The Importance of Accurate Forecasts in Omnichannel Grocery Retail
Accurate forecasting is at the core of increased operational efficiency as it is key to accurately match resources, such as stock and personnel, with demand.
Benefit from Forecast Data in your Planograms
During my almost seven years working with space planning, I’ve faced almost every question there is to ask around the topic. One, however, seems to come up constantly “Can we use forecast data when making the planograms?”
Best Practices in Weather-based Sales Forecasting
Predicting weather is not easy and rapid changes in weather can cause consumers to suddenly shop or cease to shop for specific products, which can quickly become costly for a retailer.
What is a Good Level of Forecast Accuracy?
“What would you consider a good level of forecast accuracy in our business?” is probably the single most frequent question we get from customers, consultants and other business experts alike.
Expanding Into New Territories – What Should a Retailer’s Supply Chain Look Like?
With any new market a retailer has to understand how the supply chain will evolve and differ from their usual operation.
Food waste – With great power comes great responsibility
In February 2016, France became the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food.
Why do forecasting and replenishment have to be such a pain?
Over the years almost every single retail initiative has had forecasting and replenishment at its core.
Easter – A movable Feast
Easter is great, but for retail planners in particular Easter is also one of the most annoying annual events as its date moves every year.
How to Master Fresh Foods Supply Chain Capacity Planning
We have previously written about building accurate forecasts in order to order optimal quantities of fresh groceries.
The three challenges of freight-free limits
Sometime it can seem as though your suppliers are going out of their way to making buying their stuff unnecessarily difficult.
The best kept secret for a merry Christmas in retail
The challenges of Christmas vary from sector to sector. Here’s the big secret: think of Christmas as a process, not an event.
Beat your suppliers to better performance – master the bullwhip!
The basic idea of bullwhip effect is that most supply chains have internal dynamics that enforce demand volatility.
Step 1: Pre-season – Planning for a great season with prepacks
For many fashion retailers much of the work towards ensuring a successful season will have been done months before the collections go on the racks.
Forecasting for different online delivery methods
The more delivery options you offer the more complex the supply chain becomes, and that complexity also has implications for the planning side of things.
Forecasting product returns
As almost every etailer and retailer with an online operations knows all too well, product returns are a costly headache that simply have to be taken care of.
How to use richer data for better supply chain planning in online retail
Bringing product view or customer behaviour data from website into your supply chain planning and analytics tool can be very useful.
Supply Chain Planning in Online Retail
I’m often asked how online retail affects supply chain planning. Although the basic rules are the same, there are indeed a number of differences.
“How can I make my supply chain planning worse?”
Why thinking about how to make your supply chain planning worse can help you make it much, much better.
Can the retail supply chain be truly prepared for rollercoaster sale peaks?
Coping with changes in the rate of sale is a must in the current retail environment.
Predict the unpredictable in supply chain management
People are fickle, not wholly rational and make different decisions at different times. However, people are predictable in most of their buying decisions.
Demand forecasting in variable weather conditions – Summer fun?
Everyone looks forward to summer, sunny weather and happy times. Except the poor supply chain professionals, having to cope with massive swings in sales.
How can a retailer create meaningful forecasts for new products?
How does one create meaningful forecasts for new products when there is no sales history at all?
Does demand forecasting for promotions have to be this difficult?
Demand forecasting for promotions is a major challenge for retailers, not least because of the impact it has on driving sales.
Top Challenges in Demand Forecasting
Forecasting future demand successfully is difficult. Find out from our blog what the big retailers listed as their hardest challenges.
When to use manual forecasting or forecast corrections
Manual forecasting generally produces results whose accuracy is, rather questionable. However it can be of benefit in certain situations.
Why people are not good at forecasting
Quite often forecasting is based on the views of analysts or salespeople. However in general, human beings are not good at forecasting.
Holiday hangover: Post-season SCM tips
The top post-season supply chain management tips to better manage future seasons and forecast demand more accurately.
Zero spoilage or perfect availability – the optimum level is dependent on the store concept
In practice zero spoilage is rarely the best goal on perishables inventory management.
Are retail companies missing sales as the recession starts to ease?
It is difficult to achieve the best results when the recession eases if you are not using state of the art Supply Chain Optimisation technology.
The indisputable facts of forecasting – Part 2
A demand forecast always contains errors, but the errors diminish with an increasing aggregation level, and when forecasting less far into the future.
The indisputable facts of forecasting – Part 1
Demand forecasting has been discussed quite a lot in supply chain management. There are some indisputable facts of forecasting. Find out what they are.
Demand Forecasting and Planning in Retail
Does your company do ‘demand forecasting’ or ‘demand planning’? Both are needed in supply chain management, but what are their differences?
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