PENG HUANG · 18 YEARS IN MERCHANDISING, PLANNING & BUYING
Every purchase order is an investment decision. Yet most retail and consumer brands commit millions in working capital without the operational backbone required to see clearly. I build the foundational planning, buying, and allocation processes that give companies clarity in what they are buying, protect their cash, and shift the business from markdown-driven volume back to full-price health.
18 years across merchandising, planning, and buying
From venture-backed DTC startups to global fashion houses
Macy's · Diesel · Kate Spade · Alexander Wang · Zadig & Voltaire · Tommy John · Bombfell
01 / THE OPERATIONAL GAP
When you buy inventory, you are deploying cash. Without a real foundation, leadership is forced to approve buys based on gut feel, last year's habits, or disconnected spreadsheets. You don't find out a buy was wrong until the cash is already trapped on the warehouse floor.
Many growing companies already have a buyer or a planner on the team. Why do the problems persist? Because executing weekly trades is different from architecting the system itself. Most teams haven't had the 18 years of pattern recognition required to build institutional-grade Open-to-Buy, Sales & Operations Planning, and replenishment engines from the ground up.
When that foundational layer is missing, the business bleeds quietly. Store allocations take two weeks of manual spreadsheet grinding instead of a few hours. Core bestsellers go out of stock while slow-moving inventory piles up. Before long, you are running constant markdowns just to generate cash, and a full-price brand becomes a promotional one.
02 / THE INFRASTRUCTURE
Six systems. Each one is built inside your business, documented, and handed to your team to run.
Building custom OTB models that connect receipts, sales velocity, and inventory targets to actual cash flow, so you always know exactly what you can afford to buy and where to pull back.
Creating a single operational rhythm that aligns current inventory health against open purchase orders, forward sales projections, and target stock levels. No surprises between merchandising, supply chain, and finance.
Granular financial planning down to the individual store, location, or channel. Ensures capital and inventory are planned where demand actually lives rather than spread evenly across the fleet.
Designing clear in-season incident and exception reporting. Identifies what needs to be marked down early, protects margin, and systematically turns a markdown-dependent business back into a full-price business.
Re-engineering clunky, manual allocation workflows. I have built allocation systems that compress a tedious two-week process down to a few hours. Your team gets its time back, and the right product reaches the right doors faster.
Building sustainable, stable core replenishment programs. Keeps your highest-margin, predictable core items continuously in stock without bloating overall inventory levels.
03 / ENGAGEMENT MODELS
Some companies need a complete operational overhaul; others have a team in place and simply need a specific model built or a veteran sounding board. I work across four structures:
Need an Open-to-Buy model, an allocation system, or a replenishment engine built and handed off? We define the exact scope, I build the tools and processes, and I train your team to run them.
Embedded operational leadership on a weekly cadence. I step in to guide your buyers and planners, run the S&OP process, and establish the discipline of the merchandising organization.
Ongoing senior oversight for founders and executives. Regular checkpoints to review buy plans, audit inventory health, and guide in-season markdown and investment decisions.
Direct, on-demand access billed on an hourly basis. Ideal for targeted model reviews, troubleshooting a specific planning bottleneck, or pressure-testing an upcoming seasonal buy.
04 / INITIAL CONVERSATION
If you want more clarity in your inventory investments, whether that means building a single tool or structuring your entire planning operation, schedule a time below.
Prefer email? peng@penghuang.co