Where the leader gap is being won this season.
The annual benchmark on how brands and retailers forecast, plan, buy and replenish — and where the 14-point gap between the leaders and the industry on full-price sell-through is being decided. With cited industry research, working data from Tightly customers, and a 90-day plan.
Free · 28 pages · Published June 2026 · No credit card required
Four numbers that define the season.
Cited industry research on what separates leading retail planning teams from the rest. The full set is in the report; the most-quoted four are below.
Full-price sell-through — leaders vs the industry
Source: Tightly · State of Retail Inventory 2026
Gap between retail leaders and the industry on full-price sales
Source: Tightly · State of Retail Inventory 2026
Share of unplanned markdown cost attributed to buying and forecasting decisions
Source: Tightly · State of Retail Inventory 2026
Headroom retail leaders report on markdown optimisation
Source: Tightly · State of Retail Inventory 2026
Six chapters, one through-line.
The reconciliation gap, quantified
Where the forecast and the financial plan disagree by quarter and category, and what the cost of that disagreement looks like in dead stock, working capital and full-price sell-through.
The leader–laggard cut
What the 71% / 57% leaders' gap on full-price sell-through is actually made of, with the planning behaviours that account for most of the 14-point margin difference.
Sell-through and weeks of cover by category
Cross-category benchmarks on sell-through velocity, cover position, markdown depth and timing — the inputs that decide the season.
Where buying decisions go wrong
The roughly 53% share of unplanned markdowns attributed to upstream buying and forecasting decisions — and the planning workflows that close it.
Tariffs, sourcing volatility and lead-time risk
The 2026 view on sourcing volatility and its practical impact on lead times, working capital and OTB — with the planning workflows that absorb it without extra safety stock.
The 2026 planning stack
How the leading retailers' planning stacks are configured — bottom-up demand forecasting at SKU and channel level, top-down MFP and OTB, the in-season correction loop, and the agent layer that ties them together.
Concrete benchmarks, cited research, and a 90-day plan.
- The leader–laggard cut on full-price sell-through and the planning behaviours behind it
- Cross-category benchmarks on sell-through, weeks of cover, markdown depth and timing
- Reconciliation-gap impact: working capital trapped, margin missed
- The 2026 planning-stack reference architecture
- The Face the Future deep-dive: how one DTC brand freed $1.4M and lifted turns 1.5×
- A practical 90-day plan for closing the leader gap
Methodology
Figures are drawn from Tightly's working data across the retail and DTC brands running on the platform, and are verifiable inside the report itself. Customer case data (including Face the Future) is audited and verbatim. Tightly does not publish numbers that aren't attributed.
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