Demand forecast - best practices

Accurate forecasting is instrumental in the success of omni-channel brands. In particular, short-term forecasts are crucial for immediate stock management, logistics optimization, market trend responsiveness, and resource allocation.

🗣 Here’s a concise guide to help you leverage demand forecasting for enhanced logistic efficiency.

Why is forecasting important?

Skilled women and men take care of your operations in our warehouses. One of our roles at Bigblue is to ensure that we have the right number of fully-trained operators to deliver the best experience to your customers with fast and accurate deliveries. And, for this, we need your help to anticipate your future volumes with forecasts.

Bigblue needs your help to effectively forecast your volumes

Our team is computing high-level forecasts using your sales history and external factors (such as holidays, etc.) but it does not capture specific marketing events, special B2B operations, or any other sales campaign. We need your visibility on these events so that we can properly plan warehousing operations.

Every Friday, we send an e-mail asking you to provide information on the forecast for the following week. Whether B2C or B2B, if you have important events such as sales or special operations, let us know!

💡 We help you visualize your historical data and compare it against your forecasts with a dashboard which link is shared in the email sent every week - see below for tips that might help you!

Tips for accurate forecasts

This section is here to help you effectively predict your sales in the short term.

1. Analyze your historical data

Begin by collecting data in your sales channels on your past performance. Look at daily and weekly sales figures for the past few months.

2. Consider internal and external factors

Gather all the internal and external factors that may impact your sales in the short term. These could include:

• Internal factors
  • Marketing operations, sales (e.g marketing campaign with an influencer, discount codes…)
  • Business seasonality (e.g: socks sales is lower in summer than winter)
• External factors
  • Upcoming bank holidays, school vacations, special promotions, weather…
  • Market trends

3. Set realistic goals

You can visualize your historical forecast accuracy by reviewing the dashboard provided by Bigblue in your weekly e-mail.

Don't forget to check if you have enough stock, otherwise most of your orders will be out of stock!

💡 Will that free sample be +200% or only +15% to your last week’s volume?

💡 Did the operation with marketplaces significantly boost your sales?

4. Iterate and refine

Forecasting needs continuous improvement!

Feeling lost in managing your forecast?

Forecasting can be quite a challenge. Do not hesitate to contact Bigblue support team for help and guidance. We're here to help!