Overview
Inventory Planner is a demand forecasting & replenishment tool for e-commerce merchants. Predicts purchase needs, generates POs, and reduces stockouts/overstock. Now part of Brightpearl by Sage.
Details
Overview
Inventory Planner is a demand forecasting and replenishment platform for e-commerce, retail and wholesale merchants. It analyzes historical sales, seasonality and demand trends to predict what to buy, how much, and when — generating purchase orders and reducing stockouts and overstock. Now part of Sage (acquired via Brightpearl in 2022) and sold as "Inventory Planner by Sage" within Sage for Retail, it is trusted by 2,600+ brands.
Key Features
- Variant-level demand forecasting: SKU-level forecasts with configurable models for seasonal, non-seasonal, retail and wholesale products; new products borrow demand from similar items by style, size and color.
- Automated purchasing & POs: replenishment recommendations accounting for vendors, MOQs and lead times; generate purchase orders in a couple of clicks; scheduled weekly replenishment reports.
- Open-to-Buy planning: plan purchasing budgets by category, brand or vendor to meet sales goals, with LLY analysis and expected-margin planning.
- Multi-location management: forecast and optimize stock across warehouses, 3PL, brick-and-mortar stores and Amazon FBA, including transfer recommendations.
- Overstock & stockout intelligence: identify dead/slow-moving stock, lost-revenue risk and what to liquidate first to free up cash flow.
- Container-aware PO optimization: scale purchase orders to container capacity by cubic weight to cut shipping costs.
- 200+ reporting metrics: exec-ready dashboards with custom segments, unlimited comparison periods and automated email/Slack report distribution.
- Sage Copilot AI (Premium): an AI "retail intelligence agent" (launched March 2026) that flags priority replenishments, overdue on-order items and missing cost prices inside the workflow.
Pricing
Consultative, quote-based pricing scaled by GMV and replenishable SKU count, with unlimited users on every plan. Essentials tier for Shopify-only sellers (Shopify App Store, launched July 2024): third-party-reported entry from $245–250/mo for one warehouse and ~1,000 SKUs. Standard and Premium tiers are quoted by sales; mid-size brands report $5,000–$10,000+/year. No free trial — demo-led onboarding (4 weeks).
Integrations
- E-commerce/marketplaces: Shopify + Plus, Amazon, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, eBay, Walmart
- ERP/inventory: NetSuite, QuickBooks (Online + Desktop), Microsoft Dynamics 365, Acumatica, Cin7, Brightpearl, Linnworks, Zoho, Odoo, Sage Supply Chain Intelligence
- 3PL/fulfillment: ShipBob, ShipHero, ShipStation
- Analytics: Google Analytics 4, Snowflake; Advanced CSV Connector for custom systems
Best For
$1M+ multichannel retail and e-commerce brands with real purchasing complexity — hundreds to thousands of SKUs across warehouses, 3PL and Amazon FBA — that have outgrown spreadsheets.
FAQ
What is Inventory Planner?
A demand forecasting, replenishment and open-to-buy planning platform that sits above your e-commerce/ERP stack to tell you exactly what to buy, how much, and when.
Who owns it?
Sage — it launched in 2012 independently, was acquired by Brightpearl in 2021, then Sage acquired Brightpearl (and Inventory Planner) in January 2022.
How is it priced?
Quote-based, scaled by inventory volume and SKU count, with unlimited users; a lower-cost Essentials tier for Shopify-only sellers starts around $245–250/mo.
What is Sage Copilot?
An AI assistant (Premium tier) that surfaces priority replenishments, late POs and missing cost prices to help planners act on the highest-value decisions first.