Fashion · BigCommerce · VP Merchandising

What a fashion VP Merchandising pulls out of BigCommerce

Your BigCommerce feed covers 15,000+ SKUs across your locations. Ward reads it for merchandising.

Ward and BigCommerce for Fashion merchandising

Fashion & Apparel changes the scale of the problem: 15,000+ SKUs, every one of your locations. Seasonal sell-through, size curve optimization, and markdown timing. Ward monitors style velocity and flags slow movers before the window closes.

Your category managers are drowning in spreadsheets. Ward raises the indicators that change a merchandising decision.

How the connection works. Ward connects via BigCommerce REST API with OAuth. Webhooks for real-time order and inventory events.

app.getward.ai Live demo
Acme Apparel @Merchandising: Planning Analyst claude-sonnet default
A

Chat

Ask anything. Ward routes to the right agent and returns cited answers.

Why is fall denim sell-through behind plan?
You · 9:42 AM
Schema Scout · routed to Merchandising Agent

I pulled fall denim against last season’s curve at the same selling week. Two causes, both still fixable this week.

SignalFinding
sell_throughWeek 6 sell-through 38% vs. 52% plan, concentrated in 3 of 9 door clusters
size_curveWaist 30–32 sold out in 41 doors while 36–38 sits at 71% on hand
markdown.ladderFirst markdown is 3 weeks later than LY, weeks-of-supply now 11.4

Recommend: transfer 30–32 out of the 12 overstocked doors, hold the ladder on core indigo, and take the first markdown on light wash now while it still clears at 20%.

9 parallel queries 3 sources cited confidence 0.89
Draft the size-curve transfer list.
You · 9:43 AM
Allocation Agent · drafting transfer list
Querying sell_through_weekly
Ask anything, Ward routes to the right agent. Cmd+K

Reporting

Pinned views built from saved data-lake queries. Every number re-derivable from its SQL.

7d13w52w
Revenue vs. plan
$31.7M
+3.1% WoW
Full-price mix
61.4%
−5.1pp
Sell-through, fall denim
38.2%
wk6, −9pp vs plan
Markdown rate
19.6%
+2.8pp
Revenue vs. plan 13 weeks actual, 6 weeks forecast, 80% interval
Actual Forecast 80% interval
% of plan 106 94 100 forecast → W−13 W−5 today +6wk
Holt-Winters + weather regressor MAPE 4.1% at 4wk Backtested 24 months Crosses plan in 3 weeks
Forecast error by horizon MAPE, 24-month backtest
1wk 2.1%
2wk 3.0%
4wk 4.1%
8wk 6.3%
13wk 8.9%
Accuracy bar for promo decisions: ≤5% at 4wk
Models in production Every forecast ships a model card
ModelHorizonMAPE
holt_winters4wk4.1%
arima_sarimax13wk8.9%
gbm_demand1wk2.1%
bayes_hiernew store11.4%

Sources

Connect external systems to the data lake.

NameTypeLast sync
shopify_orders_dailyimport2m ago
shopify_returns_reasonsimport2m ago
netsuite_inventory_snapshotimport14m ago
cegid_store_salesimport1h ago
retail_size_curve_actualsimport1h ago
retail_markdown_ladderimport1h ago
retail_ga4_website_dailyimport1h ago

Policies

Browse and manage Cedar access policies for your tenant.

TLS 1.3 AES-256 Read-only SOC 2 II
Policy IDEffectResources
merch-read-defaultpermitModel::*
finance-read-markdownpermitModel::"markdown_ladder"
vendor-blockedforbidModel::"labor_*"
ecom-read-returnspermitModel::"returns_reasons"
for Fashion on BigCommerce data, live product demo.

What Ward delivers

  • Insight cards flag promo cannibalization the day it happens
  • Assortment gaps and whitespace opportunities surface automatically
  • Price elasticity shifts detected before margin erosion compounds
  • Category-level performance cards replace manual spreadsheet reviews
  • Vendor scorecards generated from actual fill rate and quality data

Metrics Ward monitors

Sell-through rate
Markdown %
Return rate
Style velocity
Size accuracy

Fashion challenges Ward solves

  • Markdown timing
  • Size curve misallocation
  • Style velocity prediction
  • Return rate management
  • Seasonal transition

What Ward has eyes on.

Coverage is store by store, category by category. Ward scans continuously sell-through rate, markdown %, return rate across 15,000+ SKUs and compares each store against its own baseline, not against the chain. That is the difference between knowing the fleet is fine and knowing which seven locations are not.

Ward ingests orders, products & variants, customers from BigCommerce on a read-only connection. Nothing is written back, and your Commerce configuration does not change. BigCommerce stays the system of record.

Why this combination
is its own problem.

Running Ward on BigCommerce in a fashion store base skips the usual first step. There is no ingestion project, because BigCommerce already holds orders, products & variants, customers. Ward ingests what is there.

What the first 90 days
actually look like.

  1. 01

    Week 1: connect

    Read-only credentials to BigCommerce. Ward ingests orders, products & variants, customers and starts building baselines. First daily cards land inside 48 hours, before baselines are stable, so you can see the shape of the output early.

  2. 02

    Weeks 2 to 3: calibration

    Baselines stabilize per store and per category. Ward stops flagging normal variance and starts flagging exceptions. This is the window where the false positive rate drops sharply.

  3. 03

    Weeks 4 to 12: steady state

    Ward hands back daily cards every morning, each with the driver and a recommended action. Volume settles at a level a single person can read over coffee. The measure of success is not how many findings arrive, it is how many get acted on.

How Ward connects to BigCommerce

Ward connects to BigCommerce for omnichannel retailers running headless or traditional storefronts. Orders, catalog, and customer data drive insight cards.

Setup: Ward connects via BigCommerce REST API with OAuth. Webhooks for real-time order and inventory events.

Data Ward reads from BigCommerce

Orders
Products & variants
Customers
Inventory
Promotions
Storefront analytics

Impact metrics with BigCommerce

Sell-Through Rate
Velocity tracked live
Slow movers flagged early enough to reallocate inventory.
Customer LTV
Churn risk identified
Cohort analysis surfaces lapsing buyers and re-engagement timing.
Conversion Rate
Buyer vs browser split
Patterns that convert separated from those that just browse.
Inventory Turnover
Reorder cadence optimized
Demand signals calibrate reorder points across the catalog.

Data lake enrichment

Ward enriches BigCommerce data with: Orders & variants, Customer behavior, Marketing data, Returns & exchanges, Competitor pricing

Your category managers are drowning in spreadsheets.

Pain points
  • ×Promo planning still runs off last year's playbook
  • ×Assortment reviews happen quarterly when they should happen daily
  • ×Price changes chase the market a week behind it
  • ×No visibility into true cannibalization across categories
  • ×Vendor negotiations lack real-time sell-through evidence
How Ward helps
  • Insight cards flag promo cannibalization the day it happens
  • Assortment gaps and whitespace opportunities surface automatically
  • Price elasticity shifts detected before margin erosion compounds
  • Category-level performance cards replace manual spreadsheet reviews
  • Vendor scorecards generated from actual fill rate and quality data

Retailers lose an estimated $300B+ annually to suboptimal assortment and promotional decisions. Source: McKinsey & Company

Fashion KPI impact

Markdown Rate
Shallower, earlier
Slow movers detected before deep clearance is the only option.
Sell-Through
More at full price
Style velocity cards flag underperformers early enough to reallocate.
Size Accuracy
Fewer size gaps
Size curves recalibrated by store cluster and season.
Return Rate
Better matching
Right size, right store means fewer returns.

Frequently asked questions

Ward connects via BigCommerce REST API with OAuth. Webhooks for real-time order and inventory events. Data points include: Orders, Products & variants, Customers, Inventory, Promotions, Storefront analytics.

Yes. Ward reads BigCommerce data and combines it with contextual signals (weather, events, demographics) to generate Fashion-specific insight cards. No custom development required.

Your category managers are drowning in spreadsheets. Ward solves this with automated insight cards: Insight cards flag promo cannibalization the day it happens. Assortment gaps and whitespace opportunities surface automatically. Price elasticity shifts detected before margin erosion compounds.

Ward delivers daily insight cards covering Sell-through rate, Markdown %, Return rate, tailored for Merchandising decision-making. Each card includes what changed, why it matters, and what to do next.

First insight cards arrive within 48 hours of data connection. Ward needs approximately 2 weeks to establish stable baselines for your specific operation.

No. Ward sits on top of your existing stack. It is the proactive intelligence layer that watches your data continuously and delivers insight cards, so your team acts on findings instead of hunting for them.

See what Fashion problems Ward catches.

Root causes, not just alerts. See it on your data.

Read-only to start · your LLM keys · SOC 2 Type II underway · or book a call directly

Find out what your data has been hiding.

Tell us about your operation. We’ll show you the problems Ward catches, and the ones your current tools miss.

Step 1 of 3
What are your goals?
Step 2 of 3
About your operation
Step 3 of 3
Your contact info