of needing a rebuild
Planning at size and SKU level rather than style level only
Fewer manual follow-up questions, because sales, management, and planning read the same figures
Planners who get better at the job, through a repeatable routine and proper onboarding
Questions we get
Before you book a demo
Do we need a dedicated planner to use this?
No. Many of the businesses we work with have no dedicated planning role, which is exactly why the workflow has to stay simple, fast, and practical. Where the resource is missing altogether, Planning as a Service puts an experienced planner in the seat for a period.
How does it fit with our ERP?
Fashion Planner synchronises with the ERP so the planning process works from your own data. Integration is a full service on our side, so it does not turn into a project for your IT department.
We already plan in Excel. What actually changes?
The analysis stops depending on someone rebuilding the file. Excel is good at the last mile of a calculation and poor as the system of record for future stock at size level, which is where most of the manual work and the formula risk lives.
Is this only for NOOS products?
No. NOOS and carryover are where the routine pays off fastest, but seasonal collections are planned in the same place, including the in-season decisions once the first weeks of sales are in.
Related reading
More on planning better inventory decisions
Three articles that go deeper into the parts of this page.
Seasonality and in-season management
Pre-season accuracy has a ceiling. How to read seasonal demand early and act while the decision can still change the outcome.
Read articleThe most important Fashion Planner features
A tour of the parts of the platform brands lean on most, from forecasting to sales monitoring and shared planning.
Read articleFashion Planner Connect
What changes when planning insight leaves the planning team and reaches the people who act on it.
Read articleNext step
See it against your own numbers
A demo is the fastest way to find out whether this fits your assortment, your ERP, and the way your planning week actually runs.
Give us 30 seconds of your time and we'll let you know if Fashion Planner is right for you. Can we help?