Master Lingerie Buying:
BETTER BUYING tools & training
Better Buying
Buying for lingerie, swimwear and nightwear is more challenging than almost any other fashion category. The sheer volume of SKUs required, combined with size complexity, colour depth and fit sensitivity, makes getting the buy right both critical and difficult.
Developing a buying strategy that delivers maximum choice of size, style and aesthetic without over-stocking is essential. Get it wrong and the consequences are costly.
Over-stocking, under-stocking, or buying the wrong products, often referred to as “death by the stockroom”, is one of the biggest causes of underperformance and failure among lingerie retailers and department stores.
Every buyer faces the same pressures:
Buying enough, but not too much
Focusing depth in core sizes while still having a solution when that 28GG customer walks in
Getting the colour mix right
Backing bestsellers while keeping the offer fresh
Staying within budget
Lingerie buying and merchandising requires a unique, specialist approach. For new store owners and buyers it can feel daunting. Even established buyers often lack the time, systems or internal support to analyse stock and sales properly. In department stores, lingerie is frequently just one category among many, making detailed analysis even harder.
As a result, many businesses find that 80% of sales are generated by just 20–30% of their stock, leaving significant cash tied up in product that underperforms.
Express Buying Consultation: New or Existing Businesses
A cost-effective option to give you all the guidance and tools you need while you carry out the work to implement the better buying practices in your business. Suitable for It is suitable for new businesses who want to put their first range and orders together or established businesses who want to review their processes , establish best practise buying, improve sales, reduce poor selling inventory and improve profitability
Can be targeted on the area you most need or encompass the end to end buying process.
One full day of consultancy, which can be split over several sessions to guide you through the buying process or tackle a problem in depth.
Access to all Better Buying Templates and tools for managing all orders and stock including our Ready to go Range plan for start ups.
Guidance and review, while you undertake the work, feedback and support to refine your initial range plan & orders or your new season buying plan and stock management plan.
Connection to key suppliers for sourcing and clearance as needed.
Express Stock & Sales Plan: Existing Businesses
An expert independent assessment of your sales and stock including KPI benchmarking and a tailored action plan to improve profitability immediately
A review of your sales and stock, benchmarking your KPIs against best-in-class lingerie retailers.
Identification of opportunities for improved profitability & stock management with a recommended action plan that spans:
Sell through
Stock turn
Open to buy budget
Margin
Size scales
Target stock levels
Stock ordering model & stock management plan
Quantified insights into the sales uplift and cost savings you could achieve by implementing our Better Buying strategies
A-Z Guide To Lingerie Buying
A comprehensive downloadable guide to lingerie and swimwear buying, plus a one-to-one coaching session tailored to your business and buying tools & templates to use in your business .
Includes:
What to buy and why
How much to spend
Pricing strategy
How to maximise sell-through and manage underperformers
Your own copy of our automated Buying Plan templates, in excel, to use in your business
Starter Buyer Package
Step-by-step guidance, tools and industry connections for start-ups, new store owners and new buyers , development of the budget & range plan and placing of orders.
This is a hands-on package for new stores or buyers where we work closely with you, guiding you step by step to get the right initial range in place. You’ll learn the buying process, get the range you need without missing key lines or selecting the wrong things; learn the right size, colour & style profile to buy; work out how to set a budget and stick to it, build skills and a plan that you can reuse in the future.
Explanation of the buying process; key success factors and pitfalls to avoid and principles for Better Buying.
Access to all Better Buying Templates and tools for managing all orders and stock.
Hands on support - we will guide you at every step, set tasks for you to complete at each stage of the buying process, review those with you; give you feedback and support to refine them and connect you with key suppliers.
A fully documented, automated buying plan you can reuse.
Includes consultancy to the value of £5,000 when purchased as individual days; available at a significant discount when purchased as a package.
Better Buying - Bespoke Programme
Designed for more established retailers, brands and department stores
Module 1 - Deep Dive Analysis & Action Plan
In-depth analysis of sales and stock, KPI benchmarking, quantification of the financial opportunity and a tailored action plan covering range strategy & plan, OTB, ordering model & stock management plan. We start with an in-depth review of your sales and stock, benchmarking your KPIs against best-in-class lingerie retailers.
You’ll receive a clear, detailed picture of your current performance across all the KPIs including:
Sales & inventory at category, Brand, range, style, size & colour level, sell through, stock turn, margin; sales & profit per square foot, payroll efficiency, average sale & key sales ratios.
You will receive a clear picture of the opportunities for improved profitability & stock management with tailored recommendations on:
range strategy, current range including gaps and lines to be cleared, merchandising approach, Open to buy budget, stock ordering model, stock management plan & key targets.
You will receive quantified insights into the sales uplift and cost savings you could achieve by implementing our Better Buying strategies.
Module 2 -
Implementation of the Plan
Hands-on implementation of the plan, including setting the open to buy budget, establishing the range strategy & plan, setting ordering and stock holding guidelines including size, style and colour profiles, detailed plans to manage & clear poor-selling stock, refine your reorder and size-scale rules, focus buying on your best-performing styles and sizes.
We’ll show you how to make the most of NOS lines, ‘just in time’ deliveries, and smart ranging to plug gaps and drive growth. We will directly source & clear stock for you as needed . We can also connect you with trusted stock clearance partners and recommend brand, pop-up, and drop-ship collaborations to drive sales growth and visibility.
Module 3 -
Improved Systems, Training & Ongoing Support
We will introduce improved systems for your business, along with Buyer and merchandiser training, plus ongoing hands-on support for the first 6 months to embed the Better Buying model into your business for the long-term.
We’ll work with you to implement bespoke, automated buying tools that simplify analysis, speed up decision-making, and improve accuracy. We will review your day to day procedures and establish a better buying process that will save time and money and lead to better decisions. We will provide full training so your team can keep performing brilliantly long-term, and ongoing support for the first 6 months.
What the Better Buying Programme Delivers
With over 20 years’ experience buying for lingerie and swimwear businesses, and coaching buyers across the UK and internationally, Helen Masters understands best practice like few others. More importantly, she shows businesses how to implement it.
Through lingerie-specific expertise, easy-to-use tools, deep brand and product knowledge, and extensive supplier connections, the Better Buying programme delivers measurable, best-in-class results.
Clients typically see improvements in sell-through, stock turn, margin and total sales, achieved with less stock, less time and less waste. For a fraction of what many businesses lose each season through poor buying decisions, Better Buying can transform performance.
What the Better Buying Programme Delivers
An expert, in-depth approach to buying and stock management, including:
Detailed analysis of sales and stock at category, brand, range, style, size, colour and SKU level
Clear insight into what is actually selling versus what is being held and bought
Benchmarking of buying procedures and KPIs
A tailored action plan for immediate implementation, covering range strategy, OTB, size profiling, reordering protocols, sourcing and clearance
Improved systems and automated tools that integrate with your existing processes, saving time and money
Buyer and merchandiser training to embed Better Buying long-term
Better Buying Webinar
An introduction to Better Buying principles and tools.
This webinar explains how to adopt better buying practices and achieve stronger results, covering:
How to set clear criteria for what to buy
How to work out how much to spend
How to set pricing
How to ensure what you buy sells, and what to do if it doesn’t
Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
The Better Buyer self-test and next steps
Normally £95 +VAT, this is a limited time offer, so I’m really pleased you have had the opportunity to make the most of it, and I hope it is useful . Our aim is to give you some tools to help you to become more confident in buying and managing stock by sharing our tried and tested techniques with you .
Available 1st April - Buy now to pre-order your copy.
Hear what previous client have said about the Better Buying Programme
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"‘Helen was a pleasure to deal with and her passion, energy and detailed knowledge of every section of the lingerie industry is second to none. Her deep dive analysing every element of our lingerie business from inventory to skillset and expertise have been useful for both the team and myself and have real laser focus on where opportunities lay. Helen’s detailed training and toolkit for team has improved expertise and confidence in both fitting skills and delivering the Wow factor to ensure we strive for best in class service and be the experts in our town. Helen's insight of existing performance overall and strategic recommendations and follow up have ensured we have seen sales growth already and will continue on the journey to implement further enhancements to our range and service.’"
— Jo Wakeman, Store Director Camp Hopson
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"Helen has a wealth of knowledge about the lingerie business, and she understands the challenges of this very individual trade. Her deep dive analysis highlighted opportunities where we could improve our inventory to minimise lost sales and also areas where we could consolidate ranges by removing slow sellers either by style , size or colour. We have started to see an uplift in sales and profit but we need to continue focusing on these new standards and plan in regular inventory analysis. We will implement many of her suggestions across the rest of the group. Helen thank you for your feedback & support.’"
— Angela Bryanton, Morley’s Group buyer
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"We are delighted with the results we have seen following the consultancy and training from Helen at Pudding. Our lingerie sales have increased significantly; the team are rejuvenated and the fit by sight method is wowing customers. Our sales and buying teams are working much more closely together and sales of previously under-performing products have improved. We have seen big improvements in both conversion from footfall to sale and the average sale value. What’s more, both are customers and staff are loving lingerie again. We can’t wait to get started on the next phase of our growth programme, working with Helen again – the support we have had has been excellent.’"
— Simon Colquhoun, Retail Director, Ulster Stores Group
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"Helen’s training is incredibly in-depth and her approach to guiding you through her thought process is open and mindful of the resources that are available to your business. Helen is on hand to answer any questions/queries you might have and can also adapt her training to suit your needs. Helen covered everything and more in the training. She is extremely helpful and nothing is ever too much trouble for her. For instance, we had conversations late in the evening on more than one occasion, and in my opinion this is over and above what I was expecting with regards to communication. I have a much clearer view on size scales required per bra style. I know which bra styles per brand work best for our business and I also have a view on newness to add to the business that will cover our target customer segments to the correct % of sales."
- Laura Magee , Lingerie Buyer, Ulster Stores Group