Multichannel has forced retailers to revisit how they forecast demand and position inventory. The “long tail” poses challenges, even when it looks like an assortment or merchandising problem. Promotional forecasting, new product forecasting and demand planning all need a fresh approach.
But with the right tools, retailers can generate a unified demand signal, making the supply chain responsive to volatile demand, even for multichannel networks. They can achieve greater supply chain visibility, significantly increased shelf fill rates, reduced lost sales at point of sale, and reduced global inventory.
We help retailers synchronize demand and supply via a single integrated system that fine tunes forecasts with demand sensing and replenishes inventory by recommending new orders and/or reallocation from suppliers. Both internal trading teams and even external suppliers can collaborate to optimize supply chain planning or Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process.
Demand modeling assures precise modeling of seasonality, new product launches, returns and substitutions. Demand collaboration that measures Forecast Value Added (FVA) and bias can generate more accurate forecasts. Promotion optimization can leverage machine learning for shaping demand in the digital path to purchase. Inventory optimization can analyze daily store-level demand to determine in-store and warehouse inventory buffers at individual stocking locations.
