Top 10 Assortment Planning Software Solutions

It’s an all-too-common scenario: Your eCommerce team has created a new online store that boasts a digital shelf filled with endless possibilities. Yet, despite the enticing products and seamless browsing experience, your customers abandon their carts, leaving you wondering what went wrong. Was it the lack of specific sizes or colors? Were certain products not resonating with your target audience? The answers could lie in the intricacies of assortment planning.

In 2023, 70% of U.S. shoppers abandoned an online purchase, often due to issues like out-of-stock items or a limited selection. To combat this trend, your business needs a smart, strategic approach to managing your product selection and inventory.

Fortunately, assortment planning software solutions can turn this challenge into a competitive advantage. These powerful tools provide eCommerce teams with the insights to make data-driven decisions, optimize inventory, and boost sales and customer satisfaction. 

Let’s examine the top assortment planning software solutions and how they can help your business grow.

What are assortment planning software solutions?

Assortment planning software solutions are designed to optimize and streamline the process of creating and managing a successful product assortment. 

They provide a data-driven approach to determining:

• Which products to stock
• When to replenish them
• How to allocate resources effectively

Often powered by AI and machine learning (ML), these tools analyze vast amounts of information, including historical sales data, customer behavior, market trends, and competitor insights. They crunch the data to provide valuable recommendations and actionable insights for eCommerce teams, taking the guesswork out of assortment planning and ensuring your assortment strategy aligns with customer demand and business goals.

Assortment planning software is essential for businesses to make informed decisions about their product mix that resonate with customers, maximize profitability, and minimize the risk of stockouts or overstocks. This leads to a more efficient and profitable eCommerce operation.

Types of Assortment Planning Software Solutions

The general types of assortment planning software solutions are:

Retail Analytics Platforms 

These comprehensive solutions offer tools for merchandise planning, including assortment planning, demand forecasting, allocation, and replenishment. They often integrate with other retail systems like point-of-sale (POS) and inventory management software.

Specialized Assortment Planning Software

These tools focus solely on assortment planning and optimization, offering advanced features like AI-powered recommendations, scenario planning, and what-if analysis. They are ideal for businesses seeking a dedicated solution for their assortment strategy.

Industry-Specific Solutions

Some software providers cater to specific industries, such as fashion, grocery, or consumer electronics. These solutions often incorporate industry-specific data and benchmarks, tailoring their recommendations to each sector’s unique challenges and trends.

Benefits of Assortment Planning Software Solutions

Assortment planning software solutions offer many benefits, including: 

• Increased Sales and Profit – Optimized product assortments lead to higher sales, reduced markdowns, and increased profitability.
• Efficient Inventory Management – Prevents stockouts and overstocks with accurate demand forecasting and automated replenishment.
• Enhanced Customer Satisfaction – Offering a relevant product selection that caters to customer preferences increases loyalty and repeat purchases.
• Smart Decision-making – Allows you to make informed choices based on monitoring real-time data and insights instead of relying on guesswork.
• Streamlined Operations – Automates time-consuming tasks, freeing up your team for strategic initiatives.
• Competitive Advantage – Deep insights keep you ahead of trends and competitor offerings.

Key Features of Assortment Planning Software Solutions

Selecting the right assortment planning software depends on your business’s specific needs and goals, your budget, company size, product assortment complexity, and desired features. 

When choosing an assortment planning software solution, consider these key features:

• Assortment Optimization: Creating and executing an optimal merchandise mix for individual stores or sales channels, considering factors like customer demographics, local preferences, and seasonal trends.
• Granular Planning: Planning assortments at the product and SKU level, ensuring the right mix of styles, sizes, and colors to meet customer demand.
• Demand Forecasting: Leveraging historical sales data, market trends, and other factors to accurately predict future demand, enabling you to stock the proper inventory levels.
• Centralized Inventory Management: Providing a comprehensive view of your stock levels and simplifying inventory management from a single repository for inventory data across all sales channels.
• Inventory Analysis: Identifying out-of-stock situations, overstocking or understocking issues, and top-selling products, helping you make strategic replenishment decisions.
• Analytics and Reporting: Robust reporting and analytics offer actionable insights into your assortment performance, allowing you to identify opportunities for improvement and make better merchandising decisions. 
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Premium solutions offer AI tools with analytics for real-time insights into assortment depth, width, competitor analysis, and overall planning strategy.

Top 10 Assortment Planning Software Solutions

Here are the best assortment planning tools on the market today. All offer a free demo and pricing upon inquiry.

1. GMDH Streamline

GMDH Streamline is a comprehensive retail planning solution empowering users to efficiently manage their entire product lifecycle, from assortment planning to allocation and replenishment. Its intuitive interface and collaborative features make it easy for teams to create and execute effective assortment strategies, ensuring the right products are available at the right time and place.

Best for: Retailers with complex assortments and multi-channel distribution

Review: “GMDH Streamline has an excellent set of features that are easy to use and implement.”

2. Noogata

Noogata’s Assortment Intelligence tool is a game-changer for optimizing your product assortment. The AI-powered solution uses advanced algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data, including sales trends, customer behavior, and competitor insights. Noogata helps you make data-driven decisions that drive growth and profitability by identifying high-potential products, optimizing pricing strategies, and streamlining inventory management.

Noogata also offers a suite of features, including competitor and category intelligence, digital shelf analytics, and advertising campaign analysis. It provides the insights you need to create a winning assortment strategy, enhance product visibility, and outperform your competition.

Best for: Digital brands and CPGs looking to drive sales across multiple channels, with a focus on Amazon.

Review: “Ecommerce competitive intelligence can help you identify gaps in the market that your competitors are not addressing. By tracking your competitors’ pricing and promotional activity, you can adjust your own pricing strategy to remain competitive while still maintaining profitability.”

3. Style Arcade

Style Arcade’s retail analytics platform is designed specifically for fashion brands. It provides assortment planning, merchandising, and buying tools, enabling informed decision-making across the entire product lifecycle. Its unique “Buy Calculator” feature helps optimize purchasing decisions by predicting demand and minimizing stockouts.

Best for: Fashion brands needing a single-platform solution that combines analytics, assortment planning, and buying optimization.

Review: “As a planner, I use all parts of Style Arcade daily, and it definitely saves me time with its ease of use and having all the information I need in one place.”

4. LEAFIO

LEAFIO boasts AI-driven solutions for assortment planning, inventory optimization, pricing, and promotions. Its ML algorithms enable retailers to optimize their product assortment, reduce waste, and increase profitability. LEAFIO’s unique strength is its ability to automate complex retail processes, freeing up valuable time for strategic decision-making.

Best for: Automated retail and supply chain planning for eCommerce businesses, retailers, and suppliers.

Review: “What I like about the LEAFIO AI Retail Platform is how it’s made our inventory management a breeze.”

5. ToolsGroup’s JustEnough

Combining the art and science of merchandising, ToolsGroup’s JustEnough is a dynamic  Retail Planning and Execution Platform that provides robust assortment planning capabilities. It enables retailers to create localized assortments that cater to the needs of each store or channel. AI and ML optimize assortment decisions based on various factors, including customer preferences, store demographics, and financial targets. 

Best for: Scalable, intelligent solution for localized assortments.

Review: “JustEnough drives good inventory control, and provides quality order recommendations.”

6. Analyse2

Analyse2 has advanced features like demand forecasting, size and pack optimization, and markdown optimization. The platform’s intuitive interface and flexible reporting capabilities make it easy to analyze assortment performance and identify areas for improvement. Its powerful assortment planning and optimization capabilities help retailers make strategic decisions throughout the merchandise lifecycle.

Best for: Enterprise-level retailers with complex assortments and a large number of SKUs.

Review: “User friendly, agile, develops well with new business requirements. Provides the needed support for decision-making.”

7. Blue Yonder

An end-to-end assortment management solution, Blue Yonder helps retailers and CPG companies create customer-centric assortments across multiple channels. The platform’s approach combines localized customer insights with ML to optimize assortment planning, space allocation, and replenishment decisions. Advanced features such as space-aware assortment planning and integrated financial planning align merchandising and financial goals.

Best for: Large retailers and CPG companies

Review: “Without Blue Yonder, we would have a shelving nightmare.”

8. o9 Solutions

o9 Solutions has a unique approach to assortment planning that unifies demand, supply, and operations planning. It helps retailers to make faster, more informed decisions by providing insights into changing consumer demand and real-time inventory visibility. Retailers can create localized assortments based on store attributes, consumer profiles, and sales data, ensuring the right products are available at the right time and place.

Best for: Holistic approach to assortment optimization

Review: “The o9 platform makes our decision-making faster.”

9. Toolio

Toolio’s merchandising platform streamlines assortment planning, allocation, and in-season management for fashion and apparel brands. Its intuitive interface and collaborative features make it easy for teams to create visually appealing assortments, track product performance, and make informed decisions throughout the product lifecycle. Toolio’s strength lies in its focus on collaboration and visual merchandising.

Best for: Fashion and apparel brands needing to simplify assortment planning and prioritize visual merchandising.

Review: “I love the fact that the insights I get are real-time ones; this helps me to manage workflow in the most efficient way.”

10. SAP Assortment Planning

SAP Assortment Planning, a module within SAP for Retail, integrates with other SAP modules, such as merchandise and financial planning, to ensure a seamless and efficient planning process. By aligning product offerings with consumer demand and store-specific attributes, SAP Assortment Planning helps retailers optimize inventory levels, reduce markdowns, and enhance the overall shopping experience.

Best for: Large retailers and enterprises already utilizing SAP software who want an integrated solution to optimize assortment planning. 

Review: “SAP for Retail solutions enable a first-class experience along all touch points of the customer journey.”

Unlock Ecommerce Growth with Noogata’s Assortment Intelligence

Mastering the art of assortment planning is essential for success in the competitive eCommerce landscape. With the right assortment planning software solution, you can transform complex data into actionable insights, optimize your product mix, and create a shopping experience that resonates with your customers. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, a solution exists to meet your unique needs and goals.

Noogata’s Assortment Intelligence tool empowers your eCommerce teams to make data-driven decisions that drive growth. Noogata simplifies the complexities of assortment planning with the power of AI and deep insights, allowing you to focus on what really matters—delivering exceptional customer experiences and achieving sustainable growth.

Try a demo of Noogata to discover how it can transform your assortment planning.