The Ask

Create a thoughtful, well-written, and professional six-month buying plan and justification for a department store that is publicly traded. Additionally, chose a category of business to focus the project on.

The Process

The 6-month buying plan was broken down into seven parts. Within each part there were subcategories to better understand how to create a 6-month buying plan. Each part of the 6-month buying plan is listed below:

• The Sales Plan: this includes total season’s sales, monthly sales, sales % by month, monthly % increase/decrease.

• The BOM (Beginning of Month): this includes the s/s ratio (stock to sales ratio,) monthly BOM plan, February BOM, and the average inventory.

• The Markdown Plan: this includes the markdown % of sales for the season, the total season’s markdowns, monthly markdown % of total season’s markdown, monthly $ markdowns, and monthly markdown % of sales.

• The Purchase Plan: this includes the monthly purchases and the total season’s purchases.

• The Gross Margin % Plan, The Turnover Plan, and The Justification.

The Outcome

The 6-month buying plan is used to relate sales, inventory levels, purchases, and reductions. Through creating this plan, the buyer uses it as a merchandising/inventory tool with the goal of operating a more profitable business. Essentially it is a working document for monitoring and adjusting monthly merchandising.

Creating a 6-month buying plan allowed me to gain a better understanding of the entire buying process including the research necessary for decision making, the six-month plan, the assortment plan, and the purchase order.