Lumina
Software comparison

Lumina vs Inventory Planner: which inventory planning tool fits a scaling brand?

Both forecast demand and raise POs. The difference is what happens when your requirements aren't standard. One system bends to fit how you work; the other sends you back to spreadsheets. Here's the line-by-line breakdown.

Updated September 2026By Oana Bradulet, Founder, Lumina
The bottom line

Lumina adapts to your stack. Inventory Planner expects you to adapt to it.

Inventory Planner is a solid, standard planning tool. It handles POs and replenishment well, it works for smaller brands and for multi-channel, and it has a long track record. The problem is what happens the moment your requirements aren't standard. The workflows are fixed, so anything that doesn't fit its mould gets pushed out into other tools, and brands end up running forecasting nuance, range planning, cashflow, and costs in spreadsheets around it. That's the patchwork Lumina exists to replace: forecasting built around your range, POs connected to supplier payments and cash, range planning and landed costs in the same system, all configured to how you work. One system, not one tool plus a dozen spreadsheets.

"Inventory Planner works well for our POs. But we run forecasting, range planning, and cashflow in a dozen spreadsheets around it."
— Managing Director, Fashion brand

When to pick which

Pick Lumina if

You want one system, configured to how you work.

  • Revenue between £1M and £30M, growing materially year on year.
  • You sell across Shopify, Amazon, retail, and sometimes wholesale, and want it all in one forecast.
  • Your requirements aren't standard: your own forecasting logic, range planning, landed costs, cashflow.
  • You're done running a planning tool plus a dozen spreadsheets around it.
  • You want forecasting you can see, steer, and feed your own knowledge into.
Pick Inventory Planner if

You want a standard PO and replenishment tool and your needs fit its mould.

  • Your requirements are standard: forecast, reorder, raise the PO, and that's the job.
  • You have a planner who's comfortable working within a fixed, configuration-heavy system.
  • You're happy running range planning, cashflow, and costs elsewhere (spreadsheets, accounting tool) alongside it.
  • You're already on it, it works for your POs, and the post-Sage pricing hasn't changed the maths for you.

Lumina vs Inventory Planner: feature comparison

FeatureLumina
Recommended
Inventory Planner
Built for
Who the product is genuinely designed around
Scaling DTC, omnichannel, and FMCG brands, £1–30M
Established DTC and multi-channel brands with a planner to run it
Demand forecasting
Bottom-up, configured to how your range is split and profiled; transparent and adjustable
Mature statistical engine with a long track record
Time to live
Guided onboarding, live in weeks
Self-serve setup; learning curve on configuration
Interface
Clean and guided, designed for ops teams not analysts
Dense and configuration-heavy; reviews flag the learning curve
Adapts to your workflow
Modular; start with the workflow that hurts most
Fixed; your team learns its way of working
Automated replenishment & POs
Lead-time, MOQ, and container aware; supplier-linked; custom order rules
Mature PO workflow, including container-aware optimisation
Reporting & metrics
Unlimited custom reports, dashboards, and metrics; ask Lumina AI for any number you need
200+ pre-built metrics
AI assistant
Ask questions in plain language, build reports and dashboards by asking, connect Lumina to Claude
Sage Copilot on the Premium tier
Cash flow & supplier payments
Built in: supplier ledger and cash impact view
Lives outside the tool (accounting or spreadsheets)
Range planning & merchandising (WSSI, OTB)
Built in
Brands we work with run it alongside in spreadsheets
Landed costs & margin
Built in: freight, duty, and extra charges per unit
Lives outside the tool
Native Shopify + Amazon integrations
Direct connectors, omnichannel native
Broad connector list, Shopify-first
Multi-warehouse, multi-channel planning
Native, built for omnichannel
Supported but configuration-heavy
Modular pricing
Transparent plans from £295/month plus a one-off setup fee; modules and connectors added as you scale
Tiered plans scaled by GMV and SKU count
Public pricing
Yes. Published on the pricing page
One published tier (Essentials, $119.99/month); higher tiers quote-based
Implementation services required
Guided onboarding with a one-off setup fee; no external consultancy
Self-serve; some teams bring in consultants for setup
Best customer profile
Demand planner or ops lead at a £1–30M consumer brand
Dedicated planner at an established DTC brand
Yes Partial No

Forecasting: built on your channel data vs a mature statistical engine

Inventory Planner's forecasting engine is mature and well understood, and it works, especially on stable products with deep history. Where it struggles is with the things that increasingly define modern consumer brands: new launches with no history, promo cycles that distort the underlying pattern, demand shifting between Shopify and Amazon, and the noise of selling on TikTok Shop one quarter and not the next. Handling those means configuring your way around the engine. Lumina forecasts from the data you have today: Shopify orders, Amazon velocity, retail sell-through, returns, and your promo calendar. Its models are configured to how your range is split and profiled and how your products behave, so the forecast matches your own intuition about the range, with your promotions, launches, and growth plans included and every number visible. For scaling brands, that's the difference between a forecast you trust and a forecast you override in the spreadsheet anyway.

Lumina forecasting wins
  • Forecasts from Shopify, Amazon, and retail data directly
  • Configured to your range: how it's split and profiled, how each line behaves, with your promotions and launches included
  • Rolls up to channel, region, and SKU views without rework
Where Inventory Planner can edge ahead
  • A long-established engine with a track record on stable, deep-history SKUs
  • A large existing user base, so there's plenty of documentation and community knowledge
  • Familiarity: if your planner already knows it, there's no relearning

Coverage: one system vs a tool plus a dozen spreadsheets

This is the most common reason brands leave Inventory Planner, and it's two problems that compound. The first is rigidity: the product is built around a fixed planning workflow, and the moment your supply chain doesn't fit it (multiple warehouses, complex supplier MOQs, an Amazon FBA layer, a wholesale arm, your own forecasting logic), the configuration burden balloons. The second is coverage: it does forecasting, reordering, and POs, and stops there. Range planning, landed costs, cashflow, supplier payments all live somewhere else. Put those together and you get the patchwork. One brand we work with runs Inventory Planner for POs, a separate tool for forecasting, and spreadsheets for range planning, cashflow, and costs. That's not a knock on any single tool; it's what happens when a standard tool meets non-standard requirements. Lumina is modular by design and configured to how you work. You start with the workflow that hurts most, usually forecasting and replenishment, and layer in cashflow, supplier payments, landed costs, or range planning as you need them, all in the same system on the same data. The integrations are bespoke to your stack, and the data model adapts to your business rather than forcing your business into a fixed schema. And when you need a number, a view, or a dashboard that doesn't exist yet, you ask Lumina AI for it in plain language rather than waiting for a feature or building it in a spreadsheet. You can even connect Lumina to Claude and work with your planning data from there.

Implementation: guided onboarding vs learning the system yourself

Inventory Planner is self-serve, which sounds like a plus until you're the one learning its logic, naming conventions, and configuration screens. The engine works, but only once you've understood how the tool wants your data structured. Some teams bring in a consultant to get there. Lumina's onboarding is guided from day one. Connect Shopify, Amazon, your IMS or ERP-lite, and your accounting system; we import your historical data, build your first forecasts, and walk you through the first PO run. Most customers are running their first planning meeting from Lumina within weeks of signing.

Lumina onboarding
  • A few weeks from kickoff to first live PO run
  • Guided by the Lumina team, with a one-off setup fee; no external consultancy
  • Modular: start with forecasting, layer in replenishment and cashflow when ready
Inventory Planner onboarding
  • Self-serve setup with a learning curve on configuration and reporting
  • Some teams bring in consultants despite the self-serve framing
  • Designed around a planner who owns the system

Cash flow and supplier ops: connected vs separate tools

Inventory Planner forecasts demand and helps you raise POs. It doesn't tell you what those POs do to your cash runway, whether you can afford them this month, or how they line up against supplier payment terms. Most brands run that part of the workflow in a spreadsheet or their accounting tool, so the planning meeting ends with "now let me go check if we can pay for it." Lumina ties the PO to the supplier ledger and the cashflow view. You can see what's on order, what it costs, when it lands, and what your runway looks like, in one place. For brands where cash is a real constraint (most scaling brands), that single connection changes how planning meetings run.

Pricing: transparent and modular vs tiers that scale with your GMV

Inventory Planner publishes one tier: Essentials at $119.99 a month, for a single Shopify store and warehouse. Everything above that (Standard, Premium, Enterprise) is quote-based and scales with your GMV and SKU count, so the price grows as you do. Since the Sage acquisition, existing customers have reported significant increases at renewal. Lumina's pricing is published and modular. Plans start at £295/month plus a one-off setup fee (Starter), with Core at £495/month for growing teams and a custom Scale tier for complex operations. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial with your own data. You add modules as you need them, and onboarding is a one-off setup fee rather than an open-ended services engagement. For finance teams approving the spend, the predictability matters.

Frequently asked questions

See what Lumina could look like for you

Book a 30-minute call. We'll get to grips with your requirements, show you what Lumina could look like for your business, and tell you whether it's a fit, or whether you should stick with Inventory Planner.