The Art and Science of A Fashion Range Plan

A range plan is one of the most important planning documents for a designer or merchandiser in fashion retail. It acts as a blueprint of a new collection and helps you set the overall direction of the collection.

The range plan is in a variety of merchandising processes from product design and development, sales forecasting, and allocation.

A standard range plan contains detailed information at SKU level, outlining each style design with the name of the product, colour, material composition, sizing grid, and key financial data such as unit cost, selling price and gross margin.

Range planning is fundamental to develop a cohesive product assortment, which not only meets your customer’s demands but also achieves your financial objectives.

The Framework for A Range Plan

An effective range plan involves informed decision-making.

The process begins with an analysis of your business beyond the products that are trending. It has to be based on historical performance, coupled with market insights to determine which product categories have the opportunity for growth, or which ones to de-prioritise for the new season.

Here are six important factors to consider when developing a product range: 

• An overview of styles: Fulfils the overarching theme of the collection and in keeping with your brand aesthetics.
• Assortment mix: Ensures that the right category mix and variants meet sales forecast or OTB plan (open-to-buy) while staying relevant for the season and in the market. 
• Material composition: Informs seasonality relevance and determines the cost of goods.
• Selling price: Justifies the pricing architecture that optimises profit margin while meeting consumer demands and remaining competitive in the market.
• Financial metrics: Calculates the cost and gross margin percentage per SKU, or commonly known as intake margin.
• Production lead time/Delivery time: Accounts for newness launch phasing and seasonality.

Most merchandisers would utilise a spreadsheet template to create the range plan which includes preset formula in the cells to calculate intake margin.

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Review past season’s performance and compare against sales forecast for the new season, before identifying the key performing categories and narrowing down to the number of SKUs.

To arrive at the optimal number of SKUs for the new season, you will need to account for fashionability contribution between Core versus Seasonal SKUs, as well as to consider repeating existing bestsellers with seasonality relevance.

To validate the latter, it is important to refer to competitors’ activities. If you have been consistently monitoring your competitors, you can make sound decisions to address missed opportunities and avoid repeating mistakes.

Key Information to Include in a Range Plan 

Assortment SKU Count by Category and by Style

A fundamental part of getting the right product range is ensuring that the optimal number of SKUs meets sales forecast, and the breakdown by category/sub-category is commercial as well as representative of your brand positioning.

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Zara and Uniqlo are two leading retailers with different brand propositions.

As the more fashion-centric retailer, Zara’s top categories include Tops, Dresses, Outerwear and Co-ords whereas essential-focused Uniqlo has basic Intimates and Accessories in its top five categories.

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Deep diving into Tops’ sub-categories, T-shirts made the bulk of the offering at Uniqlo with minimal SKUs allocated for the other styles.

Meanwhile, Zara had an equally high concentration of Shirts and T-shirts, alongside more fashion-forward styles such as Crop Tops to suit the retailer’s target consumers.

Colour

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For every collection, it is important to get a mix of seasonal colours and core colours right.

Zara’s colour palette differs greatly across the seasons. For its Spring/Summer collection, core colours like black, white and grey contribute to the majority of the mix but we also see a significant number of SKUs dedicated to seasonal colours such as blue, pink and yellow.

A huge contrast is seen in the Fall/Winter collection, where core colours and brown make up more than half of the palette.

Material Composition

All the materials and fabrics required for each SKU should be clear in the range plan to guide the sourcing process.

Maximising the materials and fabrics used, especially prints, is a key step to avoid MOQ (minimum order quantity) dispute with the suppliers, reduce wastage and achieve cost efficiency. 

Fashionability Attribute

Having this information ensures that the volume drivers and core SKUs are protected and not overlooked.

Unit Cost

The costs in the range plan should include the cost of all materials, production and logistics. If the cost for an SKU is too high, your intake margin would be affected.

Therefore, it is critical to be strategic with the construction of designs and the usage of materials.

Retail Selling Price 

The selling price should adhere to the pricing strategy formed for the season. 

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Zara follows a tiered pricing ladder which maps out its selling prices against fashionability attributes. Core products fall under $30, fashion items are priced at under $60 and premium designs or highly seasonal items are priced at under $100.

Intake Margin

The margin calculated in the range plan is gross margin, which is the difference in selling price and cost of goods divided by the selling price to understand how much profit will be generated.

Calculating the margin within the sheet itself is important as merchandisers will adjust the cost accordingly. Typically, merchandiser would want to maintain an “ideal” margin that allows for future markdowns.

Formula:

Intake Margin % = (Selling Price - Cost price) / Selling Price x 100%

Sizing Grid 

Sizing grid shows the variation of size, each SKU will be offered in. Depending on the design and fit of the SKU, some SKUs may require more or fewer size variations. This information is especially important to inform the manufacturers to avoid costly mistakes.

Quantity 

Quantity indicates the number of units per SKU to be ordered. Your OTB budget should guide this number.

Range Planning for Visual Merchandising 

For Brick-and-mortar 

Range planning also sets the foundation for distribution, especially for store allocation and store cluster levels. Intertwined with the demand planning and visual merchandising processes, the range plan is a key planning document for selecting which products actually end up on the shelves. 

Executed by the visual merchandisers, a range plan is commonly referenced for window display and throughout the store, highlighting must-haves or key looks for the season.

For E-commerce 

The range plan can also guide the creation of pages for online visual merchandising. New arrivals on the homepage typically showcase the seasonal collection, as translated from a range plan.

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Another common trick used for online stores is to place similar products within clusters on the product page. For example, when you are scrolling through the women’s category, you’ll see similar dresses placed next to one another.

The placement of the products and description of the SKUs on the product page will be done in reference to the range plan.

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Conclusion

Range planning is a key discipline in merchandising. The range plan aligns the merchandising, buying, design and manufacturing processes, and sets the design and financial directions of the collection.

Ultimately, effective range planning ensures that the assortment you’ve built has a higher chance of sell-through and profitability.