Open to Buy: How to Shop Market With a Number — Weekly Retail Tidbits #239

Originally published as Tidbit #239. Lightly edited for the blog.

“A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”
-Dave Ramsey, financial expert and author

This scenario plays out more in my life than I would like to admit. The clerk scans all my groceries and asks, “Did you find everything you needed today?”

I look down at all the items and see the 2 things I actually made the trip to the store to buy — along with about 6 times more. (They had a lot of buy one get one free deals — I promise! 😂)

Does that ever happen to you at market shopping for your store? Haha — guessing that answer is “Yes!” (from what I’ve heard y’all say 😉)

There is a better way. It relieves your brain, your credit card shuffle, your bottom line. It’s called Open to Buy — or OTB.

So what exactly IS Open to Buy?

Open to Buy is a planning tool that tells you — before you ever walk the showroom floor — how much money you have available to spend on new inventory in a given time period. It factors in what you already have on hand, what’s on order, and what you realistically expect to sell.

Let’s make it real with numbers

Say your gift shop does $20,000 in sales per month. Most retailers aim to carry about 2-3 months of inventory on hand — so your target inventory value would be somewhere between $40,000 and $60,000 at cost.

Now let’s say you currently have $35,000 in inventory and $8,000 already on order. That puts you at $43,000 committed. If your target is $50,000, your Open to Buy is roughly $7,000.

That’s it. That’s your number. That’s what you take to market.
Not a feeling. Not a hope. A number.

Why it matters

When retailers ask me whether they should place an order and they’re second-guessing themselves, my first instinct is usually to slow down, not speed up.

There’s no award for the biggest market order. But there is a real cost to overbuying — it ties up cash, crowds your floor, and makes reordering your best sellers harder than it should be.

OTB gives you permission to say yes and permission to say not yet. Both are powerful.

Next week — Part II

I’ll share how your store’s square footage actually tells you what your inventory investment should be — and why a jewelry case and a furniture floor play by completely different rules. You won’t want to miss it. 😊

Cheers to March! Just like the weather is warming up – so will that foot traffic!

xoxo,
❤️AmyFay

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AI Tip of the Week

Did you know you can use AI to help you calculate your Open to Buy? Just open Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and type something like:

“Help me calculate my Open to Buy. My monthly sales are [$ your sales]. I have [$ your inventory] in inventory on hand, [$ amount, if any] on order, and I want to keep 2.5 months of inventory.”

It will walk you through the math and even help you think through it by category. No spreadsheet required to get started. 🙂

Here’s another super easy way:

• I built a free OTB calculator for you.
• Plug in your numbers, get your number.
• Use it on your phone, at market, behind the counter.

Beginner friendly reminders: Anthropic– Claude, OpenAI– ChatGPT, Google– Gemini

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3 Tango Tidbits
re: Open to Buy

Faceplant Dreams

luxury bamboo loungewear, made to live in

If you’ve got OTB dollars for spring, this is a smart place to put them.

Loungewear sells year-round, but Faceplant’s new Spring/Summer fabrics and colors give your customers a reason to come back. And this line has some serious repeat buyers – for great reasons!

Already carry it? Reorder your best sellers.

New to the line? Shop Faceplant Dreams

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Waxing Poetic

Update: Waxing Poetic has closed and is no longer operating. Find remaining inventory at these independent retailers.

handcrafted jewelry from Bali, 600+ years of silver smithing tradition

Jewelry is an OTB dream: high margin, tiny footprint, and no season.

One small display can punch well above its weight in sales per square foot.

Founded by sisters Patti and Lizanne, Waxing Poetic is handcrafted in Bali using sterling silver, ceramic-coated gold plate, and brass.

They have a story your team can tell. Stories sell jewelry.

Ready to refresh or start fresh? Shop Waxing Poetic

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LINNEA

small batch, made in Indiana

Fragrance is an impulse buy with great margins. That makes it a perfect OTB pick! And nobody does fragrance better than LINNEA.

LINNEA’s Cashmere and Sea Salt are consistent top sellers. (are you stocked?)

Heirloom Tomato and Crush Mint were Oprah’s favorites (built-in credibility you don’t have to create) and also consistently rank in the top 5 most popular fragrances. 🍅

Spring and Escape Capsule Collections are shipping now. Have you ordered?

(Many of you are reordering! So smart 🤓 to stay stocked in what is selling!)

Shop LINNEA

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“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”

— Benjamin Franklin

If you enjoyed this – you’ll like next week, too. We’ll tackle what your square footage is trying to tell you.

❤️AmyFay

With heart eyes on – finding things we ❤️!

Market Fun – January, 2026

❤ Peace of the Earth – Louisville, KY

❤ Ace Hardware – Hendersonville & Tullahoma, TN

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