Predicting the future, more specifically, future demand is something that retailers have been trying to perfect for many years.
With the holiday season just around the corner, it’s grind time for retailers alike to figure out which products they need armed and dangerous as soon as holiday shoppers enter their store.
This year, with 34% of consumers planning on spending more money on holiday gifts compared to last year, stocking accordingly is more important than ever.
THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS
- What to expect for the 2021 holiday season.
- The power of combining advanced analytics and AI to predict the future.
- Dos Marcos…
FOOT TRAFFIC INDEX
Here’s a look at last week’s foot traffic compared to the same time last year.
FOOT TRAFFIC TRENDS
Industry insights so you can convert your foot traffic into more sales.
Holiday spending
After a long year, customers are prepared to end the year with a bang.
According to a new survey by Klarna, 34% of shoppers plan to spend more on gifts than they did in 2020. More importantly to readers of this newsletter, 62% of respondents say they plan on buying big-ticket items.
As supply chain issues have become more evident to shoppers, 40% say they plan on getting their shopping done earlier in the year in hopes of avoiding supply issues. On the other hand, 56% still plan on doing a majority of their shopping online during Black Friday.
With early holiday shopping in mind, retailers such as Target are beginning a price-match campaign from October 10 to December 24th in hopes of motivating people to buy from them instead of their competitors.
Overall, with earlier shopping and consumers planning on spending more than last year, analysts expect holiday sales to increase 7-9% compared to last year.
Advanced analytics and the effect on overstocking
The combination of social media and the immediate exchange of information online has resulted in trends and demand for products changing every day.
Ever-changing trends have made the task of stocking products accordingly an extremely tedious process for retailers. This is very evident when we take a look at the overstock issues many companies have.
Although AI may sound intimidating to many, a system that constantly monitors and gauges future demand may be the solution that retailers have been searching for to solve the overstock problem.
Besides the fact that a surplus of inventory has financial repercussions, 80% of customers across 29 countries believe that sustainability is important to them.
How do we solve this problem? Advanced analytics and AI accurately forecast demand and recommend intelligent insights for decision-makers to rely on. Instead of inventory decisions based on current demand, AI constantly learns to better predict future demand.
THE FAM
The million dollar question
Put yourself in front of the judges on the hit ABC show, Shark Tank. Mr. Wonderful, also known as Kevin O’Leary, offers you the million dollar investment you are asking for if you can answer the following question: “What is the #1 skill needed to be successful in mattress sales?”
Do you know the answer?
NOTEWORTHY NEWS
Google shopping: Google adds a visual search feature for shoppers to find products easier.
Mastercard: Mastercard plans to launch a new Buy Now Pay Later service.
Survey: Answering 3 burning questions about retail and e-commerce
Retail Analytics: Retail analytics market is expected to be worth $23.8 Billion by 2028.
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