Smarter Merchandise Planning for Fashion Brands

April 10, 2025

Apparel companies are facing growing challenges in merchandize planning, driven by market volatility and disjointed internal systems. Tariffs, high return rates, and erratic sell-through trends are colliding with outdated, spreadsheet-based processes—leaving brands exposed and reactive.

Leading fashion brands are shifting to integrated, end-to-end planning platforms that unify data and streamline workflows. These systems apply consistent logic from top-line forecasting to SKU-level replenishment, empowering planning teams to act faster and make sharper decisions.

1. This paper covers:

The current state of apparel merchandise planning
How leading brands are evolving
The importance of a unified data warehouse
How end-to-end planning builds agility
How tRS showcases this modern planning model

2. The Landscape Today: Trends & Issues in Planning for Apparel External Pressures

Tariffs & Trade Volatility: Sudden changes in tariffs complicate sourcing and pricing—especially for brands with production in Asia.
Return Rates in DTC: With return rates hovering around 25–30%, margins suffer and sales signals get distorted.
Unpredictable Sell-Through: Fast fashion and viral trends make forecasting difficult—and even harder to act on when systems are slow.

3. Internal Constraints

4. Leading Brands: What They’re Doing Differently

Forward-thinking brands are investing in:

Unified Data Infrastructure Bringing ERP, returns, wholesale, eComm, and returns data into one source of truth.
Cross-Functional Planning Aligning finance, merchandising, planning, and supply chain around shared forecasts and OTB strategies.
Granular, Size-Level Forecasting Planning down to SKU to reduce markdowns and stockouts.
Real-Time Scenario Planning Modeling “what if” situations—like late POs or margin dips—in real-time.

5. How a Unified Data Warehouse Changes the Game

One of the biggest hidden costs in planning? Data integration.

Without a unified data source, teams waste days or weeks:

The Fix: A Unified Data Warehouse

Ingests data from all sources—ERP, eComm, POS, returns, and marketing
Automatically updates and aligns logic across metrics
Feeds clean, consistent data directly into planning tools

“The real ROI isn’t just cleaner data—it’s the time and trust it gives back to your planning team.”

6. Why End-to-End Planning Platforms Are the Next Step

A unified warehouse is essential—but it’s only half the solution.

True transformation comes from feeding that data into a full planning platform.

End-to-End Planning = Built-In Agility

Every step—top-down forecasting, category planning, OTB, replenishment—lives in one place
Shared logic keeps everything aligned
Teams collaborate with one set of tools, timelines, and metrics
Knowledge stays in the system—not in someone's spreadsheet