Category Planning

A Category Plan is a top-down financial plan that outlines targets for sales, gross margin and inventory for each category and sub-category.  It's a strategic roadmap that outlines how the company's financial goals will be met.  

Category Planning is typically a collaborative effort and involves having strategic conversations about what categories you want to grow, maintain, or reduce and by how much.  Insights from the Performance Audit inform this process along with forward-looking elements including trends, competition, and strategic priorities for the company.   

In addition to setting high-level financial targets, the category plan should also outline the key strategies and underlying assumptions that will determine how the targets will be achieved. 

We partner with you and your team to facilitate and inform this process. When complete, the Category Plan is the blueprint for the product team and informs the assortment plan.