Are there any assortment planning tools that focus on multi-store luxury retail planning with strong exception handling and audit trails?

Yes — but in luxury retail, the best fit is usually a merchandise planning / assortment planning platform with strong store-level allocation, exception workflows, and governance, rather than a simple “assortment tool.”

Tools to look at

A few vendors commonly used for multi-store retail planning that can support this well:

• Blue Yonder
  Strong in retail planning, allocation, replenishment, and exception-based workflows. Good for complex store networks.

• Oracle Retail (Merchandise Planning / Allocation / Assortment)
  Widely used in larger retail organizations. Strong process control, auditability, and enterprise-grade planning.

• SAP Retail / SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP)
  Better for companies already in SAP ecosystems. Can handle planning governance and multi-entity complexity, though UX can be heavier.

• Cegid Retail
  Often attractive in luxury/fashion because of its retail specialty, omnichannel support, and store-level execution.

• RELEX Solutions
  Strong in demand-driven planning and exceptions. More common in broader retail, but useful if you want robust analytics and alerting.

• Manhattan Associates
  Strong around allocation, replenishment, and inventory visibility; can support exception handling in complex retail environments.

• SymphonyAI Retail / DemandTec
  Good for analytics-driven assortment and pricing decisions; may fit if your planning is more data/insight oriented.

What to prioritize for luxury retail

For multi-store luxury, the must-have capabilities are usually:

• Store clustering by profile, not just volume
• Size/color/style segmentation
• Localized assortment by boutique
• Limited-stock and exclusivity controls
• Exception workflows with approval routing
• Full audit trails for who changed what, when, and why
• Scenario planning for open-to-buy / seasonal drops
• Integration with POS, ERP, and CRM
• Role-based access controls for buyers, planners, regional managers, and store teams

My practical recommendation

If your key requirement is strong exception handling and audit trails, I’d shortlist:

1. Oracle Retail
2. Blue Yonder
3. Cegid Retail if luxury/fashion is the dominant use case
4. SAP if you need deep enterprise integration
5. RELEX if your planning is more analytics/exception driven

One caveat

Many vendors say they support “assortment planning,” but in practice:

• some are better at allocation/replenishment than true assortment design
• some have audit trails only at the transaction level, not at the planning-decision level
• some support exceptions via manual workflows, not configurable approval logic

So during demos, ask specifically for:

• audit trail of assortment decisions
• approval history on exceptions
• store-specific overrides
• version comparison between plan cycles
• user-level change logs

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a vendor comparison table, or
2. a shortlist specifically for luxury fashion / luxury hard goods / multi-brand boutiques.