Retailers face unprecedented challenges with supply chain volatility, inflation, oil price fluctuations, labor shortages and geopolitical activities, making it difficult to plan across the organization. With retail evolving, coupled with persistent supply chain issues, this adds complexity to anticipating and planning for shifts in consumer demand. The emergence of an
As the holiday season approaches, businesses may be bracing for what’s been all too common in recent years – supply chain disruption. Retail and consumer goods industries have been hit with disruptions from every direction: profound shifts in consumer preferences, materials shortages, weather events, and geopolitical activities, to name just
"Demand planning is a team sport," says Davis Wu, Global Lead of Demand Planning and Analytics at Nestlé S.A. The team at Nestlé includes demand planners, demand analysts and data scientists, who all work together to ensure that Nestlé products remain in stock. Many demand analysts can be seen as
Cloud technologies enable greater access to analytics. The shift to providing less complicated usability empowers decision-makers and offers a competitive advantage previously unattainable. Companies of all sizes and sectors embrace cloud technologies to address data and information challenges. IT departments are short-staffed and expected to support a large and varied
You're not alone if you’re still seeing local grocery stores with empty shelves. Food shortages are still lingering in 2023. Increases in consumer demand, labor shortages and shipping capacity restraints continue to interrupt supply chains, particularly for grocery retailers. These problems have persisted throughout the pandemic, as seen with the shortages
Getting demand right – or getting it wrong – can have a significant impact on customer perceptions of your brand, particularly in this age of instant gratification. The need for agile, accurate demand planning has never been greater. Predicting forward-looking demand signals and shifting consumer demand patterns to recommend balanced, profitable commercial
Often the biggest challenge when implementing a successful forecasting process has nothing to do with the analytics. Forecast adoption – incorporating forecasts into decision-making – is just as high a hurdle to overcome as the models themselves. Forecasting is more than analytical models Developing a forecasting process typically begins with
In today's environment, data is exceedingly important but also increasingly harder to get and manage. A reliable customer data platform (CDP) can provide significant value to retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. Customer data platforms are used to consolidate and integrate customer and consumer data into a single data source. CDP
Retail expert Charlie Chase recently participated in a private unplugged discussion about disruption challenges with retail executives hosted by the Retail Council of Canada. All quotes have been edited for maximum clarity, and participants have been de-identified. The last two years have created a major disruption for retailers and consumer
Outliers provide much-needed insights into the actual relationships that influence the demand for products in the marketplace. They are particularly useful when modeling consumer behavior where abnormalities are common occurrences or unforeseen disruptions that impact consumer demand. But why do demand planners cleanse out outliers, when many are not really
