Boon to the Rescue: 7 Times We Helped Clients with Fractional Demand Planning Support
Boon to the Rescue: 7 Times We Helped Clients with Fractional Demand Planning Support
When you’re getting a new business off the ground, it feels like at any moment, the next expense could bankrupt you. Before you know it, you’re questioning every line item on your P&L. Do your storefront’s bathrooms really need paper towels? Customers can air dry their hands, right?
At every turn, it feels like somebody is trying to get a piece of your profit, but you know that there’s also some truth to the old adage, “You’ve got to spend money to make money.” At Boon, we’re intimately familiar with what it’s like during those crucial early stages and know that bringing on a consultant can feel like an extravagance. If you know you need help with your sales and merchandise planning, but are worried the cost may outweigh the benefits, we’re here to prove that expert support can take your profit to the next level.
Don’t believe us? Then let us present these case studies from actual Boon clients…
The Client: A mission-based, female-founded fashion apparel & accessories brand
The Situation: After a sudden vacancy left by their planner, the client needed strong leadership within the functional area, but didn’t have a big budget. They reached out to Boon looking to elevate the role while staying within their budget.
How We Helped: Boon signed on to support the client at a part-time level but with a full-time feel. We provided fractional support so this team could benefit from our expertise right away. After just two weeks of on-ramp time, we fully integrated into the client’s sales meetings and built out new reporting to monitor demand changes and reacted accordingly. We also made it a priority to gain trust from all cross-functional internal teams, allowing us to fully support them through a volatile sales climate.
Several years after our initial agreement, we continue to work with the client and have become an integral part of the team—they’ve even voiced on multiple occasions, “We don’t know what we would do without Boon!” While their business needs continue to evolve, so does our work for them. One of the benefits of fractional support from a consultant is that we’re able to flex based on their needs, increasing or decreasing support as the season dictates or switching from day-to-day analysis and reporting tools to special projects as needed.
The Client: A female-founded fashion apparel brand with big seasonality curves
The Situation: This fashion-focused merchant-turned-founder was doing it all, but knew she couldn’t do it all forever. She was in desperate need of analytical support. With a complicated assortment full of silhouette, color, and size options, the brand’s sales were rising, and she was always chasing inventory and at risk of going out of stock.
How We Helped: Boon went right to work creating a digestible and repeatable analysis that showcased SKU productivity and enabled better assortment planning decisions by SKU. We then translated that into an efficient reorder process that maximized needs vs. MOQ and production schedules.
Over a year later, we continue to support this client and the founder has been able to focus her time on other important aspects of the business. We meet once a week to keep her up-to-date and tackle any ad hoc analysis requests. Throughout our partnership, the client went on to expand sales channels, add additional product offerings, and add new international store locations. In 2022, we helped to deliver a 81% sales increase, keeping 98% of the product in stock across 458 options!
The Client: A home & accessories brand evolving with Boon
The Situation: This client identified a need for merchandise planning expertise, but they weren’t ready to hire a full-time team member.
How We Helped: Boon stepped in to kick off this role and support the team of merchants with templates and processes to ensure accurate inventory management. During our partnership, the team struggled to find a candidate with the right mix of experience at the budget they had.
But with our fractional support, we were able to keep pace with the business’ needs. Two years later, we have created a full scope of best practices and refined and revamped them several times as the business evolved.
Eventually they found a full-time in-house planner, and we provided seamless support throughout the hiring process, taking part in interviews and even building a case study that candidates could complete to show off their skillset. While we could have offboarded at this time, the client was so happy with the value we provided that they continued working with us and we transitioned to supporting the newly placed planner in larger projects and process improvements as she focused on the day-to-day best practices already in place.
The Client: An omnichannel oral care CPG brand
The Situation: This client had an inaccurate demand plan and an open role for a demand planner—but they struggled to find a candidate who could navigate the company’s immense load of data and present it in a usable and repeatable way.
How We Helped: Boon stepped in to create a customized demand planning tool that could handle all of the client’s data in a usable and repeatable way. This dynamic tool looks at 20+ retailers across 50+ SKUs and enables better decision-making through plug-and-play functionality.
This brand continues to use the tools built by Boon to this day. Although they’ve now filled the demand planner role, Boon continues to be an integral part of the monthly actualization and re-forecasting process as they continue to refine and enhance the demand-planning process.
The Client: A maternity and postpartum company with big aspirations
The Situation: Founded by two moms who wanted simple solutions to their difficult pregnancy and postpartum journeys, this woman-owned business makes premium, functional, and comfortable pregnancy and postpartum wear. They had their own unique experience, but lacked demand planning mastery and needed a boost from our experts because their products were so popular, they often sold out. The team needed to find ways to understand production timing from end-to-end and better predict inventory needs.
How We Helped: Boon stepped in and created several tools to help this small team analyze inventory needs, efficiently track production, and effectively manage inventory from raw material to finished goods. Weekly meetings with the client team combined with the creation and integration of Boon’s tailored tools introduced retail best practices into the team’s process and empowered them to 2.5x their sales! Even better, it saved the team more than 14 working hours a week and got product back in stock 50% more quickly than prior to working with Boon.
What They Had to Say: “What the Boon team has built is a GAME-changer for us. I’m thrilled to be working with the Boon team and so impressed with the results.”
The Client: A mission-based CPG brand launching a major retail account
The Situation: This client was awarded business at a major national retailer and needed help identifying how large their initial order with the manufacturer should be. While they had some insight into what the retailer needed, they didn’t have a fully vetted inventory plan.
How We Helped: Boon built the client a tool that used the inputs provided (store count, facings, pres mins) and historical data from similar brands that could help them estimate sales volume by store ahead of their launch.
This dynamic tool helped them scenario plan so that they could align on the right amount of inventory needed to confidently support the launch and initial reorders. Now, we’re building them a reorder tool so they can react as sales results start rolling in!
The Client: A specialty food brand maximizing a viral TikTok moment
The Situation: Lightning struck for this client when a viral TikTok drove more sales in a single day than the previous 11 months in sales volume! They had to scramble to order packaging to support this unprecedented sales volume.
How We Helped: With our years of expertise backing us up, Boon was able to pull together an analysis within hours to determine the packaging order necessary to fulfill the surge in orders, ensuring this client was able to deliver all of its product to customers on time.
How Fractional Support Can Help Where a Full-Time Hire Can’t…
When it comes to your inventory, you need to ensure your plan is accurate, because SO much of your budget is being spent on it. No matter how complicated your demand plan or product, Boon is ready to step in with our decades of experience and flexible ways of working. The benefits of our fractional support is that you’re not only getting a single demand planner—you actually gain access to our entire best-in-the-business team (imagine the salary you’d have to pay for all that expertise in-house!). We’re ready to help you problem solve, predict cash flow, and build your business. Learn more about how our tools can get you started or book a call to discuss your unique needs.
