Size runs and the bracketing economy

Behind every bracketed order is a size run: the same style in two or three adjacent sizes, shipped to one address. For the customer it is a fitting room. For the brand it is a miniature supply chain that runs backwards.

The economics are quietly brutal. Each bracketed unit spends weeks out of sellable stock, carries double shipping, and returns in mixed condition. Multiply by thousands of orders and bracketing becomes one of the largest hidden lines in the P&L.

What surprises most brands is the shape of the problem. A small set of SKUs, usually with inconsistent fit, generates a large share of brackets, and a small set of customers generates the rest regardless of product.

That shape is good news. It means two targeted fixes, better fit content on problem SKUs and per customer policy enforcement on habitual bracketeers, address most of the cost without touching the honest majority.