SKU Rationalization: What It Is and How to Optimize It

What is SKU rationalization, why it's important, and best practices for SKU rationalization for optimized assortment planning.

Toolio Product Updates: December 12, 2024

Toolio updates this month include in-platform product update alerts, "good weeks" in ROS calculations, extended end date, and excluding locations from clusters.

Scenario Planning: What it is and Strategies to Optimize

Learn what sell-through rate means, how to calculate it, and discover five actionable strategies to optimize it for better inventory management and increased profits.

Sell-Through Rate Explained: How to Calculate It and 5 Strategies to Optimize

Learn what sell-through rate means, how to calculate it, and discover five actionable strategies to optimize it for better inventory management and increased profits.

How to Leverage Demand Metrics to Capture Missed Sales

Discover the key indicators that signal it’s time to upgrade your demand forecasting. Learn how demand metrics provide deeper insights into customer needs, helping you reduce missed sales and align inventory more effectively.

Infographic: From Confusion to Clarity - Better Buying Decisions with Integrated Planning

Download our infographic to explore the key challenges retailers face in bridging the gap top-down strategy and bottom-up execution for better buying decisions.

Toolio Product Updates: October 23, 2024

Toolio updates this month include Rate of Sale Ranking, Size Ranges, Cluster Management on the Planning Screen, Generate SKUs, Image Upload for Placeholders and Search!

Breaking Down Silos: How Integrated Planning Powers Collaboration

Collaboration is key. This detailed exploration reveals how retailers collaboratively plan and achieve their sales targets, complete with real-world examples from major brands. It illustrates the vital role of coordinated efforts across key stakeholders and the importance of a unified approach to data.

The Importance of Standardized Apparel Sizing in Merchandise Planning

Whether you're managing a multi-category retail operation or a focused product line, getting the size matrix right can lead to better product alignment, improved sell-through rates, and more effective forecasting.

The Importance of Color Codes in Merchandise Planning: How to Streamline Operations

Choosing the right color names and standardizing your color codes not only improves the customer experience but also helps merchandise planners streamline operations, inventory management, and reporting.

Definitive Guide to Selecting Product Attributes for an Effective Merchandising Process

Product hierarchy with detailed key attributes help planners understand customer preferences, predict trends, and optimize stock levels for improved merchandising strategies.

Toolio Product Updates: September 13, 2024

Toolio updates this month include Data Alerts, Presentation Profile in Assortment Planning, Assortment & Inventory Groups, and Store Openings!

Toolio Product Updates: August 9, 2024

Toolio updates this month include Metric Rule Sets, Distinct Count Metrics, Pricing Table Integration for New AP, Comp Store Planning in MP, Planned Sell Through, and Launch Curve!

Toolio Product Updates: May 24, 2024

Toolio updates this month include PLM Choices, Choice Count Multiplier, Allocation Defaults, and NS PO Exporter!

Toolio Product Updates: April 5, 2024

Toolio updates this month include Product Hierarchy, Selling Locations, Automated Clusters, and Rationalization!

Your Go-To Guide for Comparable Store Sales Reporting and Planning

Comparable Store Sales (CSS) is your stores’ performance report, minus the impact of new stores opening or old ones closing. Check out this article to learn more about how to calculate it.

Toolio Product Updates: March 8, 2024

Toolio updates this month includes Dashboards, New Location Planning, Return Profiles, and SFTP Exports!

Store Clustering for Improved and Efficient Inventory Planning

Store clustering involves grouping stores with similar characteristics together based on factors like customer demographics (fashion-forward vs. traditional), geographic location (cold vs. warm), store profile (large, medium or small) and sales performance.

Toolio Product Updates: January 26, 2024

Toolio updates this month includes New Assortment Plan, Promotional Causals, Reconcile via Daily Plan in Merchandise Plan, New Export Destinations and Dependent Demand!

Toolio Product Updates: December 1, 2023

Toolio updates this month includes Location Table updates, Partitioning Curves, and Allocation Exceptions!

Toolio Featured in The Lead 100

We are thrilled to announce that Toolio, a cutting-edge demand forecasting and inventory planning platform, has been featured in The Lead 100, a prestigious list recognizing the top companies in retail technology.

Managing Wholesale Channel in Toolio

Are you involved in the world of wholesale planning, striving to meet your sales goals while maximizing profitability? In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the ins and outs of wholesale planning with the help of Toolio.

Toolio Product Updates: October 13, 2023

Toolio updates this month includes Holdback %, Allocation off a PO, Apply Spread, and Allocation Plan view Caching!

10 Key Takeaways from Toolio Reporting Best Practices Webinar

Discover the key takeaways from a recent webinar on reporting, featuring methodologies and best practices using the Toolio tool. Master merchandise planning and reporting in Toolio with our comprehensive guide. Learn how to use Toolio's powerful features to analyze top-line performance, create customized reports, identify critical data points, track OTB amounts, optimize inventory, and make informed decisions.

Toolio Product Updates: September 13, 2023

Toolio updates this week includes Location Curves, Allocation Demand Retrend, Column Stats, and Current Inventory Units!

Difference between Landed Cost, FOB Cost or Ex-Factory Cost

Landed Cost, FOB (Free On Board or Freight on Board) Cost, and Ex-Factory Cost are terms used in international trade and supply chain management to describe different aspects of the total cost of a product when it is imported or exported. These terms help businesses and organizations understand and calculate the overall cost involved in moving goods from the manufacturer to the end destination.

Toolio Product Updates: August 10, 2023

Toolio updates this week includes Advanced Filtering, Size Curves, Allocation Management, and Import Wizard improvements!

Mastering Retail Allocation Strategies: Key Takeaways for Success

Maximize sales potential, minimize stock inefficiencies, and meet customer demands with data-driven decisions and optimized supply chain management. Discover key takeaways from our allocation module, including enhanced flexibility, AI-driven retraining, and seamless integration with assortment planning.

10 Key Takeaways from Our Forecasting Webinar

Discover the key takeaways from a recent webinar on item forecasting, featuring methodologies and best practices using the Toolio tool. Learn how to leverage historical data, manage newness, incorporate seasonality and trend, reconcile top-down and bottom-up approaches, and utilize the assortment planning module. Enhance your item forecasting capabilities and make informed decisions to optimize sales projections and inventory management in the retail industry. Visit the Toolio website for further guidance and stay ahead in a dynamic market.

Maximizing Full Price Sales Potential Through Allocation Strategies

Every penny counts as they say. In this article, our VP of Product explains how allocation strategies can lend themselves to more full price sell through for retailers.

Optimizing Sales Data for Retail Decision-Making Success

Understanding sales data is easy 95% of the time, but that remaining 5% tends to cause all sorts of problems. In this article, you'll learn what to look out for and take extra care to create processes to handle.

Optimizing Product Hierarchy and Attributes for Effective Retail Decision-Making

Products are a retailer's greatest asset. Learn how to determine the ideal product hierarchy, adjust it appropriately, and leverage alternate hierarchies. Explore the importance of product attributes in reporting and decision-making, and gain insights on managing attributes effectively. Enhance your retail planning and forecasting with optimized data structures.

Boll & Branch Customer Success Story

Discover how Boll & Branch implemented Toolio to build a best-in-class planning organization, achieving robust sales growth with fewer inventory units. By streamlining workflows, enabling a mentality shift, and leveraging advanced forecasting capabilities, Boll & Branch experienced efficiency gains, improved buying decisions, and reduced out-of-stocks. Learn how Toolio transformed their planning processes and empowered data-driven decision-making for better business outcomes.

Scenarios and Reconciliation: Strategies for Effective Retail Planning Process Management

Optimize your retail planning processes with effective strategies for scenarios and reconciliation. Learn how to create a single version of the truth, streamline scenario creation, embrace a multiplan approach, and collaborate for successful reconciliations. Discover how technology can enhance your retail planning efficiency and accuracy. Improve your retail planning with these insights.

NetSuite Requirements for Toolio Success

Discover how the seamless integration between NetSuite and Toolio empowers retailers to make faster and better merchandising decisions. Learn about the key integration points and areas of impact, and get insights on building a strong team, establishing robust processes, and gaining NetSuite know-how to maximize the benefits of this powerful combination. Enhance your decision-making capabilities and optimize inventory management with NetSuite and Toolio.

Knix: Simplifying expansion and seeing results

Discover how Knix, a leading direct-to-consumer intimate apparel brand, experienced agile decision-making, seamless team transitions, streamlined multi-currency planning, and supported expansion into new channels with the help of Toolio. Read their success story and learn how Toolio transformed their planning and merchandising processes for increased sales, improved margins, and efficient decision-making.

The Benefits of Improved Merchandise Plan Reconciliation for Retailers

Discover how improved merchandise plan reconciliation can benefit retailers, reduce errors and increase accuracy. Learn how to address common challenges such as data accuracy, departmental conflicts, uncertainty, calculation complexity, and communication. Find out how using a merchandise planning tool like Toolio can help retailers reconcile disparate plans, make real-time data-based decisions, and optimize their bottom line.

Inventory Rationing Strategies for Retailers | Maximizing Profit and Balancing Customer Demand

Discover effective inventory rationing strategies for retailers to maximize profit and balance customer demand. Learn how to use data-driven analysis and strategic decision-making to allocate inventory efficiently and effectively.

Shoptalk Recap 2023

Discover the latest best practices and insights from the 2023 ShopTalk event, including the use of AI in retail, and learnings on finding efficiencies and putting customers first. Stay up-to-date on the latest trends in the industry with this informative blog.

Toolio Product Updates: March 9, 2023

Toolio updates this week include Export History, Location Attribute in Multiple Plans, Generate Inventory from the first available time frame, and Demand Metric improvements!

Strategies for Merchandise Planning a New Location

In this piece, our retail experts provide inventory planning strategies for merchandise teams when opening a new retail store, including how to plan for a new store when there are other stores in operation, as well as how to plan for the first store. It highlights that while nothing in retail is one-size-fits-all, the strategies discussed can be used as a guide.

Toolio Product Updates: February 24, 2023

Toolio updates this week include Applying MDQ Constraints in AP, Relative Custom Time Frames and Import Wizard!

How Retailers Should Use GMROI

Retailers use Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI) to measure the efficiency and profitability of their inventory. Find out which departments benefit most from this key metric.

Toolio Product Updates: February 2, 2023

Toolio updates this week include NetSuite PO Creation from Item Plan and In Module Change History! Plus, check out our Partner Spotlight featuring Oracle NetSuite!

How value-added fulfillment services improve inventory management

Managing inventory effectively is an ongoing challenge for e-commerce brands. Rapidly changing trends, the expectation for regular product drops, and even unforeseen weather events can drastically change what items a shopper is interested in. 

How Successful Retailers Combine Art, Science and Technology to Win with Ken Pilot (A Webinar Recap)

Retailers must balance art, science and technology to win in today's ever-evolving landscape. Find out how the best brands are getting ahead from retail expert, Ken Pilot.

NRF Recap, Trends and Learnings

A recap of NRF 2023

Toolio Celebrates Powerful Product Enhancements, New Customers & Growth

A recap of 2022 successes, including new customers, new product features and enhanced integrations to a retailers' next-gen tech stacks.

Not your daughter’s jeans; not your mother’s tech

Why NYDJ partnered with Toolio.

Toolio Product Updates: January 10, 2023

Toolio updates this week include Data Visualization, Multiple plan in Merchandise Plan, Day Level Plan, Export Settings for Automated Plan Exports, Ability to Add Custom Derived Metrics, NetSuite Status in Assortment Plan, Ability to Test Shopify Credentials, and Ability to Set Last Sync Time!

What Retailers Can Learn From Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM)

My favorite holiday of the year (Black Friday, of course) has recently come to a close and retailers are still giddy about the unprecedented levels of sales - even amid recession and inflation concerns. Despite it all, shoppers showed up and they showed up big. Here’s my take on the shopping behaviors and key trends we saw this year.

Toolio Product Updates: December 1, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Filtering for Invalid Cells in Master Data, Custom Fields for NetSuite Item & PO Creation, Updated Views for Master Data Models, Command Bar for Quick Search, Copy Excel/Spreadsheet cells into filter options, Hide/Unhide Columns, and Expanding/Collapsing Groupings. Plus, check out our Partner Spotlight featuring Channel Ape!

Toolio Awarded SOC 2 Type II Data Security Certification

Toolio, a merchandising platform for the next generation of retailers, achieves valuable stamp of approval for Security & Compliance

Toolio Product Updates: November 17, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Equal Spreading for Metrics like Discount % and Markdown %, Change History Summaries, MDQ Profiles, and Push Items from Master Data into Assortment Plan!

How Retail Brands Can & Must Increase Sustainability

Sustainability is a hot topic in fashion and apparel and luckily we have an in-house expert on the topic, Mary Saunders co-founder of For Days. Here she shares her take on why sustainability is important and how brands can improve

Toolio Product Updates: October 5, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Merchandise Plan Forecast, Constrain Sales by Inventory and Ability to sort based on metrics aggregation!

Welcome to the Future: New Toolio Customers Announced

Toolio's incoming class of customers range in products sold and channels sold through, but one thing is the same ... their commitment to investing in innovative ways to beat the competition and provide their customers with what they want, when they want it.

15 Questions to Ask When Considering a New Merchandise Planning Software

If you’re a retailer looking to modernize your operations by embracing merchandise planning software, the tool you choose matters. The right one will help you save time, gain actionable insights and grow your business through better planning, while the wrong one can be a waste of your valuable funds and time...

What is an Allocation Analyst & Do You Need One?

There are so many roles and responsibilities within the retail world, from planners to merchandisers/buyers, allocators and beyond. They’re all important, but it can be difficult to know which to prioritize, especially when it comes to some of the lesser-known titles. Here, we’ll take a look at the Allocation Analyst position, what it is and whether you need someone to fill it. 

How to Perform a Killer Comp Shop

Competitive (comp) shopping is essential to the life of any retail professional. Whether you’re a merchant, planner, buyer or designer, it’s key you understand your competitor’s assortments, the shopping habits of the customer and much more.

Forecasting Best Practices

A recap of the highlights from our hour-long webinar with our VP of Planning talking all about best practices for forecasting conceptually and in Toolio

What are Pre-packs, Case-packs and Minimum Display Quantities?

There's no shortage of retail terminology nuances. In this post we cover pre-packs, case-packs and MDQs.

Toolio Product Updates: September 7, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Aggregation Capabilities in Master Data, Amazon Fees in Toolio and PDF Exporting Improvements!

Top 5 Excel Memes for Merchandise Planners

Merchandise planning is serious business and that's why we need the levity of memes.

Toolio Product Updates: August 25, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Snapshot Scenarios, Improved SKU Change Management and Invite and Suspend a user!

Onsite, Remote or Hybrid? How are Leading Merchants Evolving Work?

How will retailers continue to respond to the changing demands of their corporate workforce?

The Top Technologies Retail Brands Should Invest in at Each Revenue Stage

The retail tech landscape continues to evolve and growing retailers struggle to keep up with the changing technology-enablement for their growth. Here's a quick recap of the technologies we see customers and friends leveraging as they grow.

Toolio Product Updates: August 10, 2022

Toolio updates this week include LY vs LLY Variant, Relative Filters in Master Data, and Time Frame Management Improvements!

Top Thought Leaders in Retail: Who Should You Be Following?

Eleven of the best and brightest thought leaders in retail to follow on LinkedIn and Twitter

What Retailers Must Consider when Planning During a Recession (a Webinar Recap)

Holiday planning is always an interesting beast in retail, but add a potential recession, linger supply chain "stuff" and unemployment fears and it gets even more intense. In this recap from our webinar on the topic, we highlight the takeaways for merch planning teams.

Welcome Our New VP of Sales

Our new VP of Sales shares his six principles for choosing a start-up that aligns to your own passions.

Toolio Product Updates: July 27, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Skipped Import Lines Visibility Improvements and Export Mapping Improvements!

Retail Planners vs. Merchandisers vs. Allocators

Buyers, retail strategic planning, and allocation roles are all extremely important in the retail ecosystem. Read more about the difference in the jobs here.

Open-To-Buy Planning - What is OTB for Retail?

OTB planning is essential to bridging the gap between your retail operations and planning. Here's our guide to managing it like a rockstar.

3 Reasons Open-to-Buy is THE Critical Planning Tool for Retailers

Open-to-buy in retail is an essential tool to efficiently handle finances, inventory, and more. See how open-to-buy planning can help your business.

The Top Traits of a Great Merchandiser

In retail, merchandising is one of the most sought-after positions - and also among the most complex. While the job certainly comes with an undeniable cool factor, it requires the merchandiser to wear a lot of hats and own a lot of responsibilities...

Toolio Achieves ‘Built for NetSuite’ Status

Toolio announces the honor of achieving "Built for NetSuite" status to help organizations bring NetSuite data into Toolio to manage planning and merchandising processes end-to-end.

Toolio Product Updates: June 29, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Size Spread & Like for Like Forecast Profiles, Last Imported Time on MP & IP, Scheduled Report Deliveries for CSV & Excel, Scenario Locking Improvements, Metric Formatting Improvements, and Transfer Orders in Master Data!

To The Next Generation of Retailers…Say Good-Bye to Merchandise Planning Spreadsheets

Inventory is the most expensive asset for retailers, yet many still manage it in Excel, decades-old on-prem softwares or through homegrown solutions that long-ago lost priority to maintain and improve. The solution for next-gen retailers is a next-gen software, like Toolio.

4 Surprising Things I Learned During My First Job in Retail Planning

Retail planning careers can be perfect for those who love fashion, numbers and really, really big spreadsheets.

Toolio Product Updates: June 15, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Size Spreads in Item Plan Forecasting, Locking a scenario, Placeholder ID generation, Highlighting Duplicate Choices, and the ability to View Receipt Totals in PO Master Data!

Toolio Product Updates: May 31, 2022

Toolio updates this week include Clusters, Location, and Channel Improvements, Item Plan Like For Like Forecasting, Metric Separator, Scheduled Report Deliveries for Master Data, Deleted Line Handling Improvements, Data Visibility & Troubleshooting Improvements, Exporter Configuration Menu and completion of Merchandise Plan Migration!

Impact of increased lead times

Over the past 2+ years, we have been experiencing many shifts in business and supply chain trends, causing many changes to our expectations and process. As Planners we need to update our merch plans to incorporate the product mix changes and product flow shifts. These changes can cause both short and long term effects. We are all trying to figure out what the new KPI's and benchmarks will be based on the fluctuating variables.

Toolio featured in CB Insights Retail Tech 100

We're proud to be featured in CB Insights Retail Tech 100: The top retail tech companies of 2022!

Welcoming Our VP of Engineering

Mustafa Demir joined the team as VP of Engineering, and in this Behind the Scenes post he dives into what led him to Toolio.

Hindsight 2021

Hindsighting is the name of the game in retail. It is the practice of studying past performance, analyzing the top performers and the flops, and taking lessons on how to adapt plans in order to effectively reforecast for the future. Taking a cue from our favorite discipline of retail science, we would like to reflect on the past year at Toolio.

Toolio Product Updates: Oct 18, 2021

With our latest updates you’re now able to merge scenarios in Item Plan and access Master Data on main navigation menu.

Toolio Product Updates: Oct 11, 2021

Toolio’s updates this week include: improved sorting UI and added ability to edit Merchandise Plan and Item Plan options.

Toolio Product Updates: October 4, 2021

Our latest updates include: improved user experience in Item Plan when generating inventory and receipts and ability to track import statuses.

Toolio Product Updates: September 27, 2021

Check out our newest updates in Toolio including generating Purchase Orders from Assortment Plan, highlights within Assortment Plan Spreads, and more visibility into integration imports.

Toolio Product Updates: September 20, 2021

Toolio’s update this week include: Spreads tab in Data & Imports, Item Planning Min/Max for Receipt Generation, and an integration to SAP.

Toolio Product Updates: September 13, 2021

Click here to read some of the newly released features at Toolio! We’ve updated the Product Mix dashboard in Assortment Plan, added abilities to Item Plan scenario playing, and given you more visibility into Generating Assortment Plans from Item Plan.

Toolio Product Updates: September 7, 2021

Click here to read some of the newly released features at Toolio! Updates include: dynamic inventory generation with start times, filters exposed to front-end users, and automated Plan data export to data warehouse.

Toolio Product Updates: August 30, 2021

Click here to read some of the newly released features at Toolio! Updates include Scenario Playing and Forecasting updates in Item Plan, ability to recreate SKUs in Assortment Plan, and improved visibility to formulas in the Merchandise Pivot View.

Toolio Product Updates: August 23, 2021

Toolio updates this week include: formula visibility in Assortment Plan views, date ranges visible for time frames in Assortment Planning, confirmation pop-up when generating Item Plan to Assortment Plan, and linking Assortment Plan to Item Plan.

Toolio Product Updates: August 16, 2021

With our latest updates you’re now able to: retrigger integration and add/delete metric rollups in Assortment Plan settings.

Toolio Product Updates: August 9, 2021

Toolio updates this week include: added Derived Attributes capabilities, specified user roles, created integration view, added % Var Plan vs Plan LY variant, added filters in Import Page.

Toolio Product Updates: August 2, 2021

We’re excited to share some of the newly released features at Toolio! Updates include Item Plan reconciliation, customizing your assortments, and improvements to forecasting and inventory planning in Item Plan.

Toolio Product Updates: July 26, 2021

With our latest updates you’re now able to take advantage of custom formulas in Assortment Plan and plan using the Gregorian Calendar in Merchandise Plan.

Toolio Product Updates: July 19, 2021

We’re excited to share our latest product updates which introduced Average Per Week metrics to Assortment Plan, % of TTL Improvements in Merchandise Plan, the ability to Reallocate Uncategorized plan values, and updates to the Data & Imports menu.