What is Assortment Planning?

What is Assortment Planning?

Assortment planning is about getting the right product to the right location in the right quantity at the right time—at the highest retail price—to generate the best Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI). It sounds simple, but in reality, assortment planning is complex.

Imagine managing hundreds of retail locations worldwide, each with unique characteristics—from store size to customer preferences. How do you determine the right products and quantities for each location to maximize sales and gross margin? That’s the challenge of assortment planning.

For retailers, success hinges on getting the assortment plan right from the start. A truly effective assortment plan isn’t reactive—it’s proactive. This means making informed buying decisions upfront rather than adjusting to sales trends after products are already in stores. That’s where daVinci Retail stands apart.

Not All Systems Are Created Equal

Many vendors claim to offer assortment planning, but their solutions are actually extensions of merchandise planning.

When I first started working with retail systems, I encountered many merchandise planning applications. These systems were great at rolling up and spreading numbers, but someone would always suggest, “Let’s just roll it down to the style level and call it assortment planning.” That’s like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Assortment planning goes beyond numbers—it’s the art of retail. It’s a visual and creative process, focused on selecting the perfect products for the right customers. While open-to-buy functionality and receipt roll-ups are essential, seamless integration between assortment planning and merchandise planning ensures a balanced and data-driven approach.

At daVinci Retail, our assortment planning applications are designed specifically for buyers. The layout presents all necessary style information in one place, making it highly visual and intuitive.

Meanwhile, our merchandise planning application is tailored for planning teams. It features a spreadsheet-like layout similar to Excel—an interface planners are already familiar with—ensuring ease of use.

The Proactive Approach to Assortment Planning

Most assortment planning solutions react to purchases already made, using allocations and markdowns to correct inventory imbalances. daVinci Retail takes a different approach. We empower retailers to buy the right quantity from the start, ensuring each store gets exactly what it needs—before inventory issues arise.

Our state-of-the-art buy quantity process begins before the buy is committed, factoring in multiple dimensions of customer demand, including:

• Sales volume/Store size
• Historical or like style
• Demographics

Unlike other solutions that overlook how buy quantities are determined, daVinci Retail offers a unique approach. Our methodology calculates buy quantities at the most detailed level, using clustering based on:

• Product class
• Time period
• Omnichannel strategy
• Customer type

This precision ensures that each location receives the right products in the right quantities, reducing markdowns and improving margins.

Our Special Sauce? A Detailed Buy Quantity Methodology

By analyzing sales volume and customer demand at a granular level, we help merchants make data-driven, proactive buying decisions that drive profitability and enhance customer satisfaction.

Assortment Planning: More Than Just Allocation

Traditional assortment planning often separates merchandising and allocation, treating them as independent processes. But in reality, buying and allocating should be interconnected.

When merchants proactively assess customer demand before placing orders, they create a partnership between merchandising, planning and allocation, breaking down retail silos. This ensures that the right products reach the right stores at the right time.

A well-executed assortment planning process helps retailers:
✔ Improve receipt goals by making informed buying decisions upfront
✔ Reduce excess inventory and minimize markdowns
✔ Increase customer satisfaction by stocking stores with products that match demand
✔ Optimize margins by avoiding reactive inventory corrections

The daVinci Difference

daVinci Retail’s approach to assortment planning goes beyond traditional methods. Instead of simply managing inventory after the buy, we help retailers get the buy right from the beginning.

Our software enables merchants to make data-driven decisions while balancing creativity with analytical insights. This ensures that assortments align with both customer demand and financial objectives.

Assortment planning isn’t just about managing inventory—it’s about making strategic, proactive decisions that drive profitability and customer loyalty.

Ready to transform your assortment planning?

Discover how daVinci Retail can help you make smarter, data-driven buying decisions that maximize sales and margins.