We began by analyzing past sales data and market trends to project total season sales for fall 2023. This involved examining factors such as last year's sales performance, current market trends, fashion forecasts, and economic conditions. By integrating these insights, we formulated a comprehensive estimate of total season sales.

With total season sales projections in hand, we then created a sales plan for each month of the season. We calculated monthly sales targets based on the percentage each month contributed to sales in previous years, ensuring that the sum of monthly sales plans equaled the total sales plan for the season.

Utilizing the sales-to-stock ratios from the previous year as a baseline, we projected s/s ratios for the current year based on projected sales. This informed our monthly inventory planning from September to January, ensuring that inventory levels were aligned with anticipated sales volumes.

We planned markdowns to optimize profitability while maintaining competitiveness in the market. By determining the season's markdown percentage of sales and applying it to the total sales plan, we calculated the total markdown dollars for the season and planned monthly markdowns based on historical data and projected sales.

Purchases were calculated on a monthly basis, taking into account planned sales, beginning-of-month (BOM) inventory, end-of-month (EOM) inventory targets, and projected markdowns. Turnover was monitored to ensure efficient inventory management, with the goal of improving turnover rates over the previous year without exceeding 2.0.

We calculated gross margin percentages based on planned initial markup (IMU%) and markdowns (MU%), aiming to achieve improvement over the previous year's performance. This involved analyzing planned IMU% and MU% to determine gross margin percentages for each month of the season.