Centric Software Named a Leader in 2026 IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Solutions

As retail moves to always-on decision-making, Centric Planning & Pricing turns financial plans into protected margin and stronger sell-through

CAMPBELL, Calif., October 14 2026—Centric Software® has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Solutions 2026 Vendor Assessment. Centric Software’s Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP) solution sits within Centric Planning & Pricing™, Centric Software’s cloud-native AI solution that unifies planning, pricing and inventory optimization for retailers and brands.

Market volatility, shifting shopper behavior and global uncertainty are compressing product lifecycles and blurring the line between pre-season and in-season. A plan set months in advance drifts from reality fast and gaps between plan and demand can turn into markdowns, excess stock or missed sales.

That makes merchandise financial planning a board-level priority. It is where retailers link sales and margin targets to the buying, pricing and inventory decisions that deliver them. That link now has to hold every week of the season.

Centric Planning & Pricing enables finance, merchandising and planning teams to revise buying budgets as sales evolve, reduce planned purchases of slower-selling products and redirect investment toward stronger demand. By connecting financial targets with open-to-buy and in-season reforecasting, teams can act sooner to limit excess inventory, reduce markdown exposure and protect sales opportunities.

The IDC MarketScape identifies Centric Software as “a strong choice for retailers seeking measurable ROI from rolling, near-real-time open-to-buy processes, with customers reporting margin, conversion, and sell-through gains that justify premium pricing.” At GUESS, Centric Planning enabled the retailer to execute a strategy that increased operating margin from 5.6% to 12%, while shortening retail planning from one month to one week.

Retail and fashion expertise sits at the core of the solution. Centric Planning & Pricing embeds omnichannel retail and wholesale planning best practices and draws on Centric Software’s extensive experience with fashion, luxury, footwear, outdoor and multi-category retailers. Planners work in a solution shaped by their industry.

Describing Centric Software, the IDC MarketScape also states, “Its merchandising and PLM-rooted backdrop mirrors actual planner workflows, drives fast onboarding, and handles complex multi-region, multichannel operations well, especially through strong corporate-to-field collaboration for real-time localization.”

Centric Planning & Pricing enables these outcomes by connecting merchandise financial planning with assortment planning, allocation and replenishment, AI-powered demand forecasting, plus lifecycle pricing and inventory optimization. Retailers translate financial targets into assortment and buying plans, then adjust pricing and inventory as the season unfolds. Centric Market Intelligence™ adds insight into competitor offers, pricing and consumer trends. Connections to Centric PLM™ and Centric Visual Boards™ align financial plans with product development and assortments.

“The future of retail planning is the ability to turn changing demand into coordinated decisions across the business,” says Fabrice Canonge, CEO of Centric Software. “Our vision is to connect the entire product lifecycle, from the products retailers develop to the assortments they buy and the prices they set, with a shared view of demand and profitability. We believe this recognition reinforces our commitment to giving retailers the intelligence and agility to anticipate market shifts and turn emerging opportunities into profitable growth.”

Learn more about Centric Planning & Pricing

About IDC MarketScape

IDC MarketScape vendor assessment model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of technology and service suppliers in a given market. The research utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each supplier’s position within a given market. IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors.