The ultimate goal of fashion buying, and the entire retail business, is to make sales.

Retailers generally plan the sales, stocks, purchases and reduction amounts much in advance for a particular selling period (February-July and August-January). This planning is done using a tool known as the Six Months Buy Plan

The buyer uses it as a merchandising/inventory tool to operate a more profitable retail business. It is a working document for monitoring and adjusting the monthly merchandising activities in the store or department. The plan helps the retail buyer and merchandiser to monitor monthly inventory sales and purchases.

After the buyer has selected the items that the retailer will carry in their assortment, the merchandiser then allocates those items to the stores and ensures their availability all the time until they are sold out successfully.