Build a sales plan for next season

Elevate plan

This guide takes you from an empty page to a confirmed sales plan: targets for next season, per product and store, seeded from last year and adjusted where you expect more. For everything the pages can do, see Sales Plans.

Before you start

Your shop is on the Elevate plan.
A year of sales history helps. Targets start from the same dates last year at each location, so a product or store without sales then starts at 0 and needs targets typed by hand.
Know which products to plan. If you have a forecast view for them (a category, a supplier), adding them takes one click.

Steps

Open Inventory Planning, click the Sales Plans tile, then Create Sales Plan.
Name the plan, for example Autumn/Winter 2027. Under Plan Window, pick Next Year, or set a Start date and End date for your season.
Choose the locations: leave All locations ticked, or untick it and pick the stores to plan.
Set Growth vs last year, for example 15. The readout shows “×1.15 of last year’s sales”. Click Next.
Click Add products › From a forecast view, pick your view and click Add products. Check the line above the list, for example “40 products × 2 locations = 80 plan rows”.
Click Preview targets. Check Target units, Target revenue and Locations with sales last year, and read any amber notice about locations without sales.
Click Create plan. The plan opens on its Products tab, in Draft.
Adjust single products on the Products tab: pick a store in the location switcher and change a product’s Growth, or type its Target units.
Shape the season on the Plan tab: change a month’s target in the grid, for example to push December.
Click Save changes in the bar at the bottom of the page.
Click Confirm. The plan’s targets now show next to the forecast in the Supply view’s Sales plans chart, and the Analytics tab follows how the plan is doing. See Supply view.

The details of each step: Creating a sales plan, Products, growth & targets, The plan grid and Plan statuses & lifecycle.

Worked example

You run two stores, Berlin and Hamburg, and want 15% more than last year next autumn. In Hamburg you’re opening a bigger shoe corner, so one boot should grow 30% there.

In the dialog you pick Next Year, untick All locations and pick Berlin and Hamburg, and set growth to 15.
You add your Autumn shoes forecast view: 40 products × 2 locations = 80 plan rows. The preview shows targets at both stores, and you click Create plan.
On the Products tab you pick Hamburg in the location switcher, find the boot with Search products or SKUs… and change its Growth from +15 to 30. Its Hamburg targets rise by 1.30 ÷ 1.15; Berlin keeps +15%.
You click Save changes, then Confirm.

From now on the boot’s Hamburg targets show up in the Supply view, and the Analytics tab follows how both stores are doing.

Common failure modes

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Targets are 0 at one store	The products didn’t sell there in the same dates last year. Sales at other stores aren’t copied.	Type targets for that store on the Products tab or in the plan grid. Changing growth won’t help: there is nothing to grow from.
Preview targets is greyed out: “Too many rows. See above.”	The plan would hold more products × locations than one plan can.	The dialog says how many products to remove. Split the range into two plans, for example one per category, or pick fewer locations.
Confirm is greyed out: “This sales plan has no products. Add at least one product before confirming.”	The plan was created empty.	Add products on the Products tab first.
Lock or Complete is greyed out	”Save or discard your changes first”: the plan has unsaved edits.	Click Save changes or Discard changes in the bar at the bottom of the page.
Targets don’t show in the Supply view	The plan is still in Draft, the view has Show sales plans switched off, or the plan was left out of this view’s chart.	Confirm the plan, switch on Show sales plans in the view’s Supply menu, and tick the plan in the chart’s plan list. See Supply view.
A new store isn’t in the plan	The store was added in Shopify after you created the plan.	On a plan with All locations, open Location notices on the Products tab and click Sync locations. Otherwise use Actions › Add location…. See Plans at several locations.
Growth reads n/a and can’t be changed	The product didn’t sell at that location last year and its growth is -100%.	Type its Target units instead.
Revenue doesn’t follow a new Shopify price	A plan keeps the price each product had when it was added.	Type the revenue you expect on the Products tab. See Revenue.