Apparel Planning
Terminology Defined.

The 4-5-4 calendar is a retail fiscal calendar that splits each 13-week quarter into months of four, five and four weeks. Why it exists and how it shapes a plan.

Attach rate is the share of transactions in a host category that also include a given accessory or add-on. How it is computed and how it drives allocation and assortment.

Available to sell is on-hand inventory plus confirmed on-order, minus units already committed — the stock a brand can still promise to a new order.

Aging inventory is product that has passed its planned selling window without selling through, losing value and requiring markdown or liquidation to clear.

Assortment planning decides the breadth and depth a brand carries in a season, channel or location: which styles, colors and sizes, and in what quantities.

Average unit retail (AUR) is the average revenue per unit sold — the metric that ties assortment architecture, pricing and financial planning together.

Allocation optimization distributes inventory across channels, stores or accounts to maximise full-price sell-through and limit markdown exposure.

Buy planning converts assortment decisions into purchase commitments: quantities by style, color, size, vendor and channel, reconciled against open-to-buy.

Breadth is how many distinct styles an assortment offers; depth is how many units per style. The trade between them is a central assortment decision.

Buy execution is the stage where finalised buy-plan decisions become purchase orders submitted to vendors — the bridge from planning into production.

Carry-forward is holding unsold inventory from one season to re-offer in a later one, rather than clearing it through deep markdown or liquidation.

Category planning builds financial and assortment strategy at department or category level, so each product group meets its revenue and margin targets.

Channel planning tailors assortment, inventory, pricing and delivery cadence to each selling channel — DTC, wholesale and owned retail — within one plan.

Connected planning is an approach where financial plans, assortment, buy and allocation share one data model, so a change in one stage cascades to the rest.

Color depth is how many units are bought in a specific colorway of a style — the decision that determines whether each color sells through at full price.

Demand sensing is the in-season practice of estimating the current rate of demand from recent signals and using it to change decisions that can still move.

Decision intelligence applies analytics to surface planning recommendations at the point of decision: reorder signals, markdown timing, assortment edits.

Demand forecasting predicts future demand at style, category or channel level from sales history, trend and market signals, to inform buying decisions.

Demand planning integrates forecasting with inventory strategy, assortment and supply coordination, so the right product is available in the right quantity.

DTC planning covers assortment, inventory, pricing and fulfilment for direct channels, where the brand controls the full experience and the margin stack.

Fill rate is the share of wholesale orders shipped complete and on time — whether a brand can meet demand without backorders or substitutions.

A floor set is a scheduled refresh of a selling floor's assortment, usually at a seasonal transition, requiring vendors to deliver before the set date.

GMROI is the gross margin earned for each dollar of average inventory held at cost. What it combines, how to read its two drivers, and where the measure misleads.

Gross margin is the share of revenue left after cost of goods — the primary profitability measure of how well product sales convert into profit.

Hindsight analysis is the structured review of last season's sell-through, margin, size results and velocity, done before the next season's buy decisions.

In-stock rate is the share of planned door, size and week positions with sellable stock. How it is measured, why it censors demand, and how fill rate differs.

An in-season chase is any action taken after the buy is committed that changes what a brand will have to sell — reorders, cancellations, transfers, re-allocation, price. Each lever has its own expiry date.

Integrated business planning connects financial targets, merchandise plans and operational execution into one process, replacing siloed team-by-team planning.

Inventory distortion is the gap between recorded and actual inventory, covering both overstock and out-of-stock, and the lost sales and margin each produces.

Inventory productivity measures how well inventory investment generates revenue and profit, through turns, sell-through, GMROI and weeks of supply.

Inventory turns — also called inventory turnover — is the number of times a brand's average inventory is sold and replaced over a given period.

Initial markup (IMU) is the gap between cost of goods and original retail price, as a percentage — the planned margin before any markdown or shrink.

Keystone markup sets the retail price at double the cost, a 50 per cent initial markup on retail. How it relates to IMU and where it holds by vertical.

Lost sales are the demand a brand turned away because a style, size or shade was unavailable. Why sales history never shows them, and how to estimate them.

Landed cost is the full delivered cost of a unit: first cost plus freight, duty, insurance and inbound handling. Why IMU and WOS decisions run on it, not on FOB.

Lead time is the total elapsed time from purchase order placement to receipt of finished goods at the distribution center.

Line planning sets the structure of a seasonal collection — how many styles, in what categories, at what price tiers — before individual products are chosen.

Markdown money is a vendor allowance that funds an account's markdowns. How it is negotiated and recorded, and why the wrong period distorts margin and OTB.

A model year is the lifecycle unit for hard goods in outdoor, sporting goods, footwear and juvenile categories: committed once at the model, run out at a set changeover.

Markdown cadence is the planned sequence of markdown timing and depth across a clearance cycle — the first touch, the deepening steps, and the exit point.

A minimum order quantity is the smallest quantity a vendor or mill will accept per order line. MOQs set the real floor under option counts and depth decisions.

A merchandise hierarchy is the tree classifying every product a brand sells, from the broadest grouping to the sellable unit, and what every plan attaches to.

Margin optimization maximises gross margin across an assortment through pricing, markdown, composition and allocation, balancing velocity against margin.

Markdown rate is the percentage reduction from original retail applied to clear slow inventory — one of the largest margin levers in merchandising.

A merchandising operating system connects OTB, assortment, buy planning, allocation and analytics in one workflow, replacing disconnected spreadsheets.

Merchandising planning decides what a brand buys, in what quantity, at what price and margin, for when, and through which channels, against a financial plan.

Multi-channel inventory manages one shared pool across DTC, wholesale and retail with allocation rules, reservations and rebalancing between channels.

Maintained markup (MMU) is the margin actually realised after markdowns, discounts and shrink — the true outcome measured against the initial markup.

Markdown optimization times, sizes and targets price reductions to clear residual inventory while limiting the total margin given up to get it done.

A merchandise financial plan is the top-level framework governing seasonal inventory investment: sales targets, margin goals and receipt budgets, set first.

Never out of stock (NOOS) is a program of core items kept continuously available on a replenishment rule instead of bought once a season. What qualifies and what does not.

On order is merchandise committed to suppliers but not yet received. How it enters open-to-buy, open-to-order versus open-to-receive, and why cancel dates matter.

Omnichannel retail planning plans inventory, assortment, pricing and promotion across every channel as one operation, on shared data and coordinated timing.

Open-to-buy (OTB) is the budget a buying team still has for new inventory in a period, from planned sales, inventory targets and existing commitments.

Option count is the number of distinct style-color combinations in an assortment — a measure of complexity and a primary driver of inventory investment.

Planned reductions are the markdowns, discounts and shrink a plan expects to lower stock value without a sale. How they enter open-to-buy and the MFP.

Pre-pack and singles are the two wholesale packaging configurations: pre-assembled size assortments against individually picked units, with different tradeoffs.

Planning workflow automation handles the repetitive parts — consolidation, reforecasting, buy-plan generation, variance reporting — so teams decide instead.

Price elasticity measures how sensitive demand is to price. In apparel, elasticity by category, tier and season sets markdown depth and promotional strategy.

Pricing intelligence uses competitive data, elasticity analysis and margin modelling to inform initial pricing, promotions and markdown cadence.

Product mix optimization balances product types, price points and categories within an assortment to maximise margin, sell-through and return on inventory.

Promotional planning schedules and structures promotions and offers across the season to drive sell-through without eroding full-price demand or positioning.

Return to vendor (RTV) sends goods back to the supplier for credit under the vendor agreement. When terms allow it, and how it is recorded against OTB.

Replenishment restocks inventory at store, warehouse or channel level from sell-through velocity, safety stock and reorder points, without overstocking.

Retail analytics uses sell-through, margin, inventory and customer data to drive merchandising decisions, from assortment and buy depth to markdown timing.

A retail data model defines how products, transactions, inventory and planning hierarchies relate in a planning system — the structure plans are built on.

A receipt plan is the period-by-period schedule of planned inventory receipts: when merchandise arrives, at what cost value, and against which OTB budget.

A size run is the set of sizes, half sizes and widths a footwear model-color is bought in as one unit — the sellable position, which breaks before pair counts say so.

Safety stock is buffer inventory held above expected demand to absorb variability in demand or lead time, and to prevent the stockouts that cost sales.

Speed-to-market is the elapsed time from design concept to retail availability — how fast a brand can move an idea through production onto the floor.

Store clustering groups selling locations that respond to the same assortment in the same way, so one plan can serve a group of doors instead of one plan per door.

Seasonal planning organises financial plans, assortments, buys and delivery schedules around the defined seasonal windows that structure the whole calendar.

Sell-through rate is the share of available inventory sold in a period, calculated as units sold divided by units received. It is the core velocity read.

A size curve is the planned distribution of units across sizes for a given style or category, expressed as a percentage of total units.

SKU productivity measures revenue, units or margin per active SKU — the diagnostic for whether an assortment is working hard or carrying dead complexity.

Spreadsheet-based planning runs OTB, assortment, buy plans and allocation in disconnected Excel or Sheets files. It remains the mid-market default.

A style-color matrix maps every style against its planned colorways, defining the total offering and the structure line planning and buy decisions rest on.

Supply planning coordinates vendor capacity, production schedules and logistics so planned buy quantities arrive on time and in full against demand.

SKU rationalization systematically removes or reduces styles that miss performance thresholds on sell-through, margin contribution, velocity and size results.

Stock-to-sales ratio compares inventory on hand at the start of a period to net sales in that period, to judge whether stock is adequate or excessive.

A time-and-action calendar back-schedules every production and buying milestone from the delivery date, so a late sample or approval is visible weeks before it becomes a late season.

The WSSI is a weekly merchandise planning worksheet that reconciles sales, stock, and intake against plan — the in-season control tool behind open-to-buy decisions.

Wholesale planning covers assortment, pricing, minimum orders, delivery windows and account allocations, balancing account demands against total inventory.

Weeks of supply is how many weeks current inventory will last at the current rate of sale — used to spot replenishment need, reallocation and overstock risk.