Outfitting the assortment

There’s a difference between wearing clothes and wearing an outfit, and few feelings beat putting together the perfect one.

Winning apparel brands take the same approach to assortment planning. They plan for complete outfits, not individual SKUs. For these brands, outfitting unifies merchandising and marketing, shapes store planning, and runs through every process at the corporate office. Aritzia and Uniqlo are excellent examples.

Here is why apparel brands should plan assortments through the lens of outfitting, then offer simple ways to use it to drive full-price sales:

The cycle of SKU rationalization

Several retailers and brands, each in their own words, have declared SKU rationalization part of their transformation efforts. Recent examples include Under Armour (shrinking its battlefield), Carter’s (reducing product choices), Kohl’s (reducing choice count), and Macy’s (reducing redundancy).

SKU rationalization is often presented as a smart use of time and effort, and it tends to coincide with new leadership taking the helm. The message is clear: previous leadership left behind a mess of SKUs, there’s a big bill to pay, and it’s time to clean up. 

But that discipline only lasts so long. As pressure for growth, margin, and profit builds, the assortment bloats again with the thinking that more supply equals more demand. That assumption plateaus quickly, and the cycle starts again.

Used strategically, SKU rationalization is a useful tool. Too often, though, it’s just correcting predictable mistakes. We believe the effort is better invested in SKU prevention.

Preventing SKUs Through Outfitting
Product creation is often guesswork, since planning starts a year ahead of the season. And when merchants rely on hindsight to place future bets, the instinct is to make more bets and hope some products hit.

SKU prevention requires a radical shift in thinking, and introducing constraints ignites that shift. Here, planning for the outfit instead of the SKU creates a natural limit on SKU counts.

In an outfit-based model, planning begins with the end in mind: collections and looks. Key items like core denim are linked to anchor pieces like a blazer or cardigan. The result is a cohesive story, with the brand selling a persona, a lifestyle, or a moment. Balancing each outfit with a seasonless plus fashion approach gives the customer choices.

Draper James does this well. Wall fixtures pair tops with jeans, with boots nearby to complete the look. The feature table combines an outfit, footwear with matching ribbon laces, and jewelry with founder Reese Witherspoon’s book club picks, so the customer can picture her southern-inspired outfit while reading. Near the entrance, best-selling pajamas share a table with cozy knits and a soft hoodie.

Levi’s has grown its premium Blue Tab line into a full wardrobe. The fall/winter 2026 collection, inspired by 1940s aviators, is presented as complete looks, such as a leather Flight Jacket paired with a pleated denim trouser. With Blue Tab growing at double digits, the early signs are promising.

The bottom line is that when planning for the outfit, every SKU must earn its place. In turn, excess inventory shrinks along with the corresponding markdowns. Outfitting also removes the guesswork for the customer. The result is higher full-price sales, unit sales, and profit.

[READ MORE: Exclusive Q&A: How retailers can effectively address excess inventory]

What to do

Through Retail Strategy Group's unique work with clients, we have identified eight ways to make outfitting part of a profitable merchandising strategy. Here are four:

1 - Build outfitting into product creation. Add an "outfit approval” moment to the product creation calendar. At a set interval, the brand finalizes the outfits the assortment will showcase in that period. Planning for the outfit in advance, versus the individual item, limits the assortment to the necessary SKUs.

2 - Align early with visual merchandising and marketing. Bring these functions into the assortment-building process from the start. This prevents disconnects between outfit strategy and in-store execution.

3 - Outfit the fixtures and adjacencies. Arrange fixtures and adjacencies so customers can easily picture their own outfits, with every component within arm’s reach and no searching required.

4 - Put merchants on the shop floor. Merchants should spend time in stores styling customers, especially in the fitting rooms. There, they can spot outfit gaps and act on them right away, instead of waiting for an online review or return.

Conclusion

Wearing clothes is different from wearing an outfit, and an assortment of SKUs is different from a collection of outfits. SKU rationalization has its place in right-sizing an assortment, but it only restores performance to previous levels. Winning brands prevent SKUs by planning for the outfit first. They know they’re in the business of selling stories and personas, not individual items. 

Retail Strategy Group’s recommendations for implementing outfitting are simple and immediate, and they yield powerful results. Outfitting shifts the thinking from SKU rationalization to prevention, and that shift often starts with these questions: Are we planning the assortment with the outfit in mind? If not, what could we achieve if we did?

Retail Strategy Group is led by Liza Amlani and Raj Dhiman, Ph.D.