Forty shades, one lipstick
A reference is really dozens of shades with different velocities. Ordering at product level overstocks the slow shades and misses the fast ones.
Industries
Inventory optimisation for beauty and cosmetics distributors
Multi-brand, multi-store, shade by shade
Skincare, make-up, haircare and fragrance distributed across department-store counters, boutiques and pharmacies. IRIS forecasts at shade level, handles testers and gifts with purchase, and sends the orders to your ERP.
Categories covered
- Skincare
- Make-up
- Haircare
- Fragrance
- Body care
- Men's grooming
Typical network
- Points of sale
- 10 to 100
- SKUs
- 5,000 to 50,000
- Brands
- 5 to 50
- Channels
- Boutiques, counters, pharmacies, e-commerce
Challenges we see in the sector
Testers and gifts consumed without control
Every launch and campaign consumes testers and gifts with purchase; without allocation they disappear into sellable stock.
Launches without history
New products arrive every month with no sales history and a marketing push that fades after eight weeks.
Seasonality by gut feeling
Ramadan, Eid, summer, back-to-school and Black Friday are handled from memory, brand by brand.
How IRIS answers
Shade-level forecasts
Forecast and order at SKU × store level, where the SKU is the shade or the size.
Testers and GWP at validation
Testers and gifts with purchase are allocated when the order is validated and tracked separately.
Launch ramp on comparables
New references use comparable products and a launch ramp, then switch to their own history.
Calendar built in
Ramadan / Eid alignment on the lunar calendar, summer and back-to-school profiles per category.
A week with IRIS
- 1
Monday: review
The dashboard shows stock-outs on best-sellers, shades running low and launches without a forecast.
- 2
Tuesday: validate
Order proposals per store and brand, testers and gifts with purchase on the same order, created in the ERP.
- 3
Wednesday: campaigns
Next month's promotions entered in the calendar with their expected uplift; proposals adjust automatically.
- 4
Friday: measure
Service level, forecast accuracy and sell-through per store and brand, exported for the brand meeting.
In the product
01
Order validation per store and brand
Proposals with quantity, value and coverage after order, approved line by line or in bulk.
02
Seasonal profiles per category
Fragrance, skincare and make-up curves learned from history and aligned on Ramadan and Eid.
Results distributors target
-40 to -50 %
stock-outs on best-sellers
-30 to -50 %
overstock on slow shades
2 to 4 weeks
to go live
[TESTIMONIAL TO BE VALIDATED] Quote from a supply chain director of a multi-brand cosmetics distributor.
Questions from the sector
Yes. Brand minimums and mandatory assortments are constraints in the proposal, not afterthoughts.
Yes, scopes by brand, category and store are configured per user.
Each counter is a point of sale with its own forecast and proposals; the department store can be a delivery address.
Ready to see your own numbers in IRIS?
Send us an anonymised sales export. We show you your forecasts and order proposals within 10 days.