Why is merchandising important?

Merchandising is the secret sauce behind the most successful brands. It’s how you know how much to buy, of what products, and when—to create happy, loyal customers and strong, healthy business.

How often should I be doing lessons learnt?

Ideally after key milestones in your trading calendar and at the end of each season. This ensures that insights are fresh in your memory and will save time when reviewing strategy for future seasons.

Can lessons learnt save me money?

Yes! By identifying what sells or not and why, lessons learned helps reduce waste, reduce costly mistakes, and focus budgets on product areas that offer the highest return.

What are lessons learnt in a product-based business?

Lessons learnt refer to insights, experiences, and knowledge gained from past seasons or product cycles—both successes and failures—that help you improve future decision-making, processes, and products.

What data do I look at when reviewing lessons learnt?

You can look at various data but the main focus is understanding what is selling within your business, what isn’t, understanding why and what are you going to do about it. This could be in the form of sales data, marketing data, customer feedback or market insights. Anything that helps you understand what you could do differently next time and how to better your business.

Will an NDA be in place?

Before I dive deeper into your business details, I'd like to ensure your information is fully protected. I’m sure you will be comfortable sending me a mutual non-disclosure agreement to sign. This allows us to have open discussions about your sales data and business strategies while keeping everything confidential.

What is a retail strategy?

It shapes the direction of the business and maps out how you are going to get there revolving around 6 key elements: financial planning, customer experience & engagement, operational excellence, distribution & channel, value proposition and core market understanding.

Where should I focus my efforts?

Focus on prioritises for your business, what aligns with your values and what your customer is telling you they want.

How do I know what data to look at when ?

You can look at various data but the main focus is understanding what is selling within your business, what isn’t, understanding why and what are you going to do about it….

How does a strategy grow my sales?

It helps map out tangible actions on how to get to achieve your goals. It ensures consistency in the messaging throughout your business. It acts as a roadmap to maximise every opportunity.

When should I be looking at creating a strategy?

It depends on the seasonality of your product and the lead time of our buying/manufacturing process. Work it backwards from when you want to launch products. The aim is to tie it in with reflecting back to influence going forward.

Why does having a strategy save me money?

Once you are confident in your financial goals and you understand how you are going to achieve them, this in tern shapes your buy budget to ensure you and spending it in the right way, aligning with your strategy goals.

Do I need a strategy if I'm a small business?

While it might seem like big companies are the ones who need a strategy the most, a well-thought-out approach is actually even more important when you're a small business giving you focus and direction

Why is sales forecasting essential for business success?

Sales forecasting enables data-driven decisions about stock, staffing, and cash flow management, reducing costs and maximising revenue opportunities.

How does sales forecasting impact cash flow?

It prevents cash being tied up in excess stock while ensuring sufficient stock for expected demand, optimising what is selling.

What problems can poor sales forecasting cause?

Stockouts leading to lost sales, excess stock causing storage costs and write-offs, inefficient staffing, and missed revenue opportunities.

How often should sales forecasts be updated?

Monthly at minimum, with real-time adjustments based on market conditions, seasonality, and actual sales performance.

Does forecasting only benefit large businesses?

No, businesses of all sizes benefit from forecasting. Small businesses especially need accurate predictions to manage limited resources effectively.

How does forecasting improve customer satisfaction?

How does forecasting improve customer satisfaction? By ensuring product availability, maintaining optimal stock levels, and enabling better pricing and promotion planning.

What data is needed for accurate forecasting?

Historical sales data, market trends, seasonal patterns, competitor information, and economic indicators.

What tools can I add to my basic dashboard?

Stock master suite includes

- Range plan

- Sizing Tool

- Production planning if needed

Price +£720

Product Pro includes

- Weekly sales performance summary template

- Line card or category forecast set up

- Re-ordering template

Price +£590

Retail Control Hub includes:

- Line detail

- Margin calculator

- Wholesale order process tools

Price +£850

What is a range plan?

A merchandising range plan is a strategic document that outlines your complete product assortment across a season or time period. This plan helps ensure balanced stock, optimal product mix, and coordinated buying decisions that align with business goals and customer demand.

What is a sizing tool?

It takes your total buy units for a product and breaks it down by size using suggested size curves based on historical sales.

What is production planning?

Production planning is the process of organising and scheduling your product manufacturing or sourcing to meet sales demand. It coordinates materials, labour, and equipment to ensure efficient production flow while maintaining optimal stock levels and meeting delivery deadlines.

What does a weekly sales summary include?

It is an automated trading document with visibility of any given sales period broken and a snapshot of the performance of your business. What’s working, what’s not and a framework to help you review where to focus your energy going forward.

What is a line card or category forecast?

It is the same as your total business sales forecast but broken down further to look at by product type or individual products.

What is a reordering template?

This tells you how much more you should buy of a particular product based on your forward sales projection's and current stock.

What is a line detail?

A document that houses all buying information related to each individual product in one place.

What does the wholesale order process include?

This includes support on what information you need to sell to a retailer, how to calculate a profitable pricing structure, order confirmation process through to invoicing.