Tatsiana BandziukRetail & Fashion Analytics
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Excel for Retail Planning: Articles and Templates

Excel articles for retail planners: open-to-buy models, ABC analysis, buy plans and margin calculations, with free templates to download. The focus is on models a planning team can read, check and maintain.

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Open-to-Buy in Retail: Formula and an Excel Model Planners Maintain

What OTB in retail means, the open-to-buy formula with a monthly worked example, and how to structure an Excel model that stays accurate.

Free Retail Calculators for Margin, Sell-Through and Stock

Stock Turn and Weeks of Cover Calculator

Stock turn, days of stock and weeks of cover from cost of goods sold, inventory and weekly sales.

Open-to-Buy Calculator

The budget left to buy for a period, from planned sales, markdowns, stock and orders.

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Excel Merchandise Financial Planning Models

Open-to-buy, buy plan and margin models in Excel, built for your planners to maintain rather than a consultant.

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Excel for Retail Planning FAQ

Solid use of tables, SUMIFS and lookup functions, pivot tables and charts, plus basic Power Query for importing sales and stock. Dynamic arrays and a clear workbook structure make planning models far easier to maintain.

For most small and mid-sized brands, yes. A well-structured Excel model with monthly phasing and built-in checks handles open-to-buy for several categories and markets. Dedicated planning software becomes worth it with many stores, frequent replanning or many users editing at once.

When the same report is rebuilt by hand every week, when several people need the same numbers, or when the data no longer fits comfortably in a workbook. Planning inputs can stay in Excel while Power BI takes over the recurring reporting.