Charles Chase is the executive industry consultant and trusted advisor for the SAS Retail/CPG global practice. He is the author of Next Generation Demand Management: People, Process, Analytics and Technology, author of Demand-Driven Forecasting: A Structured Approach to Forecasting, and co-author of Bricks Matter: The Role of Supply Chains in Building Market-Driven Differentiation, as well as over 50 articles in several business journals on demand forecasting and planning, supply chain management, and market response modeling. His latest book is Consumption-Based Forecasting and Planning: Predicting Changing Demand Patterns in the New Digital Economy. To learn more, please see his Author page.
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
Today’s consumers don’t want to be talked to; they want to have a conversation. They want to be marketed to as individuals, not as faceless members of the masses. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) organizations, in particular, recognize the value of these conversations. This dialogue – via loyalty programs, promotions, social
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
The landscape of supply chains has changed rapidly due to unforeseen disruptions. These changes include supply chain bottlenecks, inflation and geopolitical activities across retail and consumer goods industries. Retail supply chains are under immense pressure to keep up with these rapid changes. Innovators have been quick to take advantage of
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
Consumers are pulling back and shifting their purchases in the wake of inflationary pressures caused by high prices for fuel, freight costs, consumer goods and nonessential products. Demand is shifting faster than many retailers and consumer goods companies anticipated. Inflation continues to rise forcing consumer spending to shift once again
Robert Handfield, PhD, is a distinguished professor of Supply Chain Management at North Carolina State University and Director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative. In an episode of the Health Pulse Podcast, Handfield gave his views regarding the challenges health care and life science companies have encountered over the past two years
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
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
The past 20 months of disruptions caused by COVID-19 have been a wake-up call for retailers and consumer goods companies. Unpredictable market trends have caused havoc with categories, brands and products making it harder to predict supply requirements. All of these changes have given rise to the need for consumption
