A pack ratio is the fixed size breakdown a style is sold in, so a buyer orders prepacked units rather than choosing quantities size by size.
Oct 5, 2026
Packs protect the size run. If every buyer picks freely they all take the middle sizes, leaving the brand holding the extremes, so the ratio is fixed to spread the curve across the account base rather than concentrating it in one part of it.
They also cut handling cost. A prepacked assortment is picked, packed, and booked in as one line rather than six, which matters once an order runs to hundreds of styles across several deliveries.
Packs push risk onto the buyer. A retailer whose customers skew small is forced to take sizes they will mark down, and a buyer close to their open-to-buy ceiling cannot trim a pack the way they could trim a free assortment.
The usual compromise is packs on core and free sizing on fashion, or smaller packs for smaller doors. Brands insisting on one ratio across every account tend to find the weaker accounts quietly stop reordering.
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