Assortment Planning Software
Creating an assortment plan that meets changing customer demand while maximizing profitability is no easy feat. With an ever-changing omnichannel retail landscape, success depends on decisions backed by data. ToolsGroup Assortment Planning software provides the retail analytics you need, guiding you through the process of localized assortment planning based on your financial objectives and forecasted customer demand.
Uncover the optimal product mix with clustering, profiling, and other machine learning techniques that build out automatic assortment plans. With this increased efficiency, you’re able to best apply your unique knowledge of the business and shopper demand, with a single picture of the assortment plan that includes new, ongoing and leftover products.
Drive sales and margins with localized assortment planning
Customer-centric assortment optimization
Create assortments that maximize customer satisfaction based on industry best practices and retail analytics. Build your merchandise plan with confidence while maintaining the flexibility to adjust system outputs based on customer demand and the localized assortment needs unique to each store.
End-to-end assortment strategy guided process
ToolsGroup Assortment Planning guides you from analysis through execution, ensuring the right retail assortments are in the optimal stores. The tool enables you to match assortments with customer demand every time thanks to store profiling, localization features, and more.
Fast time to value
Using assortment planning software with Excel-like grids and graphical displays results in quick user adoption and faster time to value. With this increased visibility, you and your organization can use the system both easily and efficiently throughout your integrated planning.
Increase inventory accuracy and productivity
Improved decision-making and productivity in your product assortment planning help you stay agile and ahead of the competition. In addition, management-by-exception functionality allows you to best utilize your unique knowledge of the business and customers.
Across our entire store network, we’re holding about 10 percent less stock in stores which is impressive. However, the real story is that we achieved this and improved the composition of inventory in stores, meaning a higher ratio of key lines relative to each store’s demographic performance."
Caleb Nicolson,
General Manager Supply Chain, Kathmandu
- Reduced stock in stores by an average of 10%
- Improved pre-clearance inventory sell-through
- Increased stock turns while reducing stock-outs
- Improved cash flow
Assortment planning software features
Dynamic location clustering
The solution clusters customers and locations on multiple dimensions, including customer purchasing behavior, demographics, and store space. Dynamic clustering can be performed across time at any level of the product hierarchy, enabling you to react to emerging and shifting market trends.
Create and maintain assortment plans by cluster. Then, as your retailer needs change, you can shift the makeup of the clusters as necessary–ensuring you still meet customer demand.
You can also use clustering to more accurately target product assortments and promotions, providing the right product to the right consumers for improved customer satisfaction and revenue.
Retail assortment breadth and depth
Determine the appropriate assortment width and depth–or assortment wedge–within store clusters across product categories and attributes to meet the revenue objectives defined during the financial planning process.
ToolsGroup Assortment Planning software gives you the ability to rationalize assortments across clusters and make decisions backed by data. Identify anticipated market trends, available shelf space and demand to forecast the optimal number of assortment options. Once the assortment has been rationalized, the solution can smart start bottoms-up assortment plans that automatically reconcile to your organization’s financial targets.
Line planning
Omnichannel focused line planning offers all encompassing product selection in your demand planning. An intuitive approach combines analytical planning with visual merchandising, giving you the ability to develop product offerings as a customer would see them. The solution also enables an iterative approach that combines both top-down and bottom-up planning for optimum inventory levels.
Receipt planning and commitments
Assortment receipt planning enables you to hone in on the ideal receipt strategy for the products you plan to purchase. With assortment planning software you can set constraints–such as minimum periods of supply–and define periods for when receipts must arrive and how many are needed. It also streamlines your merchandising process: Use the tool to send commitment orders to the order manager for final processing, review, approval and submission to external systems.
Assortment rollup and reconciliation
The assortment rollup and reconciliation reports guide you in numerous strategic merchandising decisions, including pricing, promotions, open to buy, profitability and inventory management. Use the assortment roll-up and reconciliation reports to aggregate your assortment plan data and reconcile the key metrics you’ve set as targets in your merchandise financial planning.