Client stories

Voices from the trading calendar

Apparel chain — regional merchandise control

“They rebuilt our weekly sell-through board around how our buyers actually mark markdowns — not how the ERP exports look. The first draft still had our old ‘intake week’ label on transfers, which we caught in review, and they fixed it before handover. Mondays are shorter now.”

— Priya N., merchandise controller

Homewares wholesaler — planning desk

“The health assessment was blunt in a useful way. It showed finance and buying were counting returns on different dates. We did not commission a full dashboard immediately; we spent a month aligning definitions first, which was the right call.”

— Callum R., inventory planner

Outdoor retail — buying lead

“Workshop day used our live spring sell-through, including the awkward SKUs we usually hide. One reservation: we needed a second short call to settle how concession stock should appear. After that, the huddle run-of-show stuck.”

— Helen M., buying lead

Extended story: Mid-season cover on a three-region apparel book

A multi-region apparel client came to us mid-season with weeks-of-cover climbing in the North while London exits looked healthy on full price. Their existing pack showed a blended sell-through that hid the split.

Constraint: discovery had to finish before the next markdown committee (eleven days out).

What we did: scoped a focused sell-through rate dashboard for two categories only, with store-cluster filters and markdown candidates limited to options past agreed exit thresholds. Historical rebuild stopped at the current season’s intake to protect the timeline.

Outcome: the committee used the North cluster view to pull forward a targeted markdown on one silhouette family and hold full price on the London-strong options. The client later booked a calibration when autumn hierarchy codes changed.

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