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Assortment planning is the process of deciding which styles, colors, sizes and quantities a store or brand will carry in a season, within a budget. It turns a sales plan into a specific mix of products for each category, store or channel.
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In fashion merchandising, assortment planning is choosing the breadth and depth of a range: how many styles and colors to offer, and how many units of each to buy. It sits between the financial plan and the purchase orders.
Open-to-buy says how much money is available to spend, and assortment planning decides what to spend it on. A buyer needs both: the budget first, then the mix of styles, colors and sizes that fits it.
Breadth is the number of different styles and colors in a range, and depth is the number of units bought of each. A broad, shallow assortment offers choice with less stock per style, while a narrow, deep one bets on fewer styles.
A boutique has $30,000 at cost to spend on spring womenswear. It gives 40% to dresses, which at an average $80 wholesale buys 150 dresses, spread across 10 styles at about 15 units each.
Buyers plan assortments from last season's sales by category, their open-to-buy and the brands they want to carry, then fill the plan at market. Brands plan their own range the same way, deciding which styles to produce, in which colors and in what depth.
A brand that understands a buyer's plan can help fill it, by suggesting styles that fit a gap, prepacks that match the store's size curve, and a delivery window that lands when the budget opens.
Too many styles, too little depth
Buying one or two units of many styles leaves broken size runs after the first sales. Fewer styles bought in full size runs are easier to sell through.
Planning without last season's data
An assortment built on taste alone repeats last season's mistakes. Start from sales by category, color and size.
Forgetting the calendar
An assortment that arrives all at once leaves the floor stale by the end of the season. Spread deliveries across the season.
ModaFlow gives buyers what they need to plan an assortment from your range: line sheets and shoppable lookbooks with prices, sizes, packs and minimums, and a cart that checks the order against your minimums before it is submitted.
To set the budget behind an assortment, use the free open-to-buy calculator.
Aggiornato il 6 ottobre 2026
Open-to-buy (OTB) is the amount a retailer still has available to spend on new stock for a period, after allowing for planned sales, markdowns, the stock it already holds and the orders it has already placed.
Sell-through rate is the percentage of the units a store received that it sold to shoppers within a set period.
A size curve is the share of a style's units given to each size, based on how that style or category sells.
A lookbook is a set of styled photographs that presents a fashion brand's season as complete outfits, or looks.
A delivery window is the period in which a season's goods, or one drop within that season, are scheduled to arrive at retailers.
ModaFlow.ai è il software per l'ingrosso dei brand di moda: line sheet, lookbook con acquisto, un portale buyer e la gestione degli ordini, con prezzi, minimi, confezioni e date d'ordine sempre insieme. Ogni piano inizia con una prova gratuita di 14 giorni.