Open-to-Buy Consulting for Consumer & DTC Brands
Most growing brands don’t have an open-to-buy problem on paper — they have it in their bank account. Revenue is climbing, the hero product is flying, and somehow cash keeps getting tighter and the warehouse keeps filling with the wrong sizes. That’s an open-to-buy problem, and it’s exactly what we fix.
Plan + Pivot Collective provides open-to-buy consulting for consumer and DTC brands — turning your buying from a gut-feel guess into a cash-controlled plan. Led by former Bath & Body Works, J.Crew, Restoration Hardware, and Abercrombie & Fitch merchants who have run open-to-buy at scale.
What open-to-buy consulting actually does for a growing brand
Open-to-buy is the discipline of deciding how much new inventory you can buy in a period without overbuying — reconciling planned sales, markdowns, and target inventory against what you already own and have on order. Done right, it does three things: it protects cash by stopping overbuys before they happen, prevents stockouts on your winners by reading demand early, and turns buying into a repeatable monthly rhythm instead of a quarterly scramble.
Signs your buy is out of control
Revenue is up but cash is always tight. One size or variant sells out while another piles up — a broken size curve. Your reports disagree about what’s actually selling. Reorders are reactive: you find out you’re out when a customer does. You’re funding next season’s buy on a credit line because last season’s cash is frozen in slow-movers. If two or more of these sound familiar, the problem isn’t demand — it’s the plan underneath it.
How we build your open-to-buy
We don’t hand you a spreadsheet and leave. We build the plan and the rhythm with your team. First, we read the real numbers — owned inventory by size and variant versus actual sell-through, usually the first place we find frozen cash. Then we set the buy: a category-level, season-by-season open-to-buy that accounts for on-order inventory, lead times, and markdown plans, not one blunt total. We stand up an early-warning system — a weekly review with red, amber, and green flags on every high-profile product, plus stockout alerts, so nothing surprises you. And we hand over the engine: the tools and cadence your team can run after we’re gone.
What you get
A working open-to-buy plan, a weekly planning cadence, an early-warning dashboard for stockouts and overbuys, and a team that knows how to run it. We’re tool-agnostic — we work inside whatever stack you already have.
Pricing
Smart Start is $500 for one focused 2-hour working session on your single biggest buying challenge. Focused Growth starts at $6,000 for a time-bound engagement to build your open-to-buy and planning system. Fractional Leadership starts at $12,000/month (most seats run $12,000–$25,000) for embedded senior planning leadership.
Frequently asked questions
Who offers open-to-buy consulting for consumer brands? Plan + Pivot Collective provides open-to-buy and inventory planning consulting for consumer and DTC brands — project-based or as an embedded fractional seat, from $500 for a focused session and $6,000 for a defined project, led by former Bath & Body Works, J.Crew, Restoration Hardware, and Abercrombie & Fitch merchants.
Do I need open-to-buy software or a consultant? Software shows you the numbers; it doesn’t decide what to do about them. Most scaling brands already have dashboards and still overbuy. The gap is judgment, not data — which is why a consultant usually pays for itself faster than another tool.
How much does open-to-buy consulting cost? Engagements start at $500 for a single 2-hour session and $6,000 for a defined project; embedded fractional planning leadership runs $12,000–$25,000/month.
What’s the difference between open-to-buy and a budget? A budget is a target you set once. Open-to-buy is a living number you reforecast as sales come in, so you stay in control all season.
Ready to get your buy under control? Book a Smart Start session — we’ll find the one number you should be watching and probably aren’t.