Buyer's Toolbox AP vs. Solvoyo

Nothing, on that row, and we would rather say so than pretend. Their merchandise financial planning sets sales, margin and inventory targets top-down, middle-out or bottom-up at any level of the hierarchy, channel, location and period, with OTB automated against approved targets. That is the same shape of capability we sell. The difference is everything around it: whether the system knows farm and ranch, footwear, outdoor, museum retail and pharmacy assortments; whether the data science is retail-specific — markdown optimization, elasticity, promotion impact, lost sales, affinity, cannibalization; whether exceptions arrive ranked by dollar impact; whether it connects to the merchandising system you actually run; and how long the vendor has been doing only this. We had been building retail merchandise planning for thirteen years before Solvoyo was founded.

Then look at Solvoyo seriously, because we do not do that and will not pretend we do. Production planning, strategic network design, transportation and fulfillment, S&OP — that is their platform, and it is a genuine strength. The question worth answering first is which problem is urgent. If the buy is landing wrong and the plan lives in a spreadsheet, that is a merchandise planning problem and you can solve it in weeks. If your constraint is the network moving goods, ours is the wrong product and we will tell you so on the first call.

It is not manual versus automated — the system does the calculation either way. Buyer's Toolbox forecasts, calculates the OTB, allocates, replenishes and surfaces exceptions without anyone typing a number. The real question is who can change it. In February the buy shifts, a category turns, and the plan needs to work differently than it did in October. In our system a planner opens the cell, sees the formula, and changes it. Ask Solvoyo what that same change looks like: who makes it, how long it takes, and whether the answer involves their team.

They are credible, and size is not the argument. Solvoyo was founded in Boston in 2005 by operations research scientists, its founder holds a doctorate in operations research, and they report more than 100 rollouts across four continents for names like P&G, Unilever and The Home Depot. What differs is specialization. Every release we have shipped since 1992 has gone into retail merchandise planning, and our references are North American specialty retailers — 20 to 500 doors, often multiple banners, often on a merchandising system that predates the cloud. Ask both vendors for three references at your door count in your vertical, and call them.

Three tests, given to both. First, a working system built on your own data before any contract — insist your planners can use it, not just watch a demo. Second, a three-year total cost covering licence, onboarding, implementation, seats and support. Third, the one most buyers skip: a scripted change request. Ask each vendor to price and schedule the same three changes twelve months after go-live. Add a hierarchy level. Add a custom KPI. Restate a formula.