As of November 9, 2026, Reformation is treating availability as a merchandising decision rather than a warehouse outcome. On the company's third-quarter call, chief executive Hali Borenstein said a new AI-backed planning tool improves how the brand evaluates product performance and forecasts demand, and that the change supports both in-stock rates and full-price selling. The claim lands in a quarter when net revenue grew about 19% to $173.6 million, seven stores opened, and active customers rose 23.4% to 1.25 million.
Why in-stock rates moved to the center of the earnings call
The sequencing matters. Reformation runs on weekly apparel drops, so the gap between reading demand and placing a bet is short by apparel standards, and short gaps reward better forecasting rather than bigger buys. When a brand sells in small batches, a missed size or color is not recovered later in the season; it becomes a markdown on the wrong item and a lost sale on the right one. Borenstein framed the tool as a way to see product performance more clearly, which is another way of saying the company wants to know which styles deserve another buy while there is still time to place it.
Analysts at William Blair read the same result as a speed advantage. In a note Thursday, they wrote that the company reads and reacts to demand faster than traditional apparel peers, that new stores are tracking ahead of plan, and that AI-enabled merchandising should improve its ability to localize assortments and chase demand as it scales. Localization is the part that touches availability directly: the same chain can be overstocked in one market and short in another, and a single national buy hides both errors.
Full-price selling is an availability metric in disguise
A full-price sale requires the right item, in the right size, at the moment the customer wants it. Every size that is missing converts a full-price sale into either a lost transaction or a discount on a substitute, which is why retailers that protect availability report healthier margins without changing their price architecture. Reformation raised its full-year revenue guidance to $610 million to $612 million from a prior range of $602 million to $606 million, and Borenstein said the fourth quarter is off to a good start.
The counter-example is a smaller assortment, not a bigger one
Under Armour, reporting the same week, is taking the opposite route to the same goal. The athletics brand plans to cut SKUs by another 25% after completing a reduction of that size in May, and it wants to sell fewer products at full price, including by adding more full-price product to outlet locations. Revenue still fell 7% to $1.2 billion, and the company posted a net loss of $425,000. GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders argued that the problem is not temporary softness but relevance, and pointed at third-party floors where, in his words, assortments come across as fairly random and disconnected.
Capacity decides whether the forecast can be executed
Forecasting tools only pay off if the network can move goods to the shelf in time. Walmart offered a reminder of the capital involved on November 2, when a state filing showed a planned 744,433-square-foot distribution center in Cibolo, Texas, with an estimated $400 million investment, a February groundbreaking and an expected completion date of August 1, 2029. The retailer has also opened a 900,000-square-foot next-generation fulfillment center in Stockton, California, and announced a 1.5-million-square-foot facility in Georgia. Those projects will not help this holiday, which is exactly the point: availability is decided years before the season it serves.
What the numbers say about the trade-off
Read together, the three disclosures describe a single constraint. Reformation is buying accuracy, Under Armour is buying simplicity, and Walmart is buying capacity, and each is paying for it in a different line of the P&L. For a brand that sells through several channels, the useful question is which of the three gaps costs more in a given category: an inaccurate forecast, a bloated assortment, or a network that cannot replenish fast enough.
| Company | Move | Stated benefit | What has to be true |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reformation | AI-backed planning tool | Higher in-stock rates and full-price selling | Forecast reaches stores within the drop cycle |
| Under Armour | Another 25% SKU cut | Fewer products, sold at full price | Remaining items cover the sizes customers want |
| Walmart | $400M Texas distribution center | Lower shipping cost and faster replenishment | Capacity arrives before demand shifts |
The quarterly arithmetic supports the emphasis. Reformation's active customer base grew faster than store count, which means the existing fleet is carrying more demand per location. When that happens, availability problems concentrate: a single out-of-stock size is not absorbed by another store ten miles away, because the customer bought online in the first place. Borenstein also flagged a shift away from minimalism toward novelty, texture and color, a change that widens the assortment just as the company tries to make it more precise.
Action list
For teams running availability on a short cycle, the sequence is to fix the measurement before adding tools. Start with the size and color gaps that cost full-price sales, then decide whether the fix is a forecast, a narrower range, or faster replenishment.
- Measure the lost full-price saleTrack out-of-stock at size and color level, because that is where a full-price sale turns into a lost transaction.
- Test the forecast against the dropCompare the tool's demand signal with what actually sold in the first week of each drop before trusting it for the next buy.
- Separate capacity from assortmentDecide whether the gap is a buying problem or a replenishment problem; they carry different costs and different lead times.
FAQ
What did Reformation's new planning tool change?
It improves how the brand evaluates product performance and forecasts demand, which the chief executive linked to better in-stock rates and more full-price selling.
Why does availability matter more for a drop-based brand?
Because a missed size cannot be recovered later in the season. The sale is lost at full price and the remaining stock often ends up marked down.
Is a smaller assortment the same as better availability?
Not automatically. Under Armour is cutting SKUs to sell at full price, but analysts note that the remaining range still has to cover what customers actually want to buy.
What does Walmart's Texas project show?
That capacity is planned years ahead. The 744,433-square-foot center is set to break ground in February with completion expected in August 2029.
