BUYING

• Sourcing Product
• Pricing's affect on sales
• Appointment Prep and Info
• Reading a line sheet
• Buy now, wear now

WRITING ORDERS

• Purchase Order
• Cumulative Mark-Up (CMU)
• Following a purchase plan
• Buying for store clusters
• Negotiating for PO terms
• Partnership and Collaboration Notes

• Test your skills | Improving Cumulative Markup
• Test your skills | Ordering for a Gross Margin Driven Business

EXPECTED TIME TO COMPLETE | 40 minutes

• Relationship Management 

MONITORING SALES and INVENTORY

• Daily Sales
• Weekly Unit Sales
• Weeks of Stock
• Inventory Re-distribution

INVENTORY PRODUCTIVITY

• Sales per square foot 
• A deeper look into sales per square foot 
• Redistributing inventory between stores
• Average inventory (AVG INV)
• Inventory turnover (TURN)
• Sell-thru and productivity

FORECASTING

• Forecasting benefits
• Forecasting basics
• External factors affecting a forecast | Economic considerations | Environmental factors | Competitive forces
• Internal forecasting considerations
• Avoid these forecasting pitfalls | Inc: 7 Tips for Improving Your Sales Forecasting
• Monthly sales forecasting  
• The importance of comparing actual sales to plan
• Forecasting sales high | Forecasting sales low 
• Overcoming a forecasted sales shortfall 

OPEN TO BUY

• Open to buy introduction
• Calculating Open-to-Buy
• Purchase order tracking

MERCHANT MARKETING

• Merchant Marketing Intro 
• People don't buy what you do... 
• Brand Messaging 

• Consumer consolidation and the pull of a great brand 

• Product Messaging 
• Partner Marketing 
• CASE: Holt Renfrew China edition Holiday Book 
• ADDITIONAL: PARTNER MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AND REPS 

TEST YOUR SKILLS | Change in Gross Margin Rate

EXPECTED TIME TO COMPLETE | 130 minutes

ASSORTMENT PLANNING

• Assortment Building Intro
• Assortment Planning Language
• Assortment Planning Introduction
• CASE: Basics Retailers - Uniqlo
• Key Item assortment strategy
• Size Analysis
• Model Stock
• Average Retail vs. Sell Price

CATEGORY PLANNING

• Category Planning Methods
• Contribution reports 
• Commodity-Based Assortment Plans 

 DISTRIBUTION & ALLOCATION

• Negotiating for distribution
• Brand Matrix
• Initial Sales Plans
• Store Clusters
• Store Space Allocations
• Inventory Distribution 

• Negotiating for a return to vendor (RTV)

PRE-SEASON PLAN

• Why create pre-season plans
• Pre-Season Plan Objectives
• Top-Down Planning
• Bottom-Up Planning
• Merchandise Plan Intro
• Ways to achieve growth

• Stock-to-sales ratio (STS) 
• Inventory peaks and valleys 

• Purchase plan 
• Cumulative mark-up (CMU) and planning
• Vendor terms and impact on receipt planning
• Receipt flow and inventory
• The importance of an appropriate flow of goods

EXPECTED TIME TO COMPLETE | 145 minutes

POST-SEASON

• DOWNLOAD: Post-season Q1 Merchandise Plan .xls file
• DOWNLOAD: Post-season Q1 Merchandise Plan .pdf file
• Post-season analysis introduction
• Post-season tools
• Business overview and summary statement
• Post-season slide submission
• Post-season overview slides
• Key business metrics
• Post-season category analysis
• Exception method of analysis

• Factors affecting a buyer's negotiation
• Sales Trend
• Exception Reporting - Introduction
• Comparative Store Sales
• Average Inventory

Test your skills | Gross margin - challenge your understanding

CATEGORY ANALYSIS

• The importance of item and category analysis
• CASE | Dinnerware category analysis
• Test your skills | Opportunity and Risk at Ralph Lauren

ITEM OPPORTUNITY

• Introduction to Post Season Item Opportunity
• Sell-thru

• Average retail and sell-price
• The significance of average sell-price and average retail price

MARKDOWNS

• Markdown Intro
• Markdown Cost
• Markdown Rate
• Markdowns and Profit
• Markdown Types
• Markdown or vendor allowance

Expected time to complete | 130 minutes

RETAIL MATH

• Retail Math Intro
• Analysis
• CASE: Identifying Missed Opportunities - Ken Diamond moccasins
• Benchmarking
• CASE: Coach's Slowing Growth
• Calendars
• Business Management
• DOWNLOAD | Retail math formula cheat sheet

RETAIL MATH BASICS

• Average
• Calculating Rate
• Contribution Blends
• Business Increases

PROFIT

• Profit and Loss (P&L) Basics

• Product Cost
• Landed Cost
• Discounting Cost

• Mark-Up
• Calculating Mark-Up

• Product Pricing Intro

INVENTORY

• Inventory Intro
• Beginning of Month Inventory
• End of Month Inventory

EXPECTED TIME TO COMPLETE | 130 MINUTES

ROLE INTRODUCTION

• Buying Cycle
• Characteristics | VIDEO A great Product Manager
• Retailer Classifications
• Managing the supply chain
• Supplier assessment criteria
• Supplier development

HIGH-LEVEL RETAIL THEMES 

• E-commerce
• CASE: Dear Mr. Bucks
• Transparency
• Agility
• The rise of branded retail

EXPECTED TIME TO COMPLETE | 30 MINUTES

• Market Awareness
• Building your merchant toolbox

CUSTOMER PROFILE

• Adoption Process
• Product Life Cycle
• Customer Profiling
• Customer Profiling - The VALS Framework

THE DEMAND SIGNAL 

• Demand Planning - Item Opportunities

expected time to complete | 45 minutes

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EXPECTED TIME TO COMPLETE | UP TO 30 MINUTES