Centric PLM
Assortment Planning 
Fashion & Apparel
Retail
Footwear
Outdoor & Sports
Consumer Goods
OEM & ODM Manufacturers
Home Décor & Furniture
Food and Beverage
Cosmetics & Personal Care
Consumer Electronics
How to Deliver Profitable Consumer-Centric Assortments
Retailers and brands know the power of getting the right product to the right place at the right time. But how do they balance profitability, market trends and consumer demand—across multiple channels, locations and seasons?
That’s where assortment strategy, assortment planning, and assortment optimization come in.
Assortment strategy sets the high-level framework for structuring and balancing product offerings across categories, regions and sales channels to align with financial goals and market demand. Assortment planning builds on this by developing tailored product ranges that support timely deliveries and reflect business priorities. Assortment optimization—also known as curation—refines the mix using real-time data to identify what to keep, drop or swap based on performance.
Together, these practices help brands deliver consumer-right assortments profitably—but only when teams can collaborate and act on accurate, timely insights.
Sounds straightforward enough, but this is no easy feat … until now.
Dive in below to find out why and be sure to get a copy of “The Assortment Strategy Playbook”, which uncovers the technology enabling retailers to create curated consumer-focused assortments that fulfill brand promises and drive profitability.
Common roadblocks to creating optimal assortments
Before implementing ideal strategies, brands must overcome common roadblocks that undermine effectiveness and agility.
Within assortment strategy & optimization:
Retailers often operate across a wide network of stores, partners and physical channels, which creates complex, time-consuming data management challenges. Buying decisions are difficult to reconcile, and insights arrive too late to take meaningful action. As networks grow, many teams default to standardized assortments across locations—sacrificing localization and eroding margins.
On top of that, global sales data, multiple currencies and exchange rate fluctuations add layers of complexity. Managing this with spreadsheets and siloed systems is virtually impossible.
Within assortment planning & buying:
Inaccurate or fragmented data leads to mismatched assortments and costly inefficiencies. Inventory distortion alone was projected to cost $1.7 trillion in 2024, with overstocks and out-of-stocks accounting for $554 billion and $1.2 trillion respectively. These outcomes result from a lack of unified, real-time visibility across planning teams and sales channels.
As HBR puts it, “Stock-outs cause walkouts.” If consumers can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll shop elsewhere—and they may not return.
Business benefits to getting assortment right
When assortment strategy, planning and optimization are executed effectively, the impact is measurable.
Retailers and brands can:
- Build product mixes that reflect true consumer demand
- Accurately forecast and balance trending versus core products
- Improve sell-through and inventory turnover
- Reduce reliance on markdowns
- Share plans across teams and channels with greater efficiency
Tailoring assortments by sales channel, geography and consumer profile also enables stronger localization and a better customer experience—key drivers of loyalty and growth.
Ultimately, the right approach transforms assortment planning into a profit center rather than a cost of doing business.
Conclusion: Drive profits with intelligent assortments
Assortment Strategy & Planning from Centric Software® allows retailers and brands to accurately meet consumer demands with the right mix of products they actually want while boosting margins and avoiding discounts.
“We used to manage assortment planning and MFP using spreadsheets, but this limited us to high-level plans. Centric Planning allows us to get to a more granular level and create data-driven plans and assortments. It will also standardize and rationalize planning as we scale up,” according to Alok Dharadhar, Head of Planning, Analytics & IT at Nexon Omniverse.
Learn about this case study and more in “The Assortment Strategy Playbook”, including details on the AI-driven platform that is transforming businesses with real results.