The Ability to confidently allocate Open-To-Buy:
Who has ever popped into the grocery store for a couple of things and walked out with a full trolley?

If you haven’t formed a plan to create a list of exactly what you need to achieve the required sales, you will inevitably buy more or buy inappropriately to the needs of your business.

Just like popping into the grocery store, this is exactly what can happen when there are no Inventory Planning processes in your business. You have all good intensions to only purchase a small amount from a supplier but end up with more than you actually need!

Open-To-Buy planning is all part of Inventory Planning, and with a Sales Budget in place along with the knowledge of what inventory is on hand, a correct Open-To-Buy amount can be determined. Then you can confidently meet suppliers with a specific list and only purchase in-line with the actual needs of your business.

Correct Stock Levels by Product Category:
Have the correct amount of Inventory for your business is one step; however ensuring it is the correct assortment mix to maximize sales is somewhat more challenging. This is very difficult to achieve without an accurate Inventory Planning process.

Carefully analyzing each category is a critical part of Inventory Planning. You may have adequate stock levels to meet your sales budget; however, neglecting to manage the category mix will negatively impact the sales potential and ultimately increase markdowns. Sometimes what we think is, isn’t also what actually is !

If you need any help in this area, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email or give me a buzz and we can arrange a free strategy session to chat about your busines.
Merrill