An Open to Buy on a Spreadsheet?

Since their inception, spreadsheets have been a wonderful tool for all kinds of home and business applications. But they have their limitations. The problem with trying to use a spreadsheet for your open to buy is that there isn’t options for enough variables.

Open to buy is purported to be very simple as illustrated on a web site for a major market merchandise mart. They suggest you take your beginning of the month inventory, subtract your retail sales, add your purchases, subtract your markdowns and that will indicate the end of month inventory. And they are correct, but is that really usable information?

You can put this information on a spreadsheet and save yourself some time, but when you consider that even a small store will have about 20-30 merchandise categories and then you have to consider the flow over 12 months and then you need to deal with turn rates for every department that will vary each month. Finally, the determination of the open to buy amounts must be configured so that any negative open to buy amounts are taken away from preceding positive open to buy amounts, it gets pretty complicated.

In truth, you need an open to buy system that works within each department separately and take into account planned sales and turnover. Sales will fluctuate each month and so will turnover (the annual turn rate is just an average). I haven’t seen a spreadsheet that accounts for turnover and turnover is the key to making money in retail. The more you turn, the more you make!

Trying to do your open to buy (the most important merchandising information you can have) on a spreadsheet is simply false economy. Sure, spreadsheets are very available and many are free, but will you save enough to cover your markdowns when the numbers are not accurate for your store?

Probably not.

See all posts.

Subscription Information

By filling out the form below, you are merely indicating your interest in becoming a subscriber to myotbplan.com. The cost per store is $150 / month and includes 30 departments. Additional departments are available at 10 departments for $25/month.

We will call you (if you are in the US) or email you with additional information and ask for your credit card information as the subscription cost is charged to your credit card automatically every 30 days.

There is no contract and every subscriber is covered by our Performance Guarantee. The system is supported from 9AM to 7PM PST 365 days a year and you are encouraged to call as often as you have questions.

You will be required to read our general instructions before you begin filling in your data and there is detailed information about each screen on the screen you're working by simply clicking the Help icon at the top.

The program is easy to use, accurate, affordable, accessible, supported and guaranteed. It's simply the best open to buy plan available. We will contact you as soon as we received your information. Please be complete.

Subscription Form

Subscription Form

All fields required
Address
Sending

You visited our site because you need an open to buy system or you are unhappy with the one you have. myotbplan.com is the best system available and there's no risk to subscribe because there's no contract and your results are guaranteed!

Why not call and let us answer your questions so you can get underway immediately and have your buying plan for the next 12 months. If you want us to call you, just click the Subscribe button below, fill out the form and we'll call you back to explain everything. There's no obligation when you fill out the form, you're only requesting a phone call. So, one way or the other, let's talk!