Maintaining a well-stocked store with best-selling items is crucial for the success of any retail business. Partnering with a reliable wholesale clothing outlet ensures you have access to popular styles that meet your customers’ demands.
Here are strategies to keep your inventory fresh and appealing.
Understanding the Importance of Inventory Management
Imagine walking into your favorite clothing store, excited to purchase a trendy jacket you’ve been eyeing online. But when you finally spot it, your size is unavailable. Frustrated, you leave empty-handed. This scenario highlights a common retail challenge: aligning inventory with customer demand.
Partnering with a reliable wholesale clothing outlet ensures you have access to popular styles while optimizing stock allocation to reduce stockouts and overstock situations. Poor inventory planning can lead to significant profit loss, markdowns, and operational inefficiencies.
The Cost of Poor Inventory Planning in Fashion Retail
In 2024, the fashion industry faced substantial challenges in inventory management. Despite efforts to balance stock levels, many brands struggled with excess inventory.
Luxury giants like LVMH and Kering reported combined excess stock worth nearly $5.4 billion in 2023, leading to heavy markdowns that diluted profits. At the same time, stockouts of popular sizes continued to be a top customer complaint, resulting in lost sales.
For instance, Nike saw markdowns affect 44% of its assortment in 2024, compared to just 19% in 2022. Over-relying on markdowns to move unsold stock is unsustainable, especially with regulations like the European Union’s 2026 ban on destroying unsold products.
Effective size and inventory planning is critical to maintaining profitability.
How to Optimize Inventory with Smart Wholesale Buying
1. Partner with Reputable Wholesale Suppliers
Establishing relationships with reliable clothing wholesale outlets, men’s clothing suppliers, and kids’ wholesale clothing vendors ensures a steady supply of best-selling items. Working with trusted suppliers prevents unexpected stock shortages and maintains quality consistency.
2. Use AI-Powered Demand Forecasting
Traditional inventory planning often relies on past sales data, but this approach falls short for new product launches. AI-driven forecasting analyzes product attributes (e.g., fabric type, fit, silhouette) and market trends to predict demand accurately, reducing stock imbalances.
3. Address Phantom Demand and Stockout Bias
One major challenge in size planning is misinterpreting sales data due to stockouts. If a store consistently runs out of size small in a best-selling dress, sales data might suggest small sizes are less popular – when, in reality, they were simply unavailable. AI can correct this distortion by estimating lost sales based on historical patterns and similar products.
4. Optimize Store-Level Size Allocation
Size preferences vary across regions, requiring a localized approach to stock distribution. AI-powered store clustering groups locations based on size-selling profiles, ensuring that popular sizes are adequately stocked in the right stores. For retailers using prepacks for efficiency, defining different prepack configurations can further improve allocation.
5. Balance E-Commerce and In-Store Inventory
Online and physical stores have different size distribution needs. Some sizes may sell better online due to fitting hesitations, leading to higher return rates. Meanwhile, in-store sales rely more on immediate availability. AI-driven allocation helps shift inventory dynamically between channels to minimize stockouts and markdowns.
6. Implement Dynamic Replenishment Strategies
Inventory levels should be continuously adjusted based on real-time sales data. AI-powered purchase order planning ensures that popular sizes are replenished quickly, preventing missed sales opportunities and reducing unsold stock.
The Future of Smart Inventory Planning
Aligning inventory with customer demand at the size level remains one of fashion retail’s biggest challenges. Broad allocation strategies no longer work in today’s fast-paced, omnichannel world. Wholesale branded clothing outlets that leverage AI-powered forecasting, stockout bias correction, and store clustering will have a competitive advantage.
Take Your Inventory to the Next Level with Brand Club Wholesale
By partnering with a reliable wholesale clothing outlet, you can keep your store stocked with best-selling styles that meet customer demands. Brand Club Wholesale offers high-quality, in-demand wholesale fashion to help you maintain a profitable and sustainable inventory. Contact us today to optimize your stock and grow your business!
