The Power of Data Driven Assortment Planning

What is Data-Driven Assortment Planning?

Retail success starts with one crucial function: merchandising. It serves as the foundation for all other operations, including IT, finance, marketing, and store management. However, many retailers overlook the importance of data-driven assortment planning and instead focus on e-commerce and store operations while relying on outdated merchandising methods. This approach often leads to inefficient buying practices based on intuition rather than strategic, data-driven decision-making.

The Power of Data-Driven Assortment Planning

At daVinci Retail, we believe assortment planning is the cornerstone of retail success. It bridges the gap between the creative aspects of merchandising and the analytical insights needed to optimize buying decisions. By integrating fashion trends with financial planning, open-to-buy strategies, and omnichannel demand forecasting, retailers can create targeted assortments that drive profitability.

The Pitfalls of Outdated Buying Methods

Many retailers continue to rely on outdated buy-quantity methods that fail to account for modern consumer behavior. Some of the most common pitfalls include:

• Wedge Planning: Grouping stores based solely on sales volume and applying a blanket assortment strategy, rather than considering each store’s unique characteristics and customer base.
• Top-Store Selection: Choosing products based on high-performing locations and assuming they will succeed everywhere, often leading to stock imbalances.
• Guesswork in Purchasing: Making buying decisions based on intuition rather than data, resulting in overstocking, stockouts, and lost revenue opportunities.

Without a data-driven approach to buying calculations, retailers risk inefficiencies that impact profitability and customer satisfaction.

Shifting to Data-Driven Assortment Planning

Retailers must move away from guesswork and adopt a data-driven assortment planning strategy to optimize inventory and purchasing decisions. This approach allows businesses to:

• Analyze sales trends and forecasting data.
• Quantify customer demand at the omni-channel level.
• Layer product selections based on store-specific attributes.

By leveraging precise data analytics, retailers can minimize markdowns, improve sell-through rates, and enhance margins.

Why Sales Volume Isn’t Enough

Sales volume alone does not provide a full picture of customer demand. A data-driven assortment strategy goes beyond broad metrics and considers:

• Store size and layout.
• Regional climate and demographics.
• Customer shopping behaviors and omnichannel preferences.

This level of precision ensures that each store receives the right products in the right quantities—delivering a personalized shopping experience that meets customer expectations.

The daVinci Retail Advantage

daVinci Retail’s data-driven assortment planning software helps retailers transform their buying process by offering:

• Advanced Data Analytics: Eliminate guesswork and optimize inventory levels through multi-layered calculations.
• Customer-Centric Assortments: Align products with omnichannel demand to enhance customer satisfaction.
• Improved Profitability: Reduce markdowns, improve sell-through, and increase revenue.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamline assortment planning and foster collaboration across teams.

Our proprietary calculation engine simplifies buy quantification, ensuring that allocations align with store-level demand—providing a strategic roadmap for inventory distribution.

Conclusion

Traditional buying methods are no longer sufficient in today’s data-driven retail landscape. Retailers must embrace data-driven assortment planning to make smarter, analytics-backed buying decisions that enhance inventory management and improve customer experiences.

Don’t leave your buying strategy to chance—leverage the power of data-driven assortment planning with daVinci Retail and transform your retail strategy today.