Customers
How Stio Cut Returns by 30% and Transformed Inventory Allocation
About
Stio is an outdoor lifestyle brand offering functional and versatile apparel, outerwear, and footwear. The company has evolved from a DTC eCommerce business into a multi-channel retailer, including eCommerce, retail, wholesale, outlet, corporate, and closeout. Over the past two years, Stio has doubled its brick-and-mortar presence, expanding to 10 stores, including two outlet locations.
With the rapid growth of its business, Stio needed a more precise way to manage inventory flow and reduce inefficiencies in stock allocation. By implementing Toolio, Stio was able to cut end-of-season returns by 30%, significantly reducing costly send-backs to its warehouse. This shift to a demand-driven allocation strategy has not only minimized excess inventory handling but also improved sell-through, allowing Stio to keep the right products in the right stores at the right time.
Use Cases
Allocation & Replenishment
Demand Planning
Inventory Optimization
Modules
Merchandise Planning
Assortment Planning
Allocation
Location
United States
30%
reduction in returns
90%
time savings
Increased
inventory visibility
Solution
From Inefficiency to Optimization
Before Toolio, Stio’s growing complexity in inventory management made Excel-based planning unmanageable, leading to inefficiencies in allocation and excess stock redistribution. Ensuring accurate channel roll-ups, reconciling demand across eCommerce, retail, and wholesale, and quickly responding to changing conditions were becoming increasingly difficult—resulting in costly end-of-season send-backs.
Toolio provided a centralized, automated solution that eliminated the inefficiencies of manual Excel planning. By aligning allocation with demand and introducing phased allocation strategies, Stio reduced end-of-season returns minimizing excess inventory handling and improving sell-through across channels.
Amanda Holland
Senior Manager, Retail Planning
“Toolio has gotten me out of Excel, out of time-consuming and mundane tasks, and focused more on strategy and refining my plan. I now have much more confidence in my allocation recommendations.”
A Closer Look at Metrics
Data-Driven Decision Making
Prior to Toolio, Stio's allocation strategy was reliant on time-consuming manual docs and static presentation profiles, often leading to inefficiencies. The company used a replenishment model that maintained fixed inventory levels in stores regardless of demand, resulting in excess stock and inefficient distribution.
With Toolio, Stio now dynamically allocates inventory based on demand, allowing the team to focus on strategic decision-making rather than manual processes. Toolio's integration with Stio’s item plan ensures that stores receive replenishment aligned with actual sales performance rather than arbitrary thresholds. This shift has significantly enhanced inventory visibility and control, reducing stockouts and overages.
Driving Operational Excellence
As Stio continues to scale, Toolio remains a critical part of its operational strategy. The platform has helped the company refine allocation processes, improve in-season inventory management, and enhance overall decision-making.
By leveraging Toolio, Stio has transformed its inventory management, ensuring that its stores are stocked with the right products at the right time while minimizing operational inefficiencies. The strategic shift from manual allocation to automated, demand-driven processes has positioned Stio for continued success in a highly competitive retail landscape.
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Boston Proper is a 30-year-old women’s apparel brand, now operating as an online-only business with about $90M in annual revenue. The brand serves women 40+ who want bold, vibrant collections that let them stand out and express confidence.
For most of its history, Boston Proper operated on a catalog-first business model, planning assortments one drop at a time with little visibility beyond that season’s launch. Without a holistic view of the business, teams worked in siloed spreadsheets, making it difficult to track performance, align on financial targets, or adapt quickly when trends or supply chain realities shifted. Once plans were set, they often went untouched, leaving missed opportunities to chase winning products or mitigate underperformers.
As part of a larger digital transformation, Boston Proper needed a planning tool that could modernize their processes, improve collaboration across teams, and replace the “set it and forget it” cycle with agile, data-driven decision-making.
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Before adopting Toolio, Emazing relied heavily on Excel spreadsheets, which consumed significant time and limited their ability to scale effectively.
Implementing Toolio revolutionized their inventory planning and merchandise management, saving considerable time, optimizing decision-making, and significantly reducing operational costs.
As Alie McCaskill, VP of Merchandise, states, "Toolio has been a game changer for us, especially with reporting and reorder processes, helping us streamline and focus more on profitability and growth."
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Needed is a leading nutrition brand specializing in scientifically-backed supplements designed for long-term health and wellness. Operating primarily as a subscription-based business, Needed’s success depends on precise inventory forecasting, effective cost management, and seamless collaboration between planning, finance, and marketing teams.
Before implementing Toolio, Needed’s inventory and financial planning were largely managed through Excel, making it difficult to track margins, analyze cost trends, and quickly answer leadership questions about profitability shifts.
Since adopting Toolio, Needed has achieved a significant increase in gross margins. By leveraging Toolio’s real-time SKU-level insights and scenario planning capabilities, the team can now quickly identify cost fluctuations, optimize procurement strategies, and ensure that every inventory decision supports margin improvement.
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Magnolia Boosts Efficiency by 30% & Reduces Stockouts with Toolio
Magnolia, a leader in curated home goods and design, has transformed its inventory management with Toolio. By leveraging Toolio’s advanced planning capabilities, Magnolia has streamlined operations, reducing inventory planning time from 15 hours per week to 5 hours. This strategic shift enables the team to make agile, data-driven decisions, optimize stock levels, and improve financial performance. With features like demand forecasting and enhanced collaboration, Magnolia ensures its inventory strategy remains efficient and customer-centric.
"Being able to see a forward forecast has been especially beneficial in reacting to sales trends and staying in stock on items that are overperforming." - Craig Smith, Senior Merchandise Planner
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How Stio Cut Returns by 30% and Transformed Inventory Allocation
Stio is an outdoor lifestyle brand offering functional and versatile apparel, outerwear, and footwear. The company has evolved from a DTC eCommerce business into a multi-channel retailer, including eCommerce, retail, wholesale, outlet, corporate, and closeout. Over the past two years, Stio has doubled its brick-and-mortar presence, expanding to 10 stores, including two outlet locations.
With the rapid growth of its business, Stio needed a more precise way to manage inventory flow and reduce inefficiencies in stock allocation. By implementing Toolio, Stio was able to cut end-of-season returns by 30%, significantly reducing costly send-backs to its warehouse. This shift to a demand-driven allocation strategy has not only minimized excess inventory handling but also improved sell-through, allowing Stio to keep the right products in the right stores at the right time.
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mnml Reduces Inventory by 40% Through Real-Time Visibility
mnml is a contemporary fashion brand specializing in high-quality, minimalist streetwear. Before implementing Toolio, their inventory management relied heavily on Excel and Qlik View, making it difficult to optimize stock levels and react dynamically to demand shifts. The lack of real-time visibility led to excess inventory buildup, tying up working capital and limiting agility.
Since adopting Toolio, mnml has achieved a 40% reduction in on-hand inventory, significantly improving cash flow while maintaining in-stock availability for key products. With more accurate demand forecasting and real-time insights, mnml has minimized overstock, reduced inefficiencies, and gained greater control over its inventory strategy.
“I’ve been extremely happy with Toolio. The tool has made it much easier to visualize and act on our inventory data.” — Tyler Tasso, Planning Manager, mnml
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