Buying Seasons
A buying season is the container for all the orders that ship within one selling period. Pre-Fall, Spring/Summer, Fall/Winter, Resort, Cruise. You set them up once a year and every order gets assigned to one.
When to set up a new buying season
- Twice a year for SS / FW (the core seasons)
- Plus PF (Pre-Fall) and Cruise/Resort if you carry those
- Annually, ahead of when you start placing orders for it (typically 6+ months before delivery)
Anatomy of a buying season
| Field | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Name | ”Pre-Fall 2025” | Human-readable label |
| Code | PF2025 | Stamped as a tag on every product in the season — keep this short and consistent |
| Start date | 2025-07-01 | When inventory starts shipping for this season |
| End date | 2025-10-31 | When the season “closes” for new orders (you can still receive after this) |
| Planned budget | $X | Total dollar commitment for the season |
| Category plan | per category | ”Spend $X on Suits, $Y on Knitwear, …” |
Setting up a buying season
- Navigate to Planning → Buying Seasons from the sidebar
- Click New Buying Season
- Fill in name + code (code uppercase, no spaces, e.g.
PF2025) - Set start + end dates
- Click Create — lands on the season detail page
Adding budget + category plan
On the season detail page:
- Click Set Budget
- Total budget in store currency
- Category breakdown — distribute the budget across categories (Suits 25%, Sport Jackets 15%, Knitwear 20%, etc.)
- Click Save Plan
The plan becomes the comparison baseline for committed (what you’ve actually ordered) vs planned (what you intended). The Budget/OTB view (Budget & OTB) pivots on this.
Assigning orders to a season
There are two ways:
When creating an order
Build Order Stage 1 asks for the buying season — pick from the dropdown. Done.
After the fact
If an order was created without a season (or assigned wrong):
- Open the order
- Click the season badge in the header
- Pick from dropdown
- Saves automatically
Viewing the season
The buying season detail page shows:
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Header | Name, code, dates, planned vs committed totals |
| Orders | Every order assigned to the season, with status and committed cost |
| Category roll-up | Planned vs committed by category (graph view) |
| Brand mix | Committed dollars by brand |
| Delivery windows | Stacked timeline of when shipments are expected |
| Sell-through (after season starts) | Per-style sales velocity |
This is your single planning surface for the season. Bookmark it.
Common patterns
Pre-buying
Before you start placing orders, click the season → Set Plan. Distribute the budget across categories based on prior-year sell-through and your direction for the season. This anchors every subsequent buying decision.
Mid-season check-in
Mid-season, look at the season page:
- Are you on plan? Look at Committed vs Planned
- Are categories balanced or overweighted in one?
- Which brands are over/under?
Use these signals to either rebalance the next round of orders or hold orders back.
End-of-season
When the season closes:
- Mark the end date as today (or earlier) by editing the season
- The status flips to Closed
- Sell-through and margin numbers freeze — you can still view but not change the plan
Common mistakes
PF2025). Renaming the code does NOT retroactively update tags. Pick a code up front; don’t rename.Next steps
- Budget & OTB — track what’s spent vs planned
- Trading — track sell-through during the selling window
- Build Order — assign new orders to the season