Complete Guide

The Complete Reactive SDP Setup Guide: From CSV to Purchase Order

Everything you need to fully set up Reactive SDP — from preparing your data and configuring every setting to reading forecasts, tuning demand quality filters, using size curves, running price simulations, and exporting purchase orders. This is the comprehensive reference.


In this guide
  1. Prepare your CSV data
  2. Upload and verify
  3. Configure core settings
  4. Understand the dashboard
  5. Use the detail view
  6. Configure demand quality filters
  7. Set up seasonality curves
  8. Understand size curves (ISSR)
  9. Work with reorder alerts
  10. Use the price action simulator
  11. Build and export purchase orders
  12. Set up OTB budget control
  13. Your weekly workflow

Quick setup, no IT required. Upload a sell-through CSV and Reactive builds your demand plan automatically — forecasts, reorder alerts, and purchase orders ready in minutes.

1 Prepare your CSV data

Reactive SDP reads a weekly sell-through CSV. Each row represents one style × one week (or one style × size × color × week if you're providing SKU-level data). The system auto-aggregates totals.

Required columns

Column Format Status Aliases accepted
style_id Text Required sku, style, product_id
name Text Required
category Text Required
week_start Date (YYYY-MM-DD, Monday) Required week, date
units_sold Integer Required sold, qty_sold
eop_inventory Integer Required inventory, on_hand, stock
msrp Decimal Required compare_at_price, price
cost Decimal Required

Price vs. MSRP: The msrp column is your manufacturer's suggested retail price (full price). If your current listed/selling price differs from MSRP (e.g., during a promotion or markdown), add an optional sell_price column. If sell_price is omitted, it defaults to MSRP. The alias current_price also maps to sell_price. The old column name price still works as an alias for msrp.

Optional columns (unlock additional features)

Column What it enables Aliases
sell_price Current listed price; enables % off MSRP tracking and Price Status badges current_price
sub_category Sub-category seasonality, size curves, and elasticity
size Size-level ISSR curves and size-split PO exports
color Color/wash scale splitting on PO exports
avg_unit_retail Accurate AUR tracking and price elasticity modeling aur
units_returned Return rate modeling in inventory projections returns, returned
vendor Vendor-level lead time and MOQ defaults
image_url Product images on style cards

History depth matters. Include at least 26 weeks of history for good seasonal calibration. 52 weeks is ideal. Styles with fewer than 3 healthy weeks will fall back to category-average velocity. The more history you provide, the more accurate the demand quality filters and seasonality curves will be.

PO file upload

Upload a separate CSV of committed purchase orders (past and future). This is the exclusive source for all PO receipt data — the historical sell-through CSV does not include PO information. Reactive uses these receipts to factor on-order inventory into its forward projections and reorder recommendations. The PO file should include style ID, expected receipt date, and quantity (with optional size-level breakdown).

2 Upload and verify

Drag and drop your CSV onto the upload area or click "Upload CSV." Reactive will parse all columns, auto-detect aliases, and show a summary: number of styles, weeks of history, categories found, and any warnings about missing or unexpected data.

If a required column is missing or misnamed, the error message tells you exactly what's expected. Fix the CSV and re-upload — there's no penalty for multiple uploads.

Quick validation tip: After your first upload, click into 3–5 styles you know well. Check that the velocity, inventory, and price numbers match your expectations. If the baseline looks right on styles you understand, the rest of the assortment will be solid.

3 Configure core settings

Open Settings (gear icon) to configure the parameters that drive your plan. Here's every setting that matters, with recommended starting values:

General

SettingDefaultWhat it does
Lead time 12 weeks Weeks from order placement to goods receipt. Drives reorder timing — if your vendor delivers in 8 weeks, set this to 8. You can override per-vendor or per-style.
Safety stock 4 weeks Extra coverage buffer. Can be set as weeks of demand or absolute units. The reorder triggers when projected inventory hits this floor — not when it hits zero.
MOQ 500 units Minimum order quantity. PO recommendations are rounded up to this threshold. Overridable per-vendor.
Review cycle 4 weeks How often you review and place orders. Used in reorder timing calculations to determine the SOON alert window.

Planning parameters

SettingDefaultWhat it does
Forecast horizon 13 weeks How many weeks forward to project demand. Configurable up to 52 weeks. Longer horizons give more visibility but accumulate more uncertainty.
Forecast lookback Auto How many weeks of history feed the velocity average. "Auto" uses all healthy weeks. A fixed window (e.g., 13 weeks) makes the forecast more responsive to recent trends.
Return rate 5% Returns are lagged 2 weeks and added back to available inventory. Modes: manual (global %), style-level (from CSV), or category/sub-category average.
Sell-through target 65% by week 8 Styles below this pace get the SLOW ST badge. Adjust to match your business — basics might target 50% by week 12, fashion might target 75% by week 6.

Start with defaults. Run the forecast once with default parameters, review styles you know well, then adjust one setting at a time. Changing everything at once makes it impossible to debug if something looks off.

4 Understand the dashboard

After upload, you'll see the main style queue — your planning command center. Here's how to read it:

Style cards

Each style shows its name, ID, category, and key metrics at a glance:

Sidebar filters

Use the sidebar tabs to focus your work queue:

Sort by WOC (ascending) to surface the most urgent reorder needs first. Sort by velocity or Gross Sales to focus on your highest-impact styles.

Style Planning table

The Style Planning table provides a spreadsheet-like view of your assortment with configurable lookback and lookforward period controls. Use the period selectors (4w / 8w / 13w / 26w) to set the time windows that drive all table metrics — lookback controls how much history feeds the calculations, and lookforward controls the projection horizon.

Available columns include:

All columns are fully draggable, reorderable, and resizable — customize the layout to match your planning workflow. Column preferences persist across sessions.

5 Use the detail view

Click any style to open its detail page — the core analysis interface. Here's what you'll find:

Forecast chart

The main chart shows historical units sold (solid line) and forecast demand (dashed line). Below the chart, a data table shows the raw weekly numbers. Weeks excluded by demand quality filters are highlighted with the reason (spike, trailing dropoff, low margin, etc.).

Key metrics

Insights panel

Below the key metrics, context-specific insights appear as inline callouts:

Velocity overrides

If you have forward intel the model can't see (upcoming promo, new account launch, planned discontinuation), you can override the base velocity directly. The override persists across data refreshes until you clear it.

6 Configure demand quality filters

These filters determine which historical weeks feed into the velocity baseline. They're the most important accuracy lever in the system.

Trailing demand cutoff (on by default)

When a style is winding down (50→40→15→6→2→0), the weak tail drags the velocity baseline below the style's true healthy selling rate. The engine walks backwards from the most recent week and excludes sustained trailing dropoffs. Default: if the last 3+ consecutive weeks fall below 25% of the style's median, they're trimmed.

Spike detection (on by default)

Weeks where units sold exceed the median by a configurable multiple (default: 3×) are flagged as spikes and excluded. These are common during flash sales, press features, or bulk B2B orders. The spike is shown on the style card with a badge and marked in the detail view data table.

Size breakage filter (off by default)

Weeks where size-in-stock coverage drops below a threshold. When customers can't find their size, sales understate true demand. Enable this if you have size data and want the purest possible velocity baseline.

Margin floor filter (off by default)

Excludes individual weeks where gross margin falls below a threshold from the velocity baseline. This prevents clearance-driven velocity from inflating the demand forecast for styles that are still being replenished at full price.

Reviewing and overriding excluded weeks

In the detail view data table, weeks excluded from the velocity baseline are marked with an × in the status column. Hover over the × to see exactly why that week was excluded — the tooltip shows the specific reason (e.g., "Trailing dropoff," "Spike: 3.2× median," "Low margin: 18%," or "Size breakage: 2 of 6 sizes in stock").

If you disagree with the engine's judgment on a specific week — maybe a "spike" was actually a legitimate wholesale order that reflects real demand — click the × to toggle it back on. The week will be included in the velocity calculation and the forecast will update immediately. Click again to re-exclude it. These overrides persist across data refreshes, so you only need to set them once.

This gives you full control: the engine makes intelligent defaults, but you always have the final say on which data feeds your forecast.

Transparency: Every filtered week is highlighted in the detail view data table with an explanatory reason. You can see exactly what the engine excluded and why — it's never a black box. Between the hover tooltips and click-to-override, you have complete visibility and control over the demand quality pipeline.

7 Set up seasonality curves

Seasonality curves adjust the forward forecast to reflect predictable seasonal patterns. Without them, a style selling 20 units/week in February would be forecast at 20 units/week through July — even if it's outerwear that historically drops to 5 units/week in summer.

How it works

A seasonality curve is a 52-week index. An index of 1.0 = average demand, 1.4 = 40% above average, 0.6 = 40% below. The forward forecast is: Base Velocity × Seasonality Index for that week.

Configuration

Open Settings → Seasonality Curves. You can:

Reactive ships with pre-built curves for common categories (Basics, Tops, Shorts, Bottoms, Outerwear, Pants, Seasonal). These are good starting points — adjust them to match your brand's specific patterns after running your first forecast.

Per-style override

If a specific style's seasonality doesn't match its category (e.g., a "summer" item in the Tops category that actually peaks in spring), you can assign a different seasonality curve at the style level.

8 Understand size curves (ISSR)

When you include size data in your CSV, Reactive automatically builds size curves using ISSR (In-Stock Sales Rate) — units sold per size divided by weeks that size was in stock. This prevents out-of-stock sizes from being penalized in the distribution.

4-tier automatic fallback

Reactive selects the best available data source for each style:

  1. Style-level — Used when the style has ≥4 in-stock weeks per size AND ≥30 total net units. Most accurate.
  2. Matched styles — Pools styles in the same category with the exact same size run (e.g., all XS–XXL styles). Avoids dilution from styles with different size offerings.
  3. Sub-category — All styles in the same sub-category, filtered to this style's sizes.
  4. Category-level — Broadest fallback: all styles in the category, filtered to this style's sizes.

Confidence indicator

The size curve chart on each style's detail page shows which tier is being used (labeled at the top) and a confidence rating — High, Med, or Low — based on the robustness of the underlying data. High confidence means style-level data with strong sample sizes. Low means the curve is derived from a broad category average.

Size chart visualization

The detail view shows a bar chart comparing current on-hand inventory by size against the target allocation from the ISSR curve. This immediately reveals which sizes are over- or under-stocked relative to demand.

9 Work with reorder alerts

Reactive computes reorder recommendations for every style by projecting inventory forward week-by-week using forecast demand, committed POs, and estimated returns.

Three alert levels

Margin floor gate

Styles tagged LOW MARGIN (below the margin floor in Settings → Tags) are automatically excluded from reorder recommendations. They won't appear in the Reorder tab or receive PO suggestions — the economics don't support replenishment at current margins.

Receipt date calculation

When you add a style to the PO cart, the receipt date is automatically set to today + lead time, projected to the nearest Monday. You can override this manually in the cart.

10 Use the price action simulator

The Price Action Simulator (on each style's detail page) lets you model the impact of a markdown before committing.

How elasticity works

Reactive estimates price elasticity per category using log-log regression on your historical AUR and velocity data: ln(velocity) = a + e × ln(price). The coefficient e is the elasticity — an elasticity of -1.5 means a 10% price cut yields a ~15% velocity increase.

Quality gates prevent bad estimates: the engine requires sufficient weeks, meaningful price variation (CV >15% on units, >5% on AUR), and a result between -0.5 and -4.0. If checks fail, it falls back to sub-category or category-level elasticity.

What the simulator shows

You can override elasticity per category in Settings if you have domain knowledge that differs from the data.

11 Build and export purchase orders

The PO workflow is: review reorder alerts → add styles to cart → adjust quantities → export CSV.

Adding to cart

From the detail view or the reorder tab, click "Add to PO Cart." The recommended quantity is pre-filled based on: (Velocity × Target WOC) − Current On-Hand − On-Order, rounded to MOQ and carton pack.

Size-level allocation

The PO export automatically breaks down total quantity by size using the active ISSR curve. Overstocked sizes get fewer units; sizes running out get priority. The allocation uses largest-remainder rounding so the size quantities sum exactly to the total.

Color/wash split

If you uploaded color data, POs are also split by color based on historical sell-through ratios. Three modes are available: style-level, category-level, or manual ratios.

Export format

Click "Export PO" in the cart to download a CSV with: style ID, name, category, sub-category, quantity by size, quantity by color, receipt date, estimated cost, and projected demand. This format is designed to paste directly into most vendor order templates or B2B buying portals.

12 Set up OTB budget control

Open-to-Buy (OTB) ensures your buying plan stays within a financial envelope.

Configuration

In Settings → Planning Parameters → OTB Budget, enter your total buying budget for the season or rolling period (measured in total cost: cost × units).

How it works

This prevents the common trap where high-cost categories (like outerwear) eat disproportionate budget while high-velocity categories (like tops) are starved for investment.

13 Your weekly workflow

Once you're set up, Reactive SDP becomes a weekly planning rhythm:

  1. Upload the latest data — Export your most recent weekly sell-through from your POS/ERP and upload to Reactive. All settings, overrides, and cart contents are preserved across uploads.
  2. Review the Reorder tab — Clear the red alerts first. These are styles projected to stock out before a PO can arrive. Investigate the amber SOON alerts next.
  3. Check new style performance — Use the New tab to see how recent launches are tracking. Styles with higher-than-category velocity are hot — make sure they have reorder recommendations.
  4. Review high-cover styles — The High Cover tab shows styles with excessive WOC. These are candidates for markdown, promotional placement, or allocation shifts.
  5. Build your PO cart — Add reorder styles to the cart. Review size-level allocations. Check the OTB budget bar.
  6. Export and send — Export the PO CSV and submit to your vendor(s).

Data freshness: Reactive will warn you if your data is more than 7 days old. For the most accurate recommendations, re-upload weekly — ideally the same day each week to maintain a consistent planning cadence.

First-week checklist

  1. Upload your CSV and verify the summary numbers match expectations
  2. Check 5–10 styles you know well — does the forecast feel directionally right?
  3. Set lead time and safety stock to match your actual vendor situation
  4. Look at the top 3 red-alert styles — are these real concerns you were already tracking?
  5. Review the seasonality curves for your top categories — do the peaks match your experience?
  6. Export a PO for one category to check the format before using it in a live order
  7. Set your OTB budget if you have one

If the forecast looks directionally right on the styles you know best, you're calibrated. From there, the weekly rhythm takes over: upload, review, order, repeat.

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