Retail assortment planning is a strategic process that aligns product offerings with customer preferences, demand forecasts, store/channel formats, and business objectives. Every retailer knows that assortment planning can make or break results. Yet many leaders still struggle with:
- Misaligned assortments that don’t reflect customer demand
- Fragmented processes across financial, item, and space planning
- Technology that falls short of expectations
- Merchandising and planning teams working in silos
These challenges are magnified during critical seasons like back-to-school and holiday, when your assortments define your brand in the eyes of your customers.
Effective assortment planning blends the art of merchant intuition with the science of advanced analytics and well-integrated systems. Further, leading retailers treat assortment planning as a strategic capability, fully integrated with merchandise financial planning, product development, space planning, allocation, and replenishment. As retail evolves with omnichannel expectations, inventory volatility, and rising consumer expectations, having a flexible, data-driven, and collaborative assortment planning process is more important than ever.
Get The Expert Guide to Retail Assortment Planning
Parker Avery’s expert guide outlines key concepts, common challenges, and innovations that are shaping how leading retailers approach this key capability in today’s complex, omnichannel environment. Our guide details:
- The foundations of retail assortment planning and why it matters
- Common pitfalls that cost retailers margin and customer loyalty
- How AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics are transforming assortments
- Leading practices and innovations from top retailers
- How to ensure technology and process deliver measurable results
Assortment Planning Expert Guide: Key Takeaways
- Attribute-based assortment planning is no longer just for apparel—it’s now vital across all retail sectors.
- Fashion vs. basic product strategies require different planning levels and aggregation.
- Data quality and clean hierarchies are foundational to any successful planning initiative.
- Merchants and planners must collaborate to align creative decisions with financial and operational realities.
- Modern assortment planning platforms outperform spreadsheets and legacy systems in accuracy and efficiency.
- AI/ML innovations help optimize choice count and identify trends early—but human oversight remains essential.
- Demand-driven and space-based planning can (and should) be combined for a well-rounded strategy.
- Integration across merchandising systems is essential for scaling and streamlining assortment planning.
- Omnichannel capabilities demand dynamic, location-specific assortment decisions.
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