01  What is inventory planning and while we're at it what is OTB?

 

Inventory planning puts you in control to accurately forecast sales and inventory.  It will guide you and help you create a cash flow plan that works just for your unique situation.  OTB or Open To Buy is how much you need to buy in order to have the optimum inventory level to meet sales goals in each classification in your store.

 

 

 

02  I already plan my spending, what makes your planning so special?



We have over 20 years of history for stores just like yours. Our plans are customized by professional planners every month and reflect the trends of the market to give you a customized plan building sales and inventory goals class by class.  The future may or may not resemble the past.  We aggressively plan growth, and use planned defensive tactics to minimize downturns.  We also help strategize how to transition from season to season with as few markdowns as possible, while maintaining enough fresh inventory to make full price sales.  We look forward, and watch your back!    

 

 

03  Okay, your OTB (planning) is different so what else do I get with your

service?
 

We provide a dynamic cash flow tool that help you manage your cash flow.  Monthly, we provide action plans taken from your business custom planning to help make decisions and put you in control.  We work together every month to produce action plans with specific steps to take each month.

 

Management-One's proprietary planning online tools allow you to produce mid month plans as often as you like to verify your trends over the month.  Progress by class against last year and the plan sales goals for the month.

 

Our reports include "Fresh Factor".  The Fresh Factor is a guide to determining freshness of current inventory.  The purpose is to illustrate the importance of having a flow of fresh goods and to see how sales react to the "newness" of inventory.  Management-One affiliates have used this formula with many retailers as part of their decision process in dertermining open-to-receive.  It's not surprising that sales improve as the "Fresh Factor" increases.  Fresh Factor is included on all OTB reports by class, department, location and all summary reports.

 

 

04  How do we begin and what will I need to get started?

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We meet to gather information about your particular store.  We make sure the inventory classifications currently used make sense looking at class breakdowns available from across the country.  We will try and collect 2 years of history from your store. (Sales, Month End Inventory, Receiving and Markdowns) if available.  We will ask you to share a current P&L and Balance Sheet (yes, it will be confidential). We gather specific information about your store (location, competition, store hours, days open).  We try to understand your mission statement or identity.  We need as much information as you can share to understand your store. Our plans are built to produce Cash that matches Profit.  When you have fresh goods at the correct levels, our sales goals and suggested inventory levels are 93% accurate.

 

 

05  How much does it cost, and what happens after we meet and I agree to move forward?

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The cost is based on a range of classes and the number of stores that we plan.   The arrangement is month to month with your initial agreement to give us 6 months to prove that we are earning our keep.  We will show you in black and white how we pay for ourselves.  Once we have your data, and it's uploaded into the system, it takes a few weeks to produce the first report.  We have available custom data connectors that  pull data directly from your POS system in a timely manner without hand keying information.  We want it to be quick, and give you plans back quickly in order to help you make timely decisions that positively effect the sales and ultimately the profit and cash flow of your business.