Book a Demo
Demand Planning
Supply Planning
PPMO
Strategic Planning
Supply Chain Visibility
Retail Planning
Learn
Connect

Industry Solution · Retail

Retail Supply Chain Planning Software to Sell More With Less Inventory

Probabilistic AI for demand forecasting, dynamic allocation and replenishment, in-season inventory optimization, and lifecycle price optimization — getting the right product in the right place at the right price across every store and channel, so you lift full-price sell-through while cutting markdowns and stockouts.

Explore the Platform See Customer Results

Overview

In Retail, One Bad Buy Can Cost a Season — And the Same Item Can Be Overstocked and Out of Stock at Once.

Retail planning runs on long lead times, short seasons, and limited demand history, so a single bad forecast can ruin a season. Point forecasts smooth over hyperlocal, fast-moving trends, so you end up with the classic retail paradox: some stores have empty shelves while others drown in the very same item. Layer on omnichannel fulfillment, promotion-driven volatility, and blanket discounting, and traditional, siloed planning erodes service, margin, and full-price sell-through all at once. ToolsGroup’s retail supply chain planning software closes that gap with probabilistic forecasting down to the store level and decision intelligence that allocates, rebalances, and re-prices inventory in-season to real-time demand — continuously steering service, margin, and sell-through toward your merchandise financial plan to sell more with less inventory.

What Retail Optimization Delivers

Aggregate outcomes across ToolsGroup customers in fashion, beauty, luxury, footwear, and specialty retail.

  • 15 %

    Full-price sell-through

  • 30 %

    Inventory efficiency

  • 25 %

    More in-stock

  • Up to 5 pp

    Margin growth

Trusted by Retail Leaders

Why Traditional Planning Breaks in Retail

The stakes have never been higher: one bad buy can ruin a season, and one stockout can lose a customer forever. When demand is hyperlocal and trend-driven, legacy planning keeps merchandising teams chasing the business instead of driving it.

Challenge 01

Impossibly high customer expectations

Customers demand fast, seamless omnichannel shopping with the right products available whenever and wherever they want — because the retail giants make it look easy.

Challenge 02

Inventory imbalances

Retailers face overstocks and stockouts at the same time: some stores have empty shelves while others drown in inventory they can’t move — often the very same item.

Challenge 03

Excessive discounting & poor pricing

Manual, gut-based pricing fails to capture demand. Blanket discounts erode profitability and raise customers’ discount expectations without driving incremental sales.

Challenge 04

Margin erosion

Inflation, tariffs, and global disruption drive up costs while reducing willingness to pay — especially when shoppers can score a deal on their phone in seconds.

Challenge 05

Planning blindspots

Point forecasts aren’t granular enough for real-time, local demand, and manual, siloed processes limit agility — slowing response to disruptions and trends.

Purpose-Built Capabilities for Retail

Every capability runs on Decion, ToolsGroup’s agentic decision intelligence platform — forecasting, allocation, inventory, pricing, and assortment unified in one self-steering system, with pre-built ERP and POS connectors.

The forecasting problem

Why Deterministic Forecasting Fails in Retail

Traditional forecasting is deterministic — a single number per SKU, allocated once and left alone. That works for steady, high-volume basics. In retail, demand is anything but steady. Trends move hyperlocally and fast, short seasons and long lead times leave little history, and a single average ignores how demand differs store to store. So inventory lands in the wrong places — stocked out in one location while piling up in another, often the same item — and once stock reaches the stores, traditional systems have no way to adjust. The result is markdowns on what didn’t sell and lost sales on what did.

Probabilistic planning models the full range of demand at the store level instead of one fragile number, then keeps optimizing in-season — reallocating and re-pricing inventory to where it will sell at full price. It's the foundation Decion builds on, across dynamic allocation, responsive rebalancing, and agentic AI.

Traditional planning
01 Single forecast
02 Allocate once
Stockouts + markdowns
Probabilistic planning
01 Range of demand
02 Hyperlocal allocation
03 In-season rebalancing
Full-price sell-through
Featured analyst recognition

Named a Leader in the Qks Group Spark Matrix for Retail

ToolsGroup is recognized as a Technology Leader in the QKS Group 2024 SPARK Matrix for Retail Forecasting & Replenishment — for the third year running — and as a Leader in their SPARK Matrix analyses of Intelligent Retail Pricing & Promotion Optimization and Global Supply Chain Inventory Optimization, scored on technology excellence and customer impact.

Also recognized: 4.5★ Gartner Peer Insights

Read the SPARK Matrix

Whatever You Sell, It’s Built for You

The hard part of retail planning — hyperlocal demand, short seasons, omnichannel fulfillment, assortment complexity — is the same whatever you sell. A few sectors where we have customers today:

  • Fashion & apparel

    Apparel and lifestyle brands planning fast-changing assortments across stores, channels, and rapid international expansion.

  • Beauty & cosmetics

    Cosmetics and health-and-beauty retailers managing diversified, trend-driven ranges, frequent launches, and promotions.

  • Luxury & accessories

    Luxury and premium brands protecting margin and brand experience while keeping high-value inventory precisely positioned.

  • Footwear

    Footwear retailers maximizing full-price sell-through across sizes and seasons while clearing prior-season stock profitably.

  • Home, furniture & design

    Home, furniture, and design retailers planning long lead times, configurable products, and made-to-order ranges.

  • Specialty & multi-category

    Specialty, outdoor, and multi-category retailers balancing broad assortments and omnichannel fulfillment across markets.

Don't see yours? If you sell across stores and channels against fast-moving, hyperlocal demand, the challenge is the same — and so is the fit.

Retailers Who Sell More With Less Inventory

Customer proof from operations spanning fashion, healthcare retail, and specialty drugstores.

  • Miller Knoll Case Study Success Story

    MillerKnoll

    90% made-to-order, millions of data points, long lead times — from Excel and gut feel to optimized in minutes.

    • +2 pts Net Promoter Score
    • +90 bps Ship-On-Time
    • -5% Markdown Inventory
  • Amplifon Case Study Customer Story

    Amplifon

    8,000+ points of sale in 22 countries, with every trial hearing aid coming back — from lost oversight to end-to-end control.

    • −18% Inventory
    • −40% Obsolescence
    Read the Story Success Story
  • Kathmandu Case Study Customer Story

    Kathmandu

    160 stores planned in Excel, with every Monday lost to system updates — from four planning days to five.

    • -10% Stock in Stores
    • 160 Stores, NZ / AU / UK
    Read the Story Success Story
  • Our previous systems were not able to deal with these complexities; with ToolsGroup we are finally able to precisely manage promotions and product launches.
    Gianmarco Mangili Planning Director Kiko Milano
  • With ToolsGroup we’re now seeing opportunities we never had before which is a huge value for us. We’re getting better at forecasts and our history continues to become cleaner in a perpetual positive cycle.
    Caleb Nicolson General Manager, Supply Chain Kathmandu
  • I found a partner in ToolsGroup that really listened. That was really unique because they didn’t try to sell me an off-the-shelf tool that satisfied a typical retail business.
    Jennifer Ferrando SVP of Global Retail Operations MillerKnoll

Go Deeper on Retail Planning

Analyst reports, guides, case studies, and webinars on store-level forecasting, in-season optimization, and lifecycle pricing.

View All Resources

Retail Supply Chain Planning FAQ

Questions buyers and ask about retail planning software.

What is retail supply chain planning software?
Retail supply chain planning software forecasts demand, allocates and replenishes inventory across stores and channels, optimizes price and markdowns, and plans assortments. Unlike generic ERP planning, it uses probabilistic forecasting down to the store level and keeps optimizing in-season to lift full-price sell-through and cut markdowns.
How is probabilistic forecasting different from deterministic for retail?
Deterministic forecasting predicts a single number per SKU and allocates it once. Probabilistic forecasting models the full range of demand at the store level, so allocation reflects real, hyperlocal variability — preventing the stocked-out-here, overstocked-there paradox.
What is AI-driven allocation and replenishment?
AI-driven allocation and replenishment moves the right inventory from DCs to the right stores based on real-time demand signals — not just minimums and maximums — maximizing availability at the minimum cost, from initial allocation through clearance.
What is in-season inventory optimization and responsive rebalancing?
In-season optimization keeps adjusting inventory after allocation through store-to-store transfers — learning how demand is shifting and moving stock where it will sell now through margin-positive store-to-store transfers, increasing full-price sales and avoiding markdowns.
How does price, promo, and markdown optimization work?
Lifecycle price optimization sets initial prices, promotions, and markdowns that are inventory-aware — so pricing becomes a lever to control demand and hit your merchandise financial plan, protecting margin without eroding sell-through.
What is AI assortment planning and attribute-level optimization?
AI assortment planning builds customer-centric assortments using attributes — color, material, style, and more, not just category and size — and adjusts for novelty and hyperlocal demand throughout the season to drive full-price sales.
How does it integrate with ERP and POS systems?
Decion connects through pre-built connectors and APIs for major ERP, POS, and WMS systems, syncing sales, inventory, and demand data in real time. It runs alongside existing systems rather than replacing them.
What results do retailers see?
Results are customer-specific. Telefónica cut inventory 31% with zero stockouts; PEPCO reduced stock 15% while scaling 200 new stores a year; Boggi Milano improved in-stock 47% with 12% less inventory in seven weeks.
How long does it take to see results?
Results vary by retailer, but impact often shows within weeks — Boggi Milano saw results in about seven weeks. Phased rollouts can start with forecasting and allocation, then expand into pricing and assortment.
How does it handle omnichannel fulfillment?
Probabilistic modeling ties delivery promises to true supply risk and optimizes allocation across stores, e-commerce, and channels — protecting on-time fulfillment and customer trust across complex omnichannel networks.
How does it reduce markdowns and improve full-price sell-through?
By getting inventory to the right stores and continuously rebalancing in-season, the system sells more at full price before resorting to discounts — and when markdowns are needed, optimizes them against obsolescence risk.
What is merchandise financial planning (MFP) and open-to-buy (OTB)?
MFP and OTB align assortment and buying decisions to financial targets, cascading top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out. ToolsGroup integrates assortment planning with financial plans and OTB so plans drive decisions rather than being set and ignored.
Which retail sectors use it?
Retailers across fashion and apparel, beauty and cosmetics, luxury and accessories, footwear, home and furniture, and specialty and multi-category retail — anywhere hyperlocal demand meets short seasons and omnichannel fulfillment.

Ready to Sell More With Less Inventory?

Talk to a specialist who understands hyperlocal, omnichannel retail.

Book a Demo