Value Packs / Retail / Margin & Markdown Sentinel / Wisdom
Which categories are running Gross Margin % furthest below plan this month, and how much net sales sits behind each of those gaps?
NWhere the margin sits against plan
IN A NUTSHELL
Three categories are more than a point below plan. Womenswear is furthest at 31.4% against a 38.0% plan — a 6.6-point gap — on $48.2M of net sales. Home Textiles follows at 34.1% against 37.5%, and Small Appliances at 22.8% against 25.0%. Footwear and Accessories are both above plan. Womenswear also sells more than the other two put together — $48.2M against $38.1M — so it is the widest gap and the biggest book at the same time.
Gross Margin % against plan by category, this month
Each category is read against its own plan, not against the others — Small Appliances sits 2.2 points under a 25.0% plan while Womenswear sits 6.6 under a 38.0% one.
The three that are behind are behind against very different plans — 38.0%, 37.5% and 25.0% — so the percentages are not comparable on their own. Footwear and Accessories sit 0.9 and 1.4 points above their plans, so this is three categories rather than the book.
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How has Gross Margin % in Womenswear moved month by month against what was expected of it?
NOne month outside the range, and it is this one
IN A NUTSHELL
Womenswear sat inside its expected range every month from January to October. November is the first month outside it — 31.4% against an expected 33.8%. The fall from October to November is 4.3 points, against a largest ordinary month-to-month move of 1.8 in the ten months before it. On $48.2M of net sales, the 2.4 points below expectation is $1.16M of margin.
Gross Margin % against the range expected of it · Womenswear
The range holds flat and then steps down — 38.0% through June and 33.8% by November, so the same margin does not mean the same thing in the two halves of the year.
The ten months to October sit either side of what was expected by at most 1.2 points, three of them above it. November is 2.4 below — twice the furthest any earlier month strayed, and the only one outside the range.
Wisdom noticed
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Which parts of Womenswear is the margin coming out of?
NThree subcategories, most of the money
IN A NUTSHELL
Dresses, Knitwear and Outerwear account for $2.69M of the $3.18M Womenswear is below plan — 85% of it. Dresses alone is $1.42M, close to half. The other eight are $0.49M between them, small enough that fixing all of them would barely move the department. What each item sold for fell 7.2% against its list price while what it cost to buy rose 1.4% — so the money is going out on price, not on cost.
Womenswear’s $3.18M of margin below plan, by subcategory
Three subcategories carry 85% of it — the shortfall is in a few places, not spread across the department.
Dresses is 45% of the shortfall on its own. Across all of Womenswear the selling price fell 7.2% against list while unit cost rose 1.4%, so nearly all of the move is in what the items sold for.
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Put the monthly margin report together.
NThe report lists every subcategory earning less margin than it was planned to, with what its items actually sold for against what they were meant to sell for.
margin_below_plan_november.xlsx
One row per subcategory, grouped by who acts on it — pricing, merchandising, or waiting on a sign-off. January to November.
41 KB · 14 rows · 5 new, 7 persisting, 2 cleared
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