Merchandise financial planning (MFP) sits at the heart of a retailer’s ability to meet demand profitably. Yet for many, the MFP processes still in use are out of sync with how retail actually operates today. Designed for predictability, they now struggle under the weight of speed, complexity and constant change. The core issue is simple: traditional planning is too slow and in retail, slow means risks and missed opportunities.

Planning cycles require more flexibility

Most retailers still plan around fixed seasonal calendars, relying on static pre-season strategies and post-season analysis. However, consumer behavior isn’t seasonal anymore. Demand can shift week to week. Promotions get pulled forward. New trends emerge overnight. Yet, planning still runs on cycles built for a slower era.

By the time a plan is finalized, the conditions it was based on—what customers want, what competitors are doing, what’s happening in the supply chain—have already changed. That disconnect leads to early markdowns, missed financial targets and stale strategies that no longer fit the moment.

Old workflows can’t handle today’s complexity

Traditional MFP systems were built for a time when things were more predictable. Teams could rely on past data, repeatable seasons and simpler product mixes. Now, retail is global, data-driven and unpredictable. It’s crucial to respond to supply chain volatility, changing channel preferences and fragmented demand.

Many teams are still using spreadsheets and siloed tools to manage all this. Manual updates introduce error prone entries which slow everything down, top-down planning doesn’t match bottom-up planning realities and when data lives in different systems, it’s hard to make fast, coordinated moves.

Key decisions like setting an open-to-buy, building a markdown strategy or adjusting allocation and replenishment, get delayed. Teams don’t trust the numbers, so they hedge. They plan for the average instead of what’s actually happening and that lack of confidence creates even more drag.

A static plan doesn’t fit a dynamic business

One of the biggest challenges with traditional MFP is that it tries to create a single plan and stick to it. However, retail no longer works that way—categories shift, channels fluctuate, key items underperform. Retailers can’t wait until next quarter to react.

What’s needed is more flexibility—systems that allow for ongoing in-season monitoring, not just a few checkpoints a year. A living plan that updates as new data comes in, one that makes room for scenario planning and fast tradeoffs when things don’t go as expected. Retailers also need better coordination across functions. With proper omnichannel integration, planners, buyers and operators can work from the same data to make faster, better decisions.

At invent.ai, we help leading retailers build responsive, connected planning environments that reflect how the business actually operates day by day, not quarter by quarter.

Planning needs to speed up without losing control

Speed doesn’t mean chaos. It means giving teams the tools and insights they need to adjust plans in real-time without losing sight of financial targets or profit margin growth. It means making data-driven decisions quickly, instead of debating assumptions that are already outdated.

This kind of agility depends on more than just technology. It requires rethinking how planning gets done, including: more collaboration between teams, more focus on inventory turnover and actual demand, less time spent reconciling numbers and more time acting on them.

Retailers who modernize their planning approach don’t just move faster, they align more closely to what customers want. They reduce waste and they gain the flexibility to respond when things change… because they always do.

The old way of doing things—slow planning cycles, siloed tools and rigid workflows—can’t keep up with today’s pace. Retailers need a faster, more adaptive approach to MFP that’s built for a dynamic world. To achieve this, many are turning to invent.ai’s merchandising experts, who blend deep industry knowledge with advanced AI to help them plan confidently and move quicker.

Dan Willmer - Vice President of Service Delivery, invent.ai