GAIN_Global Ananplan Implementation Network
GAIN_Global Ananplan Implementation Network

Retail Planner

Plan with intention. Perform with confidence.

  • what is it?

Retail Planner is a ready-to-configure retail planning solution, built on proven IP

It replaces spreadsheets with a single, governed planning environment that extends across demand, merchandise and other areas of your retail plan as your needs grow.

Start with promotions - with no big IT project - and results you can see within a promotional cycle.

Better retail decisions start
with the whole picture

We look at retail planning as five interconnected domains, each made up of the planning processes that keep a retail business running.

Zooss works across all five, and we understand how a decision in one area flows through to the others.

retail PLANNING
retail planner zooss promotions
  • promotions planning

Where promotions fit

Promotions planning sits within Commercial & Go-to-Market Planning. It's shaped by demand and merchandise plans, and in turn it shapes margin, stock and store workload.

That means promotions only work well when they’re linked to what’s being forecast, bought and stocked – and right now, every promotional decision carries higher stakes.

Retail Planner GTM section honeycomb
  • pressures behind every promotion

Every pressure lands on the same decision: what to promote, at what price, and when.

  • Margin pressure: costs are rising as shoppers' budgets tighten, so every discount has to earn its place. Mistime a peak like Black Friday or Christmas and you give margin away too early, or get left with stock.
  • Evolving consumer expectations:shoppers compare prices with AI tools and marketplaces before they buy, so offers need to be sharper.
  • Fragmented planning: supplier offers, pricing and calendars sit across spreadsheets, email and disconnected systems, with no single record of what was agreed.

“Retailers are relying on legacy spreadsheets, unreliable data, disconnected systems, and siloed teams to make high-stakes commercial decisions. And – not surprisingly – the result is inefficient promotions and margin erosion.”

Steve Bows, Managing Director, Zooss Consulting

  • better planning

Common challenges we solve for retail promotions

Retailers come to Zooss when promotions planning feels fragmented, slow or reactive. Together, we help them plan every promotion with intention.

The challenge
How Retail Planner helps
The challengePromotions are planned in spreadsheets, approvals are chased by email, and changes are passed on informally
How Retail Planner helpsEvery team works from the latest plan, with a streamlined workflow, clear ownership, approvals and automatic change notifications
The challengeSupplier offers arrive by email in a dozen formats, the detail lives in one person's inbox, and missed submissions surface late
How Retail Planner helpsA traceable record of offers, funding and changes the whole team can see, with supplier submissions captured in one place, reminders when they're due and a self-serve view for suppliers
The challengeForecasts are hard to trust, and each team builds its own, on its own timeline
How Retail Planner helpsCompare offer tactics side by side before you commit spend, using one shared promotional forecast built on your own sales history, with scenario modelling
The challengePricing conflicts, funding shortfalls, stock gaps and compliance issues only surface once a promotion is live
How Retail Planner helpsIssues caught before launch, not after, with automated checks on pricing, supplier funding, overlapping offers, stock availability and compliance rules (e.g. ACCC price establishment)
The challengeTeams repeat last year's calendar instead of planning each promotion with intention, with no clear target for what good looks like and no live view of how the plan is tracking
How Retail Planner helpsPost-promotion analysis that category and finance teams both report from, plus targets for what good looks like and plan versus actual as promotions run, so each cycle is built on what actually worked
The challengeSystems don't talk to each other, and the process is outgrowing spreadsheets and email
How Retail Planner helpsGrows with you, with integration to the systems you already run – from SAP and other ERPs to campaign tools and suppliers' trade promotion tools

Built around the whole promotions lifecycle

  1. 1Set the trade calendarEvents and themes published to suppliers
  2. 2Annual promotion plansSupplier plans and funding reviewed and approved
  3. 3Offer submissionsArticle-level offers via a supplier portal
  4. 4Forecast and checkForecasts adjusted; pricing, funding, stock and compliance checked
  5. 5Approve and lockSigned off, locked and sent to catalogue and downstream systems
  6. 6Analyse and learnPlan vs actual and post-promotion analysis
  • find your fit

Built for the way you trade

Retail Planner suits mid-sized and larger established retailers moving beyond spreadsheets, across the most common retail business models.

Multi-supplier retailers

Stocking many suppliers' brands, with promotions co-funded through scan deals and rebates

Vertical retailers

Designing and sourcing your own products, where promotions are about margin, markdowns and stock rather than supplier funding

Franchise and buying groups

Many store owners trading on one shared promotional calendar

Omnichannel retailers

Running promotions across stores, online and marketplaces at once

Start light, without re-platforming

Already on Anaplan?

A fast-to-deploy version of Retail Planner is ready to configure to your promotions process.

Running something else?

Tool-agnostic and light to integrate, Retail Planner works alongside SAP and other ERP and POS systems.

Either way, this isn't a big-bang systems project. It's the fastest, lowest-risk place to start.

talk to us

Start with promotions and grow into the rest of your retail plan

Promotions are where planning pays back fastest. Plan them alongside the rest of the business and you move from habit to fewer, more intentional promotions - then extend Retail Planner into demand planning and beyond.

Beyond the essentials, it can also bring in:

Competitor and market signals

Promotions shaped by what the market is doing now, not just last year

Membership-aware promotions

Member and loyalty offers planned with confidence, giving shoppers a reason to come back

Ready for your AI agents

Your own AI tools can query and act on promotion plans through MCP, an open standard

Sustainability built in

Plan campaigns around local or sustainable suppliers, and track social and environmental impact alongside sales

  • Why retailers choose Zooss

Our mission is to enable better business planning and reporting

  • Retail planning specialists across finance, commercial, demand, supply and operations – not just promotions
  • Proven delivery, including promotions management for a major Australian retailer
  • Process maps, data models and an operating model ready to go, for a head start
  • Built for supplier-funded promotions and pricing compliance, which price-optimisation tools leave out
  • Designed for the whole promotions lifecycle, not adapted from a generic template
  • A local, hands-on team in Australia backed by a global network
  • A certified B Corp, guided by purpose as well as profit
  • get in touch

Let's talk about your retail planning

Tell us a little about your business and we’ll be in touch to talk through your current process and challenges. From there, we can show you how Retail Planner could help.