In 2025, assortment planning isn’t about prediction. It’s about precision. Strategy and execution live closer together now, and small changes can ripple through margins, operations, and customer satisfaction. Retailers aren’t reacting anymore. They’re anticipating, adjusting, and realigning faster than ever.
And they’re doing it proactively. Not guesswork.
The retailers leading this shift aren’t just using more data. They’re using it differently. They’re localizing with intention, streamlining assortments with confidence, and connecting departments that used to work in silos. Planning today is smarter, faster, and built to flex.
Here’s how the model is changing and what retailers should be doing right now to stay competitive.
The Evolution of Assortment Planning
Assortment planning used to be backward-looking. Teams reviewed historical sales, adjusted for seasonality, and pushed a plan downstream.
Now, the strategy is forward-facing. With real-time insight, retailers can spot demand changes early, align to shifting expectations, and avoid overcommitting to static buys. Assortments evolve alongside market signals.
This shift has redefined the planner’s role. They’re no longer data custodians but strategic collaborators working across merchandising, planning, and supply chain. Their toolkit is digital, their timeline compressed, and their influence expanding.
Key Trends Shaping Smarter Assortments
Hyper-Localization
Retailers are zooming in. Instead of deploying a single assortment across every store, they’re optimizing decisions for geography, demographics, and customer behavior.
A product that moves in Southern California may underperform in Minneapolis, and teams are planning accordingly. This goes beyond flavor variants or pack sizes. It’s an end-to-end rethink of how product relevance is defined and delivered.
Smaller, more precise tests are giving rise to hyper-local drops and region-specific collections. These are tools for engagement as much as performance.
SKU Rationalization
Too much choice can create noise for teams—and shoppers. Leading retailers are pruning SKU counts intentionally—basing cuts on data and strategic fit.
This doesn’t mean doing less. It means focusing on what works—removing redundancies, tightening product stories, and supporting smoother execution at the store level. Customers often appreciate the clarity. So do operations teams.
Rationalization also helps surface what a brand stands for. The tighter the mix, the clearer the message. For the retailer, it’s about working smarter, not harder. For the customer, it’s about shopping easier, not longer.
Predictive Analytics
Retailers with predictive tools are pulling decisions forward. Planning isn’t just about buying. It’s about modeling, forecasting, and refining before a single order is placed.
Scenario planning helps teams avoid overreactions and spot inflection points earlier. Promotions land more cleanly. Inventory moves more efficiently. And course correction happens while there’s still time to make an impact.
The best teams use predictive insight to shift from reactive firefighting to high-value planning. And planners get to lead instead of chase.
From Data to Action: Enabling Technology and Process
Data alone won’t drive smarter assortments. Success is defined by what teams do with that data and how their tools and workflows support them.
Effective planning often depends on:
- Connected data systems that bring together planning, POS, and customer inputs
- Configurable platforms that support in-season tweaks and rapid tests
- Defined processes that reduce handoff friction between merchandising, planning, and allocation
Retailers doing this well operate on rolling calendars. They review weekly, test quickly, and refine constantly. And they don’t wait until the end of the season to learn what went wrong in a hindsight meeting.
Multichannel retailers, in particular, need clear visibility. A strong assortment strategy reflects the differences in what each channel needs and anticipates the complexity that comes with it.
Getting It Right: What Retailers Should Be Doing Now
For retailers who are stuck in static planning cycles or overwhelmed by SKU sprawl, now is the moment to reset.
Start with a cross-functional review:
- How are assortments being built, and how often are they revisited?
- Who owns the decision points, and where are the bottlenecks?
- Is store-level data actually informing your planning cycles?
- Can your current platform handle mid-season pivots?
From there, pick a pilot. Prove the process. Show what smarter planning looks like in action. That’s how real change sticks.
Final Thoughts for Smarter Assortments
Assortment planning isn’t a checkbox. It’s a sandbox. Done well, it becomes a competitive lever. Done poorly, it drags on margin, ties up inventory, and misses the customer entirely.
At RPE, we help retailers rebuild that capability from the ground up. With systems, process, and guidance tailored to real retail complexity, not just textbook theory.
