The Buyerplan Merchandise Planner system is an essential tool for financial control and stock management. Based on Decision Systems’ 15 years of experience in this area, it is an easy to use yet comprehensive Weekly Sales, Stock and Intake (WSSI) solution that is in daily intensive use by merchandising teams at their client retailers.

WSSI systems are standard in most retail companies but are often difficult to use and time-consuming to set up and administer. New users of Merchandise Planner often comment on its relative simplicity and practicality. The combination of pre-season planning and in-season re-forecasting, together with an extremely flexible approach to data viewing results in an attractive solution to this important requirement.

The usual data elements of Sales, Stock, Markdown and Intake/Commitment are expressed easily in value, units, cost and margin terms and are typically managed by Product, Time and Seasonality (such as Spring, Autumn, and Continuity). Other dimensions, including Brand, are simply accommodated together with alternative hierarchies, such as those supporting seasonal and financial calendars.

All this is achieved without the need for dedicated support staff and with minimal load on IT resources. Buyerplan Merchandise Planner is hence a low-risk and cost-effective answer to sales planning and open to buy control requirements.

Merchandise Planner features include

Sales Planning and Re-forecasting : Plan sales pre-season and reforecast in-season.

Open to Buy Management : Set stock level targets and calculate open to buy requirements.

Seasonality Planning : Plan seasonal, continuity and old merchandise separately.

Combined Season Planning : All historical and forward seasons held conveniently together.

Profit and Volume Planning : Input average sales margin and prices to calculate profit and units.

Flexible Planning Levels : View and plan between any levels, even down to style/colour.

Flexible Views and Reports : Define your own view or pick from the menu then print it easily.