Purchase planning for fashion and accessories distributors

The situation

A distributor of basics, caps and bags supplies boutiques and two larger chains. Most SKUs sell steadily. Now and then a chain places one large order for a promotion, and a colour that sold well last year stalls this year.

How POplanner plans it

• Every SKU on its own line. Each item number in the export gets its own months of stock, order quantity and carton rounding.
• One-customer items flagged. When one buyer made up most of a SKU's volume, the line is marked before you reorder for a customer who may not come back.
• One-off orders kept out. A promotion order in a single month gets a safe quantity without it.
• Slow colours visible. SKUs with more than enough stock are marked "more than enough", so you don't add to them.
• Out-of-catalog items. Items you have dropped from the catalog but that still sell are listed for a decision: bring back or let run out.

Customer pages for the sales team

Import order lines and each boutique gets a page with its purchases, its order rhythm and the bestsellers it doesn't carry yet.