The Assortment Philosophy
More SKUs is not a strategy. It is a symptom. The brands that build durable wholesale businesses operate leaner lines with stronger sell-through, cleaner inventory turns, and more intentional launches. This guide is about building that discipline.
The typical mid-stage gift brand carries 20-40% more SKUs than it needs. Those extra SKUs are not neutral. They consume cash in inventory, split demand across near-duplicate options, complicate wholesale sell-in conversations, slow down fulfillment operations, and fragment the brand story. Every SKU that doesn't earn its keep is pulling resources away from one that does.
The discipline of assortment management is not about cutting aggressively. It is about being intentional at every stage: when you add a product, what role it plays, how you measure whether it is doing that job, and when you retire it gracefully. A line that is edited deliberately, season over season, compounds its strength. A line that grows without review compounds its complexity.
For wholesale-first brands, the assortment stakes are even higher. A retailer's open-to-buy budget is finite. When you present 60 SKUs to a boutique buyer, you are asking them to do work you should have already done. The brands that edit for the retailer, showing up with a clear, logical, well-priced assortment, win the order and the relationship.
Before any product enters your line and at every review cycle, ask one question: "Does this SKU strengthen our reason to exist, or does it fill a gap?" A SKU that fills a gap is a placeholder. It takes up catalog space, inventory budget, and retailer bandwidth without adding anything to the brand story. Only launch products that strengthen the reason to exist. Kill the gap-fillers.
The Real Cost of a Bloated Line
Cash & Complexity
Every SKU requires its own purchase order, receiving process, inventory location, reorder logic, and potential markdown event. At 80 SKUs vs. 50 SKUs, the marginal ops cost of the extra 30 is not zero. It is paid in working capital tied up in slow-moving inventory, warehouse space, fulfillment error rates, and team attention.
Buyer Fatigue
A line sheet with 80 items asks a boutique buyer to make 80 decisions. A line sheet with 40 well-chosen items is a curated recommendation. Buyers, particularly at independent boutiques where the owner is also the buyer, will always order more from the brand that makes their job easier. Edit for the retailer before they have to edit for themselves.
Story Dilution
A brand that makes 20 things clearly related to its identity is memorable. A brand that makes 80 things, some of which are clearly brand-adjacent and some of which are clearly gap-fillers, is forgettable. The assortment tells buyers and consumers what you believe in. An unfocused assortment tells them you are not sure.
The Three-Tier Architecture
Every SKU in your line plays one of three roles. Hero lines define the brand. Margin lines fund it. Discovery lines grow it. A healthy assortment has all three in balance, with clear assignments, honest scoring, and regular review of which role each product is actually playing.
- Expresses the brand most clearly
- What buyers associate with you first
- What press and editorial features
- What new customers discover first
- Does not need to be the highest margin
- Must be in stock consistently
- Anchor for seasonal storytelling
- Highest contribution margin per unit
- Lower complexity: fewer colorways, simpler packaging
- Often accessories, add-ons, or evergreen repeat items
- Rarely the item that earns press coverage
- The product that makes the P&L work
- Steady reorder rate from core accounts
- Should not be confused with hero status
- Low opening price point
- Easy trial purchase, easy gift
- Generates new-customer entry across channels
- Can introduce new categories or collaborations
- Often tests a new audience or occasion
- Limited by design: not everything stays
- Must earn its way into the core line
The most common assortment mistake is treating a discovery SKU like a hero. You launch something new and exciting, it gets good early traction, you invest in inventory depth, you feature it in your line sheet. Then it burns through its novelty in two seasons and you are left with overstock on a product that was never meant to anchor the brand. Run every SKU through an honest classification every 6 months. Classifications should change as products age.
Role Assignment in Practice
| Product Type | Natural Role | Common Misclassification | What to Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signature design item (e.g., a puzzle with iconic artist collaboration) | Hero | Kept in Hero even after the collaboration is no longer driving cultural relevance | When editorial features drop off and reorder rate plateaus: reassess Hero status |
| Core evergreen accessory (e.g., puzzle glue, card set) | Margin | Under-invested because it feels boring, even though it funds the business | If sell-through drops or a competitor launches a better version: address or it becomes a liability |
| Seasonal limited edition (e.g., holiday colorway or artist drop) | Discovery | Over-inventoried when the initial pre-sell generates excitement that does not sustain | Pre-sell data is the most reliable indicator. If pre-sell is weak, cut the buy before production commits. |
| New category test (e.g., a stationery brand launching a small object) | Discovery | Launched as a Hero because it is exciting internally, not because customers have signaled demand | Run it as a discovery. Give it 2 seasons. If it earns Hero status through sell-through and press, promote it. |
| Core range mid-tier item (e.g., a standard gift box at $38) | Margin | Neglected because it is not a flagship, causing inconsistent stock levels and retailer frustration | These SKUs fund the brand. Treat them with the same operational discipline as Hero items. |
Velocity Analysis & ABC Classification
You cannot manage 60 SKUs equally well. ABC analysis tells you where to concentrate inventory investment, operational attention, and supply chain depth. It is the fastest way to see your line clearly.
ABC analysis sorts your SKUs by their contribution to revenue, with the goal of matching your management effort to actual business impact. The Pareto principle holds here as reliably as anywhere: roughly 20% of your SKUs generate around 80% of your revenue. That top 20% deserves tight inventory controls, deep supplier relationships, and near-zero stockout tolerance. The bottom 20% deserves honest scrutiny about whether they belong in the line at all.
Velocity is a related but distinct measure. A SKU can generate significant revenue at low velocity (high price, slow turn) or at high velocity (low price, fast turn). For gift and lifestyle brands with wholesale-DTC split, track both revenue contribution and turn rate. A hero SKU that turns 8 times per year is a different business problem than a hero SKU that turns twice.
A-Class: Vital Few
Your top revenue generators. Never stockout. Dual-source where possible. Deep supplier relationship. Tight reorder points with buffer stock. Forecast conservatively and replenish proactively. These are the SKUs that determine whether your season succeeds or fails. Every production delay on an A-class item costs you real revenue and real retailer relationships.
B-Class: Middle Contributors
Solid, reliable performers. They are not driving the business but they are feeding it. Moderate inventory investment, monthly review cycle, standard reorder controls. Watch these carefully for movement in both directions: a B-class item trending up toward A-class needs investment before it gets there; one trending down needs investigation before it hits C-class.
C-Class: Candidates for Scrutiny
Individually small contributors. Some are valuable strategic items that belong in the line for brand or retailer relationship reasons. Many are gap-fillers or aging SKUs that are costing you more than they contribute. This is where your SKU rationalization work happens. Not every C-class item should be killed, but every C-class item should be justified.
How to Run the Analysis
4 Steps, No Software Required
- Step 1: Export 12 months of sales data by SKU: units sold, net revenue, cost of goods. Use 12 months to capture seasonality. A SKU that only sells in Q4 looks wrong on a 3-month view.
- Step 2: Calculate annual contribution value per SKU: (net revenue minus COGS). Sort descending by contribution value.
- Step 3: Add a running cumulative total. The SKUs that together represent 70-80% of total contribution are your A-class. The next 15-25% are B. The rest are C.
- Step 4: Add a velocity column: average monthly units sold. Cross-reference with contribution to spot high-velocity low-margin items and low-velocity high-margin items. Both require different management strategies.
What Pure Numbers Miss
- New SKUs: A product launched 4 months ago will look like C-class on a 12-month view. Exclude new launches from rationalization decisions until they have a full season of data.
- Strategic anchors: Some C-class items earn placement in key accounts precisely because they fill a price-point or aesthetic need that higher-volume items cannot. Do not rationalize these away without checking with your key account contacts first.
- Gifting occasions: A SKU that only sells at Mother's Day will look like C-class year-round but may be an A-class item in April. Segment by occasion before drawing rationalization conclusions.
- Transferable demand: If you discontinue a C-class item, will that customer buy an A-class item instead, or leave entirely? The answer determines whether the rationalization captures margin or destroys it.
SKU Contribution Scoring
Revenue and margin are necessary but not sufficient. A full SKU score accounts for the product's role, its channel performance, its strategic value, and its operational footprint. Run this twice a year across your active line.
ABC tells you what is selling. The contribution score tells you whether it should stay in the line. A product can generate decent revenue and still be a poor use of resources once you factor in its complexity, channel fit, and brand role. The scoring model below weights five dimensions. Adjust the weights based on what matters most to your business right now.
SKU Contribution Scorecard
Score each dimension 1-10. Multiply by weight. Total = Keep / Review / Exit threshold.5-7.4: Review. Address the weak dimension before next season.
Below 5: Exit candidate. Run a sunset process.
The score is a conversation starter, not a verdict. A SKU that scores 4.8 might be in its first season and simply lacks sell-through data. A SKU that scores 7.2 might have a critical supply chain dependency you cannot resolve. Use the score to surface which products need attention, then apply human judgment on what to do about them. The goal is not to automate the cull. It is to make the cull deliberate.
Building a Collection
A collection is not a group of products that share a launch date. It is a commercial argument. It should have a clear concept, a price architecture that serves every buyer type, and a role for each piece within the broader assortment strategy.
The strongest gift collections work like a well-edited retail shop: there is a reason to enter (the anchor piece or hero SKU), a reason to linger (complementary items at different price points), and a reason to come back (limited or seasonal pieces that change but feel consistent with the world). Structure your collections the same way.
Collection Structure Template
| Element | Role | SKU Count | Price Range | Buyer Job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchor piece | The reason for the collection. What earns press, social attention, and retailer excitement. | 1-2 SKUs | Your mid-to-upper price tier | Creates desire and brand signal. Does not have to be the highest-volume seller. |
| Core range | The workhorses. Items that turn fast, reorder consistently, and anchor the buy for most retailers. | 3-6 SKUs | Your primary price range, usually 50-60% of total collection revenue | This is what most retailers will commit to. Must be in stock reliably. |
| Entry piece | Low barrier, high volume. Gifts, impulse, and trial purchases. Pulls in first-time buyers. | 1-3 SKUs | Bottom of your price ladder, typically 50-60% of anchor price | Introduces new customers to the brand at low commitment. Should lead with the brand story, not just the price. |
| Premium or limited piece | Upside option. Higher price, lower volume, but signals category authority and gift occasion relevance. | 0-2 SKUs | Top of price ladder | Gives retailers a reason to carry you at a gift price point. Raises perceived brand value even for buyers who don't buy it. |
| Supporting accessories | Upsell, add-on, and margin contributors. Complementary to the anchor product. | 1-4 SKUs | Usually under 40% of anchor price | Increases average order value at both wholesale and DTC. Easy reorder cadence. |
A collection without a clear price ladder is a collection that confuses buyers. You want a deliberate gap between your entry and anchor price that feels like a step up in value, not just a step up in price. The entry piece should make the anchor piece look achievable. The premium piece should make the anchor piece look reasonable. If your collection has four items all clustered at $42-$48, you have a pile, not a ladder.
Collection Cadence for Gift & Lifestyle Brands
| Brand Revenue Scale | Collections per Year | SKUs per Collection | Core / Seasonal Split | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1.5M | 2 major collections | 8-15 SKUs | 60% evergreen core / 40% seasonal | Keep the core tight and always in stock. Let seasonal drops be genuinely limited to drive urgency. |
| $1.5M-$5M | 2 major + 1-2 capsules | 12-20 per major, 4-8 per capsule | 50% core / 50% rotating | Capsules (artist collabs, seasonal editions) let you test new directions without committing the full line. |
| $5M-$15M | 2 major + 3-4 capsules | 15-25 per major, 4-10 per capsule | 40% core / 60% rotating | At this scale, the rotating line is a competitive advantage. Buyers have a reason to stay in contact. Core line handles the inventory reliability retailers need. |
The New Product Brief & Launch Gate
Most bad product decisions are made before the product is made. A launch gate process does not slow you down. It stops you from committing to products that were wrong before production started.
Every SKU should go through a three-gate review before production is committed. The gates are not bureaucracy. They are the moments when you check the commercial logic before you invest the capital. The earlier you catch a problem, the cheaper it is to fix.
Before Any Development
- Target retail price and wholesale price defined
- Target margin at standard channel split
- Tier assignment: Hero, Margin, or Discovery
- Target audience and primary occasion
- Brand fit: does it strengthen our reason to exist?
- Estimated MOQ and production complexity
After First Sample
- Actual landed cost against target
- Packaging spec and DIM weight confirmed
- QA test plan in place
- Any material claims validated or removed
- Pre-sell test: show to 5-10 key accounts. What did they say?
- Wholesale line sheet copy written and reviewed
Before Purchase Order
- Pre-sell coverage as % of MOQ: target 40%+ before committing
- Final costing vs. original brief: flag any margin slip
- Inventory plan: how many units, which channels, safety stock
- Lead time confirmed against seasonal calendar
- Contingency: what happens if it doesn't sell through?
- Go / No-go with sign-off from commercial lead
Before committing your MOQ, show your sample to your top 10-15 wholesale accounts and ask a simple question: "Would you add this to your next order?" Not "what do you think?" Their opinion is nice but not useful. Their purchasing intent is everything. If fewer than 35-40% of your T1/T2 accounts say yes, that is a market signal, not a timing problem. Either the product is wrong, the price is wrong, or the channel is wrong. Find out which before you cut the PO.
The Commercial Product Brief Template
Before Development Starts
- Product name and category
- Target retail price (MSRP)
- Target wholesale price
- Target landed cost (work backward from margin target)
- Target gross margin: DTC and wholesale, separately
- Channel priority: wholesale-first, DTC-first, or both simultaneously
- Tier assignment: Hero, Margin, or Discovery
- Primary gifting occasion or use case
- Why now: what trend, occasion, or gap justifies this launch
- MOQ estimate and lead time
Reasons to Stop Before Launch
- Actual landed cost puts gross margin below 45% wholesale (below brief target by 10+ points)
- Pre-sell conversion below 30% among T1/T2 accounts after showing at sample stage
- MOQ value exceeds 120% of projected first-season wholesale revenue
- Production lead time misses primary sell-in window by 4+ weeks
- Material claims required for marketing cannot be substantiated
- Product fails to answer the brand fit question ("does this strengthen our reason to exist?")
These are not arbitrary thresholds. They are signals that either the product economics are wrong or the market timing is wrong. Both are cheaper to fix at the concept stage than after you have taken delivery.
Variant & Colorway Discipline
Variants feel like free SKUs. They're not. Each colorway, size, or format has its own inventory, its own MOQ, its own fulfillment footprint, and its own markdown risk. The discipline is knowing when a variant genuinely earns its place and when it is just adding complexity.
When to Add One
When a Second Size Makes Sense
Bundle vs. Single
Limited vs. Permanent
Discovery Vehicle
Usually Not Worth It
Before approving any variant, answer this: Will a meaningful percentage of buyers choose the new option instead of the existing one, or in addition to it? "Instead of" means transferable demand: the variant cannibalizes an existing SKU without adding revenue. "In addition to" means incremental demand: the variant reaches a buyer or occasion that the existing SKU could not. Only the second outcome justifies a new variant.
How to Kill a SKU
Retiring a product is harder than launching one. It requires honesty about what is not working, careful management of retailer and customer expectations, and a clear plan for existing inventory. Done well, it strengthens the brand. Done badly, it creates friction with your best accounts.
The biggest mistake in SKU exits is either going too fast (canceling a product that retailers have committed to) or going too slow (running a zombie SKU at minimal inventory for three years because nobody wants to have the conversation). Both are avoidable with a structured sunset process.
-
01
Internal Decision: Go/No-Go on Discontinuation
Use the SKU score to flag candidates. Then apply human judgment: is the low score a product problem or an execution problem? A SKU that scored low because it was poorly merchandised or launched at the wrong season is different from one that was well-supported and still did not sell. Document the reason for discontinuation. This protects you in future discussions with buyers who ask why it is gone.
-
02
Inventory Plan: What Happens to What Is on Hand
Do not discontinue a SKU and then have three seasons of unsold inventory sitting in your 3PL. Before you announce the discontinuation, decide: will you sell through via a final season with no reorder, offer a close-out price to key accounts, bundle it with a faster-moving SKU, or take a markdown to clear? Pick one approach and execute it cleanly. Do not discount and simultaneously maintain full MSRP in some channels.
-
03
Retailer Communication: Early and Personal
Tell your T1 and T2 accounts before anyone else. Give them a one-season runway to sell through their existing stock and decide whether they want a final order. Frame it as a courtesy to their planning cycle, not a heads-up that something failed. If a retailer has stock on hand and cannot sell it in time, work out a solution before the season ends. Do not leave them holding product you discontinued without warning.
-
04
Catalog and System Updates: Remove It Cleanly
Take the SKU off your active line sheet, B2B portal, and Faire listings on the date you announced. Update your website. Remove it from wholesale terms and catalog PDFs. A discontinued product that lingers on active listings for 6 months after discontinuation causes customer service headaches and confuses new buyers. Treat the removal like a launch, just in reverse: set a date and execute it fully.
-
05
Customer Communication: Keep It Simple and Positive
You do not owe consumers or retailers an explanation beyond "this product has been discontinued." What you can do is point them toward the best alternative in your current line. Do not explain that it did not sell well. Do not blame market conditions. If the product had a devoted following, acknowledge it briefly and move forward. Brands that apologize for discontinuations signal uncertainty. Brands that own their line decisions signal confidence.
For SKUs with a genuine following, offer your T1 and T2 accounts a final buy at a modest incentive (free freight or a small discount) before the last production run closes. This converts them from passive recipients of bad news into active participants in a limited-time opportunity. It clears your inventory, generates goodwill, and often surfaces accounts who valued the product more than their ordering history suggested. Frame it as "last chance to stock this before we discontinue" rather than "we are clearing overstock."
The Quarterly SKU Review
Assortment management is not a once-a-year project. It is a quarterly discipline. A two-hour review, run consistently every 90 days, produces better results than an annual deep dive that nobody has bandwidth for.
Two Hours, Four Questions
- What is working? Pull ABC class data for the last 90 days. Update running annual data. Flag any SKU that has moved between classes (C to B is an opportunity; A to B is a warning).
- What needs a decision? Any SKU flagged as a sunset candidate from last quarter's review. Any new SKU with enough data to score. Any SKU with a supply chain problem that affects the commercial position.
- What are retailers telling us? Aggregate any sell-through feedback or buyer conversation notes from the last quarter. Any SKU coming up repeatedly as a problem or a surprise success?
- What is next season looking like? Check the collection brief and launch gate status for anything in development. Flag any product that is likely to miss its sell-in window. Confirm inventory positions for A-class items heading into the next peak season.
Keep It Small
The quarterly review works best as a cross-functional conversation, but it should not be a committee. Attendees who need to be there:
- Founder or commercial lead: Makes the final call on discontinuations and tier changes
- Sales or wholesale lead: Brings retailer feedback and account-level data
- Operations or inventory lead: Brings stock levels, turns, and lead time data
- Creative or product lead: Context on what is in development and what the brand needs the assortment to do
At founder-stage brands, this is often two or three people having a structured conversation. The structure matters more than the headcount.
The Annual Line Audit
Once a year, do a full audit of every SKU against the contribution scorecard. This is the moment to make hard decisions that accumulate over the year but do not get addressed in quarterly reviews. The output should be a clear "keep, invest, review, or sunset" classification for every active SKU, plus a target SKU count for the next 12 months.
Give yourself a SKU count target. It should not be an aspiration. It should be a discipline. If your current line has 65 SKUs and your target is 50, the audit is your mechanism for getting there. Every SKU you add means committing to retiring one that earns less.
Treat your SKU count like a headcount budget. You have a number. Adding a SKU means either growing the budget (which requires a reason) or retiring a SKU to stay within it. Most brands do not have a SKU budget. They have a growing list. A SKU budget forces the conversation about what earns its place.
Assortment Management Checklist
Run this quarterly alongside your SKU review. The items in section C are the most commonly skipped and the most consequential.
A - Architecture Audit
-
Every active SKU assigned to Hero, Margin, or Discovery tierNo unassigned SKUs. If you cannot assign a tier, that is a flag the SKU's role is unclear.
-
Tier balance reviewedTarget: Hero 15-25%, Margin 30-40%, Discovery 35-50%. Heavy Discovery weighting with low retirement rate is a sign of accumulation without cull.
-
Price ladder intact within each collectionEntry, core, and premium price points present. No collection should have all products within a 20% price range of each other.
-
Brand fit tested for all active SKUsRun the one-question test: "Does this strengthen our reason to exist?" Any SKU that cannot pass should move to sunset candidate status.
B - Velocity & Performance Audit
-
ABC classification updated for last 12 monthsReclassify quarterly. Any A-class item that drops to B-class needs an explanation and a plan before it reaches C-class.
-
Sell-through rate by SKU calculated for last seasonTarget: 70%+ at full price for Hero and Margin items. Consistent miss on a Hero item is a product fit or pricing problem.
-
Gross margin by SKU reviewed against targetsUse the P23-ContributionMargin calculator to check actual vs. target margin after all channel fees, packaging, and freight are accounted for.
-
Inventory turns by SKU calculatedTarget: 4-6 turns annually for a wholesale-first gift brand. Anything below 2 turns is likely holding cash and warehouse space that would be better deployed elsewhere.
C - Pipeline & Launch Audit
-
All in-development products have a completed commercial briefNo product in development without target price, target margin, tier assignment, and primary occasion defined in writing.
-
Pre-sell test completed for any product at production gateShow to 10-15 T1/T2 accounts before committing MOQ. 35%+ positive intent is the threshold for proceeding.
-
Production timeline mapped against sell-in calendarAny product that will miss its primary wholesale sell-in window by 4+ weeks needs a go/no-go decision, not a shrug.
-
SKU count vs. budget target reviewedIf over the SKU budget, identify which SKU retires before any new launch is approved.
D - Sunset & Variant Audit
-
Sunset candidates identified from scoringAny SKU scoring below 5 on the contribution scorecard, or below 50% sell-through for two consecutive seasons, enters the sunset process.
-
Retailer communication plan in place for all exitsT1 and T2 accounts notified personally before any catalog update. Final buy offer made where appropriate.
-
All colorways and variants scored separatelyA product family with 4 colorways may have 1 A-class and 3 C-class items. Score them individually. Keep the A. Question the rest.
-
Discontinued SKUs removed from all active listingsWebsite, Faire, B2B portal, line sheets, and any rep sample kits. A ghost SKU in any channel creates customer service cost and buyer confusion.
Assortment KPIs
A short set of numbers that tell you whether your line is getting tighter and stronger over time, or broader and more complex. Review these quarterly alongside your SKU score.
| Metric | Formula | Target | What It Tells You |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue Concentration (Top 20% SKUs) | Revenue from top 20% of SKUs / Total revenue | 70-80% | Whether the Pareto principle is working for you. Below 60% means your line is too spread out with too many underperformers diluting the top. |
| Full-Price Sell-Through Rate | Units sold at full price / Total units sold in season | 65-75%+ for Hero and Margin items | Whether your pricing is right and your inventory commitment is appropriately sized. Consistent miss below 55% means one of those two is wrong. |
| Inventory Turns | COGS / Average inventory value | 4-6x annually for gift/lifestyle wholesale | How efficiently cash is cycling through the business. Low turns mean cash sitting in unsold inventory. High turns with stockouts mean underbought. |
| SKU Count vs. Budget | Active SKUs / SKU budget target | At or below budget | Whether your discipline is holding. If you are consistently over budget, either the budget is wrong or the retirement process is broken. |
| New SKU Conversion Rate | New SKUs that reach A or B class within 2 seasons / Total new SKUs launched | 50%+ | Quality of your launch decision-making. Below 35% means you are launching too many products that the market does not need. |
| Markdown Rate | Revenue at markdown / Total revenue | Under 15% total, under 5% on Hero items | Whether your inventory planning and pricing are calibrated correctly. High markdown rate is a symptom of overbought inventory, wrong pricing, or weak sell-through. |
| Weighted Gross Margin | Sum of (SKU GM x SKU revenue weight) across all active SKUs | 50%+ for gift category wholesale-first | Whether your mix is improving. A rising weighted GM over time is the signal that SKU rationalization is working: you are retiring low-margin items and investing in high-margin ones. |
| SKU Retirement Rate | SKUs retired in last 12 months / Total SKU count at start of period | 10-20% annually | Whether the cull is actually happening. Zero retirements in 12 months means the line is only growing. That is almost always the wrong direction for a gift brand at scale. |
If you track nothing else this quarter, track full-price sell-through by SKU. It is the single most honest signal about whether your product-market fit and inventory planning are calibrated. A Hero SKU that consistently clears 75% at full price tells you to invest more. A Hero SKU at 45% full-price sell-through tells you something is wrong with the product, the price, or the inventory commitment, and the answer determines everything else in your assortment strategy.
Tools for Running Assortment Management
| Need | Tools | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ABC analysis and sell-through reporting | Shopify Analytics (built-in ABC report), Inventory Planner, Toolio | Shopify's native ABC analysis is a solid starting point if you are already on Shopify. Inventory Planner adds forecasting. Toolio adds wholesale-specific sell-out tracking. |
| SKU contribution scorecard | Airtable or Notion with custom fields, or a clean spreadsheet | Keep it in a tool the whole team can access and update. A spreadsheet that only the founder touches is not a system. |
| Collection planning and brief management | Airtable, Notion, or a PLM-lite system | The most important thing is that every in-development SKU has a single document with target price, target margin, tier, occasion, and gate status. Tool matters less than discipline. |
| Gross margin by SKU | P23-ContributionMargin, P23-LandedCostMargin, P23-WholesalePriceBuilder calculators | Run a contribution margin check on every SKU at launch and at each annual review. Include all channel costs: Faire commissions, fulfillment, packaging. The landed margin alone is not enough. |
| Inventory turns and working capital | P23-WorkingCapital, P23-InventoryFinancing, P23-DeadStockCost calculators | Use these alongside SKU scoring to quantify the cost of carrying low-velocity SKUs. The numbers are often more persuasive than the strategic argument for rationalization. |
| Sell-through and markdown tracking | P23-SellThrough, P23-MarkdownRecovery calculators | Use SellThrough to model inventory commitment vs. expected velocity. Use MarkdownRecovery to evaluate the economics of a clearance event vs. holding inventory through another season. |