Reorder Points for Core Apparel Styles

A reorder point is the stock level at which you place the next order, so the new units arrive before you run out. The common form is simple:

• Reorder point = (average weekly sales × lead time in weeks) + safety stock

Do it per size. A style that sells mostly in medium and large will run out of those sizes first, and a style-level number will tell you everything is fine until the medium is gone.

Here safety stock is set at two weeks of sales for each size. When on-hand medium drops to 300 units, the medium goes on the next production order. The XXL trigger is low because it sells slowly, which also keeps you from over-buying the size most likely to become dead stock.

Use your own numbers. The example shows the method, not a recommendation for your catalog.

Brands often use the production time and forget the rest. Count every step:

1. Production at the factory.
2. Freight, including time at the port if the goods are imported. OC3PL is twenty-five miles from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.
3. Delivery to the warehouse with an advance shipping notice.
4. Receiving. At OC3PL, labeled inbound is checked against your ASN, every SKU is photographed, and stock is slotted and ready to ship within one business day.

If any step is unreliable, add it to safety stock rather than hoping. See receiving apparel from overseas factories for what slows the last two steps down.

A reorder point only works if the on-hand number is right. When an order ships, the warehouse system deducts the units and the integration pushes the new level back to your store. Discrepancies at receiving are flagged in your portal rather than quietly absorbed into the count.

Tell your account manager about every inbound replenishment with an ASN, and warn them when a restock is unusually large so space and labor are ready. They are on site, so the conversation is with the person who will see the cartons arrive.

Review the triggers each season. A style that moved from core to fading needs a lower reorder point, or none.

Not every style deserves a reorder point. Sort the catalog into three groups and treat each one differently.

Styles move between groups. A drop that keeps selling out may deserve to become core. A core style that slows down should lose its reorder point before it builds dead stock.

The mistake to avoid is a reorder point that never gets reviewed. Demand changes with the season, with marketing, and with what else is in the catalog. A trigger set in spring can overbuy by fall. Put the review on the same weekly rhythm as your inventory report, and change the numbers whenever the pattern changes.