Prebook

Prebook (noun) — a wholesale order committed by a retailer or dealer before the goods are produced, taken against samples or a line sheet at a market, trade show, or sales meeting. Standard in footwear, outdoor and sporting goods, and much of wholesale apparel, the prebook turns part of the season’s demand from a forecast into a booked quantity before production is cut.

The prebook is the first read of the line, and it arrives before the season does. Every option on the board is shown to accounts in the booking window, and the options that fail to book are usually cut before production — which makes the prebook a hindsight of the range that runs on real orders rather than on sell-through. The read is per option and, in footwear, per size run: an option that booked with many accounts across the run earned its place; an option that booked with one account, or only in its core sizes, is a warning the board records before a single pair has shipped.

Prebook also shapes depth. The buy for a prebooked option is the booked quantity plus whatever at-once or replenishment demand the brand expects to serve in season, so the split between prebook and at-once is a planning decision made against the board: a heavily prebooked line carries less inventory risk and less ability to chase, while a line built for at-once carries the reverse. Dealer prebooks in outdoor and sporting goods run on the model year and often counter-seasonally, so the booking window can close many months before the goods land.

The booking window sits between line lock and production, which is why the lock matters more in a prebook business than anywhere else: the line sheet the accounts booked from is a commitment, and a post-lock change to an option that has booked is a change to orders already taken. On the board, the useful states are booked, unbooked, and booked-below-minimum, carried on the card so the cut decision and the next season’s hindsight both have the evidence in front of them.

Also called: pre-order, futures order, dealer prebook, pre-season booking, at-once (its in-season complement)
Used by: Wholesale sales and merchandising take it; planning and sourcing read it to set production quantities and cut unbooked options.
Used during: The booking window between line lock and production — at market, trade shows, or dealer sales meetings, often months before the goods land.
Inputs: A locked line, samples or a line sheet with commercial terms, and the account list the season is shown to.
Output: Booked quantities per option (and per size run where relevant), the list of options that failed to book, and the base the production buy is cut against.

In use

“Two of the new colorways booked with a single account each, so they came off the board before production and the depth moved into the core run.”