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How to Forecast Demand? Things to Know

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Demand forecasting is the process to forecast future demand of products in a retail business, brick and mortar stores or online. When you know how many customers you are going to have or how many orders you are going to receive throughout a day, week or a month; you can plan your inventory and staffing accordingly. This helps in minimising wastage and prepares you to handle and keep up with the customer demands with ease. Here are a few more interesting facts about demand forecasting:

Get the numbers right

Carefully analyze the numbers as it will guide you to take any decisions regarding the demand for your products. Whether you are looking for the demand of your products for a certain day or looking for the number of people who shopped at your store; keep a proper account of those numbers. Collect the data accurately throughout the day, week, month or year. This will help you get the right information and accurate numbers and help you make the right decision. You can even use a statistical demand prediction solution to get accurate numbers.

Consider the variables as well

There are a number of factors that need to be considered when collecting any data related to the daily business interactions. Factors such as weather condition, economic conditions, customer sentiments and so on. These variables greatly affect customer traffic. You have to consider these variables to get an exact forecast of customer activity. For instance, in case you are expecting customer traffic on a certain day (especially during holiday seasons) then you can refer to the numbers from the previous year. However, if you do not consider the other variables, then you won’t be able to understand the sudden surge or drop in customer demands.

Know your customers and business

Apart from having a great understanding of your business, get an idea about your customers and the area you are operating (in case you have a physical store). Customer awareness can often help you make decisions that go beyond the numbers.

A combination of good customer awareness, demand forecasting and analytics can help your business operate smoothly.

In case you need any help and insights regarding demand forecasting, get in touch with Sibia Analytics at

http://www.sibiaanalytics.com/contact

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