Planning used to be a seasonal ritual: lock a forecast, buy deep, hope the world behaves. It doesn’t. Demand is jumpy, geopolitics intrudes, and trend cycles spin at TikTok speed. The modern planning function isn’t a spreadsheet, but an organisational capability enabling faster cycles, shared context, and the confidence to change course when reality changes.
Below, we unpack the playbook that emerged from our latest PI Apparel Spotlight on 'Planning for the Unpredictable' with:
Sandeep Dulai, Co-Founder, Bite Size Merchandising
Frances Fountain, Director, Buying & Merchandise Planning, Fabletics
Kiera Ganann, SVP/Global GM, Ralph Lauren Brands, Delta Galil
Emma Reid, GM Planning, Happy Socks
Karolina Kozlowska, Planning Director, Tibi
🎥 Watch the full share-out below, and scroll for the highlights and hard-hitting takeaways.
Key Takeaways
1. Shorter Cadence = Faster Learning
(i) Quarterly Buys, Monthly Truths
The structural shift: from seasons to quarters
The 18-month treadmill can’t keep up with volatility. Seasonal buys lock teams into rigid bets, while leaders now plan in quarters and build flexibility to adjust as reality shifts.
“We used to plan coats six months out. Now consumers want TikTok trends instantly, so we plan in quarters and keep OTB open in-season.” - Frances Fountain, Fabletics
“We ripped apart our 18-month timeline and rebuilt it into long, mid and short tracks. Now, we’re not just leaving financial space for reaction, but we’re operationally ready for it.” - Emma Reid, Happy Socks
Bottom Line: Shift horizons from seasons to quarters to stay aligned with reality.
(ii) Protect OTB Like a Profit Centre
Open-to-Buy (OTB) isn’t a rounding error; it’s the lever that decides if you capture a moment. Too many brands spend it upfront and miss the trend, while leaders protect it as reaction capital for in-season growth.
''We keep space and money available - strictly. If you spend it all upfront, you’ve already missed the moment.” - Frances Fountain, Fabletics
“We’ve had to coach B2B partners too; keeping their own OTB live so they can actually pick up new drops when we offer them.” - Emma Reid, Happy Socks
Bottom Line: Guard OTB as reaction capital, not leftover cash.
(iii) Monthly Forecasting is Non-Negotiable
The operational rhythm: monthly resets as discipline
Quarterly targets set direction, but control happens monthly. Rolling forecasts pull in sales, logistics, and marketing data, turning agility from a buzzword into a daily practice.
“I insist on working monthly: buy monthly, review sales monthly, forecast monthly. That’s how we make the budget, even if it’s in a different way than we thought.” - Karolina Kozlowska, Tibi
“We used to live in quarters. Now I insist we forecast every month: buy, review, reset. That’s how you stay on top of what’s not working, and double down on what is.” - Emma Reid, Happy Socks
Bottom Line: Re-forecast monthly to turn agility into daily practice.
2. Autonomy Over Approvals
Rigid governance slows teams down until agility is a buzzword, not a practice. In volatile markets, autonomy beats bureaucracy: leaders set clear objectives and empower teams to pivot within those guardrails.
“If it becomes too clunky, nobody can keep up. Teams need the autonomy to adjust - otherwise the process breaks.” - Keira Ganann, Delta Galil
Bottom Line: Replace approvals with guardrails so teams can pivot fast.
3. Culture Kills Agility
Agility isn’t just process, it’s culture. Even with faster cycles and digital tools, teams freeze if they fear making the wrong call. The fastest organisations create psychological safety so planners, merchandisers, and designers can act without waiting for sign-off.
“Every stakeholder needs to feel safe making a call. If you’re working in a culture of fear, agility dies before it starts.” - Emma Reid, Happy Socks
“Autonomy only works if leaders are clear about the guardrails. If teams know the goals and the boundaries, they can bend without breaking.” - Keira Ganann, Delta Galil
Bottom Line: Build psychological safety or agility dies before it starts.
4. Collaboration by Design
Cross-functional talk is easy; real alignment takes context, visibility, and daily contact. Planning must sit inside the creative and commercial heartbeat of the company, not on the outside feeding numbers in.
“Sometimes planning feels more like project management. Our job is to watch the entire pipeline and keep everyone aligned.” - Keira Ganann, Delta Galil
“Sit next to the buyers, listen to their conversations and share your own. A merchandiser should understand design, and a designer should understand planning.” - Frances Fountain, Fabletics
“The biggest unlock is when everyone gets pulled into the monthly cadence. Then you’re not just re-forecasting numbers, you’re aligning the whole machine.” - Karolina Kozlowska, Tibi
Bottom Line: Put planning inside design and buying to kill silos.
5. Supplier Flex ≠ Supplier Pain
Lead times and material realities don’t vanish because demand did. Flexibility must be engineered upstream—at yarn, fabric, or even process level—rather than dumping risk onto factories.
“I’d rather hold liability in yarn than land late sweaters. That way we can reuse it instead of taking a full product hit.” - Karolina Kozlowska, Tibi
“Be transparent about where you see risk, listen to where suppliers feel exposed, and solve it together. Otherwise the relationship breaks.” - Emma Reid, Happy Socks
Bottom Line: Engineer flexibility upstream instead of dumping risk on factories.
6. AI Where It’s Proven, Humans Where It’s New
AI is closing the forecast error gap. Old-school plans miss by 30–40%; with AI in the loop, some teams now see 10–15% error, especially in core and sizing. But “newness” still needs human judgment.
“Our tool takes in weather, stock-outs, even mall openings, and balances the forecast. The accuracy gap is narrowing.” - Frances Fountain, Fabletics
“AI nails core and sizing, but it doesn’t yet know how to handle newness. That’s still us making a bet.” - Karolina Kozlowska, Tibi
Bottom Line: Let AI find patterns; let humans place the bets.
7. Kill Hand-offs with Digital Flow
Planning isn’t just numbers; it’s information flow. PLM creates a single product truth. 3D reduces errors and sample rounds. Digital twins let teams test production lines or store flows before committing real money.
“Stop emailing for spec info; go see it in the system everyone shares.” - Frances Fountain, Fabletics
“I’d love to see us using digital twins more; not just for products but to test production and store flows before committing.” - Sandeep Dulai, Bite Size Merchandising
Bottom Line: Use shared systems and digital twins to cut loops from idea to PO.
8. Risk Intelligence > Risk Avoidance
Playing it safe is its own risk. The real job is to protect the core SKUs while allocating a defined slice to high-variance bets.
“Too much consistency is also a risk. Skinny jeans made millions...until suddenly they didn’t.” - Frances Fountain, Fabletics
“The only constant is change. Perfect plans don’t exist. What matters is how fast you pivot when they fall apart.” - Sandeep Dulai, Bite Size Merchandising
Bottom Line: Balance core protection with bold bets to absorb mistakes.
9. Social = Demand Sensor, Not Vanity
Social platforms aren’t side channels; they’re early demand signals. The danger is chasing noise, whilst the opportunity is instrumenting it.
“Glossy shoots don’t drive sales anymore. Consumers discover us on TikTok and Instagram, so that’s where our spend goes.” - Keira Ganann, Delta Galil
“Use external tools to filter the noise. A viral moment is great, but if it doesn’t convert, it’s awareness, not demand.” - Karolina Kozlowska, Tibi
Bottom Line: Treat social as an early demand sensor, not a vanity metric.
10. Scale Shifts Friction, Not Fundamentals
Large brands wrestle with silos; small ones with single-point bias. The problems differ, but the fundamentals don’t: keep information flowing faster than uncertainty.
“At Levi’s we had so much history that the future was an afterthought. Once we started looking forward, women’s share grew and collabs unlocked.” - Keira Ganann, Delta Galil
“At a smaller brand, the challenge is the opposite of silos; you risk leaning too much on one person’s view. I deliberately pull in e-comm and finance so my planner brain doesn’t dominate.” - Karolina Kozlowska, Tibi
Bottom Line: Different scale, same job - design processes that prevent blind spots.
11. Upskill for the New Baseline
Modern planners need more than number skills; they need to interrogate technology, interpret data, and mobilise cross-functional change. Employers now expect technical fluency in AI-adjacent tools.
“Learn Copilot. Learn ChatGPT for Excel. Employers are asking for it already, and you’ll be faster, sharper, more valuable.” - Frances Fountain, Fabletics
“Technical is important, but so is human. Don’t forget collaboration; planners need to be the ones stitching all functions together.” - Keira Ganann, Delta Galil
Bottom Line: The future belongs to planners who make AI work for them.
Planning will never be perfect, but it doesn’t need to be. The winners aren’t those who forecast flawlessly, but those who learn faster, pivot sooner, and mobilise their whole ecosystem around reality rather than ritual. From shorter cadences and disciplined OTB to digital flow and cultural safety, these shifts aren’t just tactics; they’re the new baseline for resilient growth.
The message from the panellists: agility isn’t a project, it’s a practice, and the future belongs to planners who treat it that way.
We’ll be continuing this conversation at PI Apparel Merchandise Planning, London (Oct 21–22, 2025) - bringing the community together to share more stories, struggles, and solutions from the front line of planning. Join us there.
