Mid-season is when retailers start asking an important question:
Do we hold the merchandise—or is it time to mark it down?
It can be a difficult decision.
Mark too early, and you may give away margin on merchandise that could have sold at full price.
Wait too long, and you may end up with aging inventory that ties up valuable cash and becomes harder to sell.
The answer isn’t simply to markdown everything that isn’t moving.
The answer is to make the decision based on what your inventory is telling you.
Start With the Numbers
Look at your sales trends.
Is the product selling consistently, even if slowly?
Is demand increasing or declining?
How much inventory do you still have?
How much time remains in the season?
What is your current margin?
And perhaps most importantly:
What could that cash be doing for your business if you moved this inventory?
Mid-season planning gives you an opportunity to step back and evaluate before the situation becomes urgent.
Not Everything Needs a Markdown
A slow-selling product isn’t automatically a bad product.
Sometimes the merchandise simply needs better placement, stronger merchandising, additional exposure, or a more targeted marketing message.
Before reducing the price, ask whether you’ve given the product a fair opportunity to sell.
A refreshed display.
A social media feature.
An email campaign.
A complementary product.
A special event.
Sometimes a little attention can accomplish what a markdown doesn’t.
But Don’t Fall in Love With Your Inventory
There is another side to the equation.
Retailers sometimes hold merchandise because they believe it should sell.
But inventory doesn’t care what we hoped would happen.
The numbers tell the story.
If merchandise is aging, demand is weakening, and the season is moving on, continuing to hold it can become more expensive than taking the markdown.
The goal isn’t to protect every dollar of margin.
The goal is to maximize the return on your inventory investment.
Think About the Cash
Inventory is money sitting on your shelves.
When you successfully move aging merchandise, you turn that inventory back into cash.
That cash can then be used for new, more relevant merchandise, upcoming seasonal needs, marketing, payroll, or other opportunities.
That’s why markdown decisions should be connected to your larger Open-to-Buy and cash-flow plan.
At Retail Smart Guys, we help retailers look at the complete picture—not just one product or one sales report.
We combine retail experience, data, and technology to help retailers make smarter inventory decisions.
Actual Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence = Retail Smart Guys
Technology can help identify patterns.
Our Actual Intelligence helps put those patterns into the context of your business.
Because every retailer is different.
Every customer base is different.
Every season is different.
And every inventory decision matters.
That’s Planning With Heart.
Better Plans. Better People. Better Pricing
Actual Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence = Retail Smart Guys
So before you automatically markdown—or stubbornly hold—take a closer look.
Ask what the inventory is telling you, what the customer is telling you, and what your cash flow needs next.
Sometimes the smartest markdown is the one that frees your cash.
Sometimes the smartest decision is to hold.
The key is knowing which one makes sense before the decision is made for you.
Get a FREE first hour of setup.
Best,
Dan Jablons
Retail Smart Guys
Cell: 818-720-2585
