Apparel Retail Planning for a New World
While the COVID-19 global pandemic is unprecedented, it has only exacerbated an already unpredictable demand environment for apparel retailers. Current events have dramatically revealed the weaknesses in retailers’ forecasting…
What Retailers Need to Consider to Come Out Ahead from Times of Uncertainty
During times of distress, nothing brings comfort like returning to basics and simplicity. As the impacts of the COVID-19 continue to evolve, consumers are faced with unprecedented disruptions to these basics while retailers are scrambling to understand impacts on their supply chain. The one constant, though, in all the chaos: retailers remain focused on servicing customers and keeping their employees working.
How COVID-19 Will Impact Softline Retailers
Softline retailers have been battling store closures and traffic declines in malls for several years. They have made moves to shift toward experiential retailers. They have deployed omni-channel capabilities like buy online pickup in store (BOPIS) and buy online return in store (BORIS) to drive traffic and deliver a seamless experience for customers. Ultimately, softline retailers were just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel… until COVID-19 coronavirus arrived.
Improving Livelihood during Crisis with Retail Forecasts
As with hand washing, what might be deemed standard needs to be reevaluated for quality in your forecasts. Even if you are not consistently managing your exceptions and tuning your forecasts right now, these critical set of steps will ensure the cleanliness and usefulness of your demand forecasts for the next week, month and year ahead.
Getting Proactive with Markdowns [Video]
Predicting demand, and creating markdown strategies, for items with short life cycles — such as winter apparel — have traditionally depended on historic sales data and regression analysis. Today, clustering algorithms from JDA can help you predict demand and create markdowns more accurately, based on…
Getting Smarter About AI in Retail Planning [Video]
Volatile consumer demand. Soaring expectations for service and responsiveness. Endless purchasing options. How can retailers expect to succeed? The answer lies in using artificial intelligence (AI) to gather data and make fact-based, strategic decisions — no matter how many internal and external factors are involved….
Dealing with Risk, Uncertainty and Tariffs: What the Recent Tariff Delay Means for Retailers
What’s the scariest part of a horror movie? Knowing there’s a killer in the house but not knowing when or where they’ll strike. That’s sort of what retailers are going through right now with the whipsaw nature of the trade war with China. You know…