Merchandise planning is very important becuase the success of the merchandising company depends on how they plan. In the Merchandise Planning PDF file that i searched, i learned how a seasonal merchandise plan will greatly assist you in deciding what to buy. The external facetors that can affect a store's merchandise planning process. How to prepare your own merchandise strategy. Industry stock turn benchmarks for different retail store types. and lastly How to increase your stocks turns.

          And now i'm going to comment on the Six Month Merchandise Plan(Retail Method). Basically the objective of merchandise planning is profit improvement. Ofcourse every company is doing  planning and all those for the one reason, to earn profit. In preparing the Six Month Merchandising Plan, larger retail chains will build from the bottom up.In  Completing The Six Month Merchandise Planning Plan the company did do some steps:

• First Step is Assembling Last Year's Figures - basically you will assemble and fill last year's results and annalyse it.
• Second step is Planned Sales - This is the most difficult step in the whole process according to the PDF file  and it would be great if you could purchase a retailers crystal ball and sales forecasts would miraculously appear after rubbing it with a cash register tape. Under the planned Sales are: A.) Sales Performance coming into the season. B.) Monthly Promotions. C.) How is my Customer Changing? D.) Economic Factors.
• Third Step is Planned Reductions. And under the planned reductions are: A.) Planned Markdowns. B.) Employee Discounts C.) Shrinkage
• Fouth Step is B.O.M & E.O.M Planned Inventory levels - It's basically planning end-of-month or Beginning-of-month.
• Fifth Step is Inventory stock turns - in this step you are measuring the rate which merchandise is sold from store compared to the inventory level on hand.
• Sixth Step is Gross Margin Return on Inventory Invesment
• Seventh Step is Planned Purchases
• Eight Step is Planned Markup
• Ninth Step is Gross Margin

          In this merchandise planning sample that i read, it is good that they have steps to follow in order for them to reach their goal in the company.

"The Great words of the world were won in the planning tents, not on the battlegorund"