How Fashion Retailers Can Avoid Overstocking and Discounting to Survive — Retail Bum

Fashion retailers’ ability to tactfully manage their inventory levels can mean all the difference in the world when it comes to meeting customers’ expectations and staying profitable.

However, that is often easier said than done. The last four years have served as a crash course in just how challenging it can be to predict and adjust to changing market conditions, which directly and almost immediately affect demand, resulting in issues with inventory.

Now, with consumers across the board cutting back on discretionary spending, retailers are once again tasked with keeping their inventories in order to avoid a pileup.

According to an Inventory Planner survey, 44% of fashion retailers are dealing with excess inventory, which accounts for nearly 20% of their stock holding.

Holding onto high levels of inventory creates a web of problems for fashion retailers. It not only takes up precious warehouse space to stock excess inventory, but it also ties up valuable cash. To top that off, the longer retailers hold onto inventory, the harder it gets for them to sell, as they must keep up with changing fashion trends.