THE BOON BLOG
Practical insights to help you scale sustainably & sleep easy.
6 Signs You Need Inventory Planning Support: How to Know When It's Time to Get Help
Waffling on if it’s worth it to bring in professional help to support your sales and inventory planning? We’re sharing six early warning signs the Boon team has experienced first-hand in an effort to save you the headache and encourage you to reach out for help.
Why Brands Hire Boon: A Human-Led, Expert Approach to Inventory Planning
At Boon, we’re not just about demand planning—we’re about making meaningful connections and creating a positive impact on both our clients and our team
When you work with Boon, you benefit from the collective expertise of our entire staff. With over 150 years of combined experience, our team brings a wealth of knowledge to your use case from various industries. Our innovative approach to inventory management ensures that your business can thrive while we handle the complexities of merchandise planning.
How Much Inventory Should You Hold? Weeks of Supply, Open-to-Buy & Stock Levels Explained
Finding the right back stock count for your business isn’t an exact science. It’s a question that can easily keep you up at night…not to mention cost you thousands (maybe millions?!) of dollars. Like so many things when it comes to demand planning, it’s a bit more complicated than a one-size-fits-all answer, but we’ve compiled some best practices for inventory planning right here.
Q4 Inventory Planning Checklist: How to Prepare Early for Holiday Demand
Holidays in June?! In retail, the earlier you start planning for the holiday season, the more set up for success you’ll be. (Sorry, procrastinators—but waiting on this one could drastically harm your business!) Is your business ready for the holiday season? Here’s a checklist of demand planning and inventory forecasting steps you need to take.
How Pricing Impacts Inventory: A Guide to Setting Profitable Product Prices
While there’s no perfect one-size-fits-all formula to setting a pricing strategy, there are a number of factors to consider before finalizing that price tag. Below we dig into all the factors to take into consideration before pricing your product, so you find your profits in the black and your excess inventory in perfect balance.
How to Reduce Excess Inventory: Strategies to Improve Cash Flow and Reduce Dead Stock
In this article, we’ll explore the most common mistakes that lead to excess inventory, along with solutions for recouping as much of your lost cost as possible. But if you take nothing else away from this article, we hope it’s the fact that excess inventory doesn’t have to be an inevitability. With the right sales and planning tools, you can confidently plan for seasonal sales, analyze inventory data, and recap performance efficiently, so you never wake up in a cold sweat again!
What Is Demand Planning? A Complete Guide for Retail & DTC Brands
Anyone in retail will tell you, demand planning is an essential function to master—so much so, that it can make or break your business.
Demand planning is a process used by businesses to prepare for customer demand while minimizing excess inventory and disruptions to its supply chain. In its simplest terms, demand planning is your best educated guess of how much product you will sell to your customers.
7 Real Examples of How Fractional Demand Planning Support Transforms Growing Brands
When you’re getting a new business off the ground, it feels like at any moment, the next expense could bankrupt you.
At every turn, it feels like somebody is trying to get a piece of your profit, but you know that there’s also some truth to the old adage, “You’ve got to spend money to make money.” At Boon, we’re intimately familiar with what it’s like during those crucial early stages and know that bringing on a consultant can feel like an extravagance. If you know you need help with your sales and merchandise planning, but are worried the cost may outweigh the benefits, we’re here to prove that expert support can take your profit to the next level.
3 Reason Why Brands Outsource Inventory Planning: Real Ways Expert Support Accelerates Growth
With the new year comes a lot of reflection on where your business has been and where you’re hoping it's headed. For all of us at Boon, we’re thinking about the amazing businesses we’ve helped grow since 2017 and which future clients are set for explosive growth next. From helping businesses launch their product in national chains to supporting teams through internal change, we’ve seen it all when it comes to inventory and sales planning. Is 2024 the year we help you take things to the next level?
How to Recap Sales Effectively: The Inventory Insights Every Retail Brand Should Track
If your business isn’t performing quite the way you want, or even if it’s performing great and you want to keep it on track, you can’t assume things will just get better on their own. You need to be proactive - recapping your sales performance gives you the insight to make that possible.
Retail Inventory KPIs: The Metrics Every Brand Must Track to Improve Cash Flow & Profitability - Part 2
The follow up article about knowing your numbers. This post focuses on inventory related metrics and KPIs every retailer should be aware of to drive results in their business.
Retail Inventory KPIs: The Metrics Every Brand Must Track to Improve Cash Flow & Profitability - Part 1
In this article, we’ll dive into what it really means to “know your numbers,” explore the key performance indicators (KPIs) every retailer should be aware of, and highlight the challenges that can arise if you’re neglecting your spreadsheets.
5 Holiday Inventory Planning Mistakes: Red Flags to Fix Before Q4
Retailers! Are you ready for the holiday season? Read our most recent blog post and make sure you’re avoiding this common missteps.
From Guesswork to Control: Why Scaling Brands Rely on Open-to-Buy Planning
As brands scale, inventory decisions get harder — and more expensive to get wrong.
Sales rarely follow plan. Forecasts drift. Suddenly you’re either sitting on excess inventory tying up cash, or scrambling to restock bestsellers you didn’t buy enough of. For many growing retail and DTC brands, this tension shows up as reactive purchasing, unreliable forecasts, and constant second-guessing of buy decisions.
Open-to-buy planning is designed to solve exactly this problem.
An open-to-buy (OTB) plan connects your sales forecast, inventory levels, and purchasing strategy into a single, living view. It helps you adjust buys as demand changes — before overstocks, stockouts, or cash-flow issues derail the business.
In this post, we break down how open-to-buy planning works, the inventory and forecasting metrics behind it, and why scaling brands rely on OTB to replace guesswork with control as complexity grows.
Why Demand Planning Software Fails (And How to Make It Work for Your Brand)
Discover how working with a merchandise planner can help you get the most out of your demand planning software and create the ultimate demand plan.
Outsourcing Demand Planning: What Retail & DTC Brands Need to Know Before Hiring Help
Ready to add a demand plan to your retail strategy? Here are 3 things you need to know on why outsourcing it to the experts can make your plan more effective!
Inventory Forecasting Errors: 5 Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Learn these 5 common forecasting errors and how to avoid them with an inventory planner. Boon’s merchandise planning can give your business a competitive edge!
Strategic Inventory Forecasting: How Better Demand Planning Improves Profitability
Inventory forecasting and demand management help you achieve your financial goals. Let Boon help you alleviate the stress of inventory management planning!
Demand Planning Process Guide: 3 Fundamentals Every Retail Brand Must Follow
A strategic demand planning process is crucial to retail success. Perfect your retail business’s inventory planning with these three demand planning methods!