Open to buy: why the spreadsheet always wins in the end.
Almost every retailer we meet has already equipped its open to buy. And almost every one still arbitrates it in a spreadsheet. Here are the three reasons we observe, and what gets you out.
First reason: the tool is one meeting behind
Open to buy is not a figure, it is a collective decision. It is debated in committee, changed during the session, and has to absorb an assumption raised out loud. A tool that needs an overnight recalculation arrives after the decision, so the spreadsheet takes over again.
That is the first criterion we test during framing: can the model take a change during the very meeting where the question comes up?
Second reason: the level does not match the decision
Many models are built at the level where the data exists, not at the level where the decision is made. A buying budget steered by department when the trade-off happens by family and by market forces teams to reallocate by hand, and therefore to pull out a spreadsheet.
Third reason: nobody sees what is left to commit
The open amount is known, so is the committed amount, but what is left to commit is rarely recalculated continuously. Without that third value refreshed as actual sales arrive, open to buy becomes an observation rather than a steering tool, and buying sessions are held with no consolidated view.
What gets you out
- A model that can be changed during the session, not in a development release
- The level of the decision, chosen before the level of the available data
- What is left to commit recalculated with every sales update, with an alert on slippage
- One single place where the figure is authoritative, so the spreadsheet loses its purpose
The spreadsheet does not disappear because it is banned. It disappears when the tool answers faster than it does.
The modules we deliver are set out on the Merchandise planning page.