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How to Optimize Demand Forecasting: Probabilistic Solutions

13 February 2025

Looking for a relatively quick way to measure inventory health? It all starts with a demand-driven approach. Even though we’re talking about inventory, we first have to understand customer buying behavior—and how that then translates into inventory requirements. As a[...]

Seasonal Inventory and 7 Ways to Manage It Effectively 25 October 2022

Seasonal Inventory and 7 Ways to Manage It Effectively

My eight-year-old self counted down the days to October 1 – the day my mother finally let me bedeck her spotless house with cobwebs and window clings of ghosts and goblins. It never occurred to me then that someone had[...]
What You Need To Know About The State Of The Retail Worker Shortage 3 October 2022

What You Need To Know About The State Of The Retail Worker Shortage

Retail workers are at the heart of the economy, making the continued retail labor shortage a top challenge for retailers–one that appears here to stay. Some headlines provide hope, with statistics showing improvement, while others give mixed messages. For example,[...]
The Top 15 Omnichannel Retail Trends to Watch in 2023 12 August 2022

The Top 15 Omnichannel Retail Trends to Watch in 2023

Your digital and brick-and-mortar sales channels aren’t operating in separate vacuums.  In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 73% of shoppers prefer shopping via multiple channels.   In a world where customer expectations are higher (some food delivery services actually put[...]
Retail Returns: The Key to Driving Business Growth 1 August 2022

Retail Returns: The Key to Driving Business Growth

Retail returns occur when a customer returns the purchased items to a seller in exchange for a refund, store credit, or a similar product. Returns come with plenty of challenges around logistics, inventory, and predicting volatile sales trends. Yet, in[...]
6 Customer Service Examples To Maximize Customer Loyalty 10 June 2022

6 Customer Service Examples To Maximize Customer Loyalty

Today, there’s little reason for customers to stick with a company if they are not satisfied. Competition is intense. There are plenty of other businesses ready to compete on price and service. What can you do to make sure your[...]
What Caused the Baby Formula Shortage + 7 Ways Consumers and Companies are Coping 18 May 2022

What Caused the Baby Formula Shortage + 7 Ways Consumers and Companies are Coping

When it comes to defining “the essentials,” few products are as vital as baby formula. In the face of baby formula shortages, parents who depend on it are currently facing challenges full of anger, frustration, and tears. To understand the[...]
Nespresso Optimizes Orders and Inventory with End-to-End Digital Supply Chain Planning 30 March 2022

Nespresso Optimizes Orders and Inventory with End-to-End Digital Supply Chain Planning

The name Nespresso conjures images of rounded coffee capsules and luxury brewing machines for caffeine lovers worldwide. But there’s much more than expert coffee roasting and craftsmanship behind this iconic company’s success. Nespresso’s complex coffee supply chain It’s no simple[...]
Capacity Planning: What it is, The Benefits, and How to Implement Your Strategy 4 March 2022

Capacity Planning: What it is, The Benefits, and How to Implement Your Strategy

In a vacuum, we all know how supply chain planning works. You ensure supply meets demand across a multitude of factors, including market demand, internal and external forces, and your own ability to manage the chaos. But if life were[...]
Weather Permitting: How to Use Weather Data in Retail Forecasting 3 March 2022

Weather Permitting: How to Use Weather Data in Retail Forecasting

Retail is detail. And there is a lot of ‘detail’ for retailers to manage and factor into the business every day. When it comes to external variables, nothing is more consistently and directly impactful on demand than the weather. This[...]
The 2022 Chicken Shortage: What the Cluck is Going On? 18 February 2022

The 2022 Chicken Shortage: What the Cluck is Going On?

By this stage in the pandemic, most of us have felt the effects of a globally disrupted supply chain and inventory shortages in some way or another. We all have that one item that keeps disappearing from our local market.[...]
The 2022 Amazon Prime Price Increase: Is the New Prime Membership Cost an Opportunity for Retailers? 9 February 2022

The 2022 Amazon Prime Price Increase: Is the New Prime Membership Cost an Opportunity for Retailers?

Oh Amazon. Once upon a time, you brought me so much joy. While some orders still delight, a few recent purchases have left me faltering when it comes to your customer experience. And now, you’ve decided to raise the price[...]
The Top 15 Retail Trends for 2022 7 February 2022

The Top 15 Retail Trends for 2022

The wonderful world of retail. As 2021’s holiday shopping statistics proved, pandemic or not, consumers are willing to spend. (My credit card statement will also attest to this fact). And while the year ahead may hold some challenges – try[...]
NRF 2022: 4 Big Session Themes from Retail’s Big Show 25 January 2022

NRF 2022: 4 Big Session Themes from Retail’s Big Show

In a bold move which bore resemblance to the fighting spirit of the retail industry as a whole these past two years, the National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show 2022 went ahead as planned in New York City despite rising[...]
Executive Q&A: Business Innovation May Be Silver Lining of Supply Chain Crisis 18 January 2022

Executive Q&A: Business Innovation May Be Silver Lining of Supply Chain Crisis

They say necessity is the mother of innovation, and businesses around the world are fighting back at the ongoing supply chain crisis with planning and operational improvements. Here's a closer look at how businesses are adapting to the new reality[...]
2021 Supply Chain Challenges: The Top 5 Lessons Learned + Tips from 11 Industry Experts 7 January 2022

2021 Supply Chain Challenges: The Top 5 Lessons Learned + Tips from 11 Industry Experts

Among the issues faced by both businesses and consumers in 2021, supply chain shortages – and the resulting challenges – held strong in the headlines throughout the year. To all of my supply chain, demand planning, and forecasting friends who[...]
Global Supply Chain Disruptions: Covid-19’s Ripple Effect Continues + 5 Changes Needed for 2022 20 December 2021

Global Supply Chain Disruptions: Covid-19’s Ripple Effect Continues + 5 Changes Needed for 2022

Global Trade Authority Rob Garrison, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercado Labs, shares insights from over 30 years of supply chain experience working with a variety of Fortune 500 companies. Here, he explains what caused current global supply chain disruptions, and[...]
What is Lean Retail (+ Why It Can Lead to Cost Savings) 16 December 2021

What is Lean Retail (+ Why It Can Lead to Cost Savings)

With the advent of globalization, the Internet, and more recently, the proliferation of mobile technology into every aspect of our lives, there has been a remarkable shift in the world of retail from a product-centric to customer-centric model. Whereas retailers[...]
The Top 20 Discount Shopping Statistics for Retailers that Prove the Power of Promotions 16 December 2021

The Top 20 Discount Shopping Statistics for Retailers that Prove the Power of Promotions

We have all, at one point or another, experienced feelings of satisfaction and excitement of getting a bargain, and coupon websites like RetailMeNot make it easier than ever to find the best promotions, in just a few clicks. After all,[...]
What is Open-to-Buy Planning + The Top Three Benefits for Retailers 16 December 2021

What is Open-to-Buy Planning + The Top Three Benefits for Retailers

Embracing constant change and delivering outstanding customer experiences is critically important in the face of today’s increasingly informed consumer. And one thing’s for sure: Retail planning is not for the faint-hearted. Retailers face more competition than ever before due to[...]
Holiday Shopping 2021: 6 Retailer Lessons from Black Friday and Cyber Monday (+ 4 Expert Insights) 14 December 2021

Holiday Shopping 2021: 6 Retailer Lessons from Black Friday and Cyber Monday (+ 4 Expert Insights)

For the largest shopping week of the year, this year’s Black Friday provides insights retailers can’t ignore. Early numbers are in and - on first blush - the “biggest shopping day of the year” is undergoing a bit of a[...]
7 Ways Businesses Can Manage Supply Chain Shortages in 2022 23 November 2021

7 Ways Businesses Can Manage Supply Chain Shortages in 2022

With 2021's holiday shopping season behind us, supply delays, logistics constraints, and inflation loomed over shoppers and retailers—and the manufacturers and distributors who keep them in supply. The supply chain shortages from 2021 remain the story of our lives today,[...]
Five Key Supply Chain Planning Capabilities for Fashion Products 12 October 2021

Five Key Supply Chain Planning Capabilities for Fashion Products

As supply chains continue to grapple with volatility and disruption post-pandemic, fashion brands, who faced increased risks during the pandemic because of lockdown, are now turning to better supply chain planning for fashion strategies with the end goal of achieving[...]
Planning to Win: Optimizing Inventory to Meet Business Objectives 6 October 2021

Planning to Win: Optimizing Inventory to Meet Business Objectives

Who wouldn’t want their supply chain to be “optimized,” right? Optimization is peak efficiency, using the perfect balance of inventory and resources to service customer demand without incurring any unnecessary costs or waste. However, optimization is a term that’s often[...]
Here’s How to Measure Inventory Health 23 August 2021

Here’s How to Measure Inventory Health

Looking for a relatively quick way to measure inventory health? It all starts with a demand-driven approach. Even though we’re talking about inventory, we first have to understand customer buying behavior—and how that then translates into inventory requirements. As a[...]
Three Tips for Building an Agile CPG Supply Chain 27 July 2021

Three Tips for Building an Agile CPG Supply Chain

On the surface, it seems like the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry performed better than most during the COVID pandemic. Consumer goods e-commerce sales for example increased 91% year over year according to a NielsenIQ analysis. But for this high[...]
Product Forecasting: Understanding Demand Throughout the Product Life Cycle 19 May 2021

Product Forecasting: Understanding Demand Throughout the Product Life Cycle

Demand forecasting is tough. Demand forecasting over the entire product life cycle during the course of launch, maturation, and end-of-life is tougher still. This is true for any business with sizable turnover in the product portfolio, but product forecasting in[...]
Don’t Forecast Demand, Model Your Demand 14 May 2021

Don’t Forecast Demand, Model Your Demand

Many companies are looking to demand forecasting and modeling to improve their supply chain perforamnce without understanding the difference between these two practices. But they are actually two very different concepts. Let's break down the differences. What Is Demand Forecasting?[...]
Multi-echelon Inventory Optimization (MEIO) vs Inventory Optimization 24 March 2021

Multi-echelon Inventory Optimization (MEIO) vs Inventory Optimization

The subway system is the lifeblood of New York City, pre-COVID carrying an average of 5.5 million people per day in 6,684 cars across 472 stations. Each station is part of a larger system and operates on a set schedule[...]
Probabilistic Planning and Forecasting Demystified 16 March 2021

Probabilistic Planning and Forecasting Demystified

This post was originally published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/primer-probabilistic-planning-forecasting-stefan-de-kok/ I have been blogging and advocating for the past 15 years on probabilistic approaches to planning and forecasting, and am happy to see in the last few years it has finally started gaining[...]
Fashion Industry Challenges Require Elegant Demand Planning 3 March 2021

Fashion Industry Challenges Require Elegant Demand Planning

When you’re perusing luxury handbags online, or testing which cocktail dress suits you the best, you probably don’t pause to consider all the supply chain complexities and analytics required to ensure the fashion items you’re craving are in-stock. While sophisticated[...]
Transforming to a Customer-Driven Digital Supply Chain 15 February 2021

Transforming to a Customer-Driven Digital Supply Chain

This blog post was originally published on  https://optilon.com/optilon-academy/transforming-to-a-customer-driven-digital-supply-chain/.   Building a customer-focused, digitally enabled supply chain comes with its challenges, but the benefits make the effort worthwhile. According to a survey from the Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI), the design[...]
Get Started Using Machine Learning for New Product Forecasting 30 June 2020

Get Started Using Machine Learning for New Product Forecasting

New product introductions (NPI) are critical to any company’s success, but many of them never become household names. In fact, it’s estimated that up to 80 percent of new product launches in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry fail. Adding[...]
Understand the Three-Part Lifecycle of Your Promotions to Maximize Profit 15 October 2019

Understand the Three-Part Lifecycle of Your Promotions to Maximize Profit

The anticipation, the demand curve and spending patterns during the promotion, and the post promotion periods all require unique logic with machine learning to keep customers happy and balance inventory. Here's how to understand the lifecycle of your promotions for[...]
Seven Recent Trends in Retail Demand Forecasting and Replenishment 24 May 2017

Seven Recent Trends in Retail Demand Forecasting and Replenishment

Since most retailers are facing a shrinking operating “margin for error”, many are looking for more accurate demand forecasting and intelligent stock replenishment. Gartner analyst Mike Griswold explains how in his recent report on retail demand forecasting trends, entitled Market[...]