If you are staying close to what is going on at OpenAI you will see that ChatGPT could soon become the productivity layer of a modern retail workplace, the interface through which company knowledge and know-how is accessed, actions are taken, and tools are orchestrated. I thought I’d explore one of retail’s most critical processes Range Planning and how it could soon be reimagined with ChatGPT at the centre:
🔍 1. Unified Knowledge Layer Across Tools
No more jumping between spreadsheets, BI dashboards, ERP systems and supplier portals. With ChatGPT layered across your stack, you could ask:
➡️ “What was the best-selling price point for women’s dresses in Spring 2024?”
➡️ “Show me outliers in size sell-through for our top SKUs.”
And get direct, contextual answers that are linked, visualised, and actionable.
🤝 2. Real-Time Cross-Team Collaboration
Range planning involves collaboration between buyers, planners, merchandisers, and marketers. ChatGPT could track cross-functional chat threads, summarise decision points, and flag unresolved issues and actions keeping global teams aligned and plans well-documented.
🧾 3. Automated Summaries & Roll-Ups
You could generate weekly range review recaps, assortment summaries by category, channel, or region
📈 4. Smarter Forecasting Assistants
Ask: “If we shift 20% of our budget to premium outerwear, what’s the margin impact?”. ChatGPT could simulate scenarios with layered data budgets, supplier constraints, trend signals, weather, even competitor activity.
🔄 5. Fewer Repetitive Tasks
From bulk product description generation to updating vendor cost mappings or internal tags ChatGPT could handle this activity at scale without much less human involvement. Merchandisers can then focus more on strategy and less on admin.