In the ever-shifting retail landscape, mastering the balance between supply and demand is critical for success for brand owners. Avoiding excess or insufficient stock is key, just like managing supplier relationships and making savvy purchasing decisions. Yet, many businesses are stuck in the past, relying heavily on outdated Excel sheets with weekly updates, far from real-time information. Today, let's delve into the challenges they face and discover how embracing long-term Demand & Supply Planning can revolutionize their approach.

Challenges of Demand & Supply Planning for eCommerce

Picture this: businesses entangled in a web of Excel sheets and manual updates, slowing down the supply and demand planning process. This not only leads to calculation errors but also leaves merchants struggling to keep up with real-time data. Planning demand introduces additional challenges—considering seasonality, such as pre and post-Christmas periods, and accounting for holidays and special sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Creating purchase orders and managing supplier relationships adds another layer of complexity, making it a time-consuming and challenging task.

Let's empathize with real-world scenarios. A clothing retailer, relying on traditional methods, faces a nightmare of excess summer dresses after the season has passed and a shortage of winter coats when temperatures drop. An electronics store struggles to predict demand spikes during holiday seasons, resulting in either a surplus or a frustrating shortage of products. The pain is tangible, and the consequences are costly.

• Struggling to keep up with real-time data,
• Not properly calculating seasonality & demand spikes,
• Not foreseeing what the future holds for planning supply
• Not aligned with real market conditions to forecast demand accurately

Harness the Potential of AI for Demand & Supply Planning

Now, enter Demand & Supply Planning—a game-changer simplifying the entire process. Fabrikatör’s newest feature takes on both demand and supply planning simultaneously. Think of it as your AI-driven assistant, forecasting demands by considering seasonality, holidays, and marketing events. Unlike traditional methods, it relies on specialized AI algorithms and allows easy editing of demand plans. With this feature, comparing your demand plan with last year in real-time becomes a breeze, checking revenue, COGS, and units to be sold.

Forecast Your Demand Accurately:

The long term supply planning starts with forecasting demand accurately.  Accurately predicting the future may be impossible, but with Fabrikatör's advanced AI-driven forecast algorithm, businesses can more precisely anticipate sales numbers for every product. This allows for strategic inventory replenishment, avoidance of stockouts, and reduction of overstocks. Think of this feature as the navigation of your car but still, you are the one behind the wheel, trimming and steering as you like.

Seasonality & Trends: Navigating Market Currents with Precision

Fabrikatör's advanced AI-driven forecast algorithm considers trend analysis, accommodating the unique story of each product—whether it experiences hyper-growth, steady growth, or decline. It adeptly accounts for seasonality and events, showing demand changes during specific periods.

For instance, beachwear surges in popularity just ahead of the summer season, warm jackets see heightened demand as winter approaches and party supplies like confetti and balloons experience a spike during festive seasons. Our model adeptly navigates these variations, ensuring that you remain ahead of market dynamics.

Taking Control of Your Demand & Supply Planning

Nobody knows your business and market better than you. Your insights are the most valuable input for demand and supply planning. And, Demand & Supply Planning allows you to take the driver's seat. Want to edit your demand plan based on your insights? No problem. The easy editing feature puts the control back in your hands, allowing you to fine-tune predictions based on your industry knowledge.

You can compare the suggested numbers with yours and also collaborate with team members by leaving comments. So, it’s like the super Spreadsheets that allow you to manage data and your planning.

Compare Your Plan with the Previous Period

You've created a demand plan—now what? Demand & Supply Planning lets you compare forecasted revenue with previous periods effortlessly. By comparing data easily, you can gain insights, which will take a long time to do so with Spreadsheets. You can evaluate your company's performance in terms of revenue, units sold, and COGS, providing valuable insights for future planning.

Turn Demand Plan into Action with Fabrikatör: Create Purchase Orders Automatically

The most critical part of inventory planning is supply planning. You've predicted what you'll sell—now, how do you purchase your inventory? It's easy with Fabrikatör.

Demand & Supply Planning steps in as the orchestrator, automating the creation of recommended purchase orders. These recommendations stem from a comprehensive analysis of your demand plan, real-time insights from incoming and available inventory, supplier details, purchase order frequency, and lead time.

Let's consider a scenario you've created a plan for the next six months, defining your demand planning. Fabrikatör recommends purchasing orders based on your plan and offering detailed insights into when and how much product to order.  While we recommend purchase orders, you retain control—you can adjust quantities and convert them to actual purchase orders. This one-click solution shows you when and how much product to order, as well as when it will arrive at the warehouse.

In a nutshell, Fabrikatör offers: 

• Long-term Demand & Supply Planning integrates AI for precise demand and supply planning, enabling real-time comparisons and adjustments.
• Accurate demand forecasting leverages AI for strategic inventory management, reducing stockouts and overstock.
• Seasonality and trends analysis ensures responsiveness to market dynamics.
• User-controlled customization allows for tailored demand plan adjustments.
• Comparing forecasts with previous periods facilitates performance insights.
• Automated purchase order generation optimizes inventory procurement based on detailed demand analysis.

In conclusion, the challenges of traditional supply planning are clear, but the solution is within reach. Embrace the future with Demand & Supply Planning and take your business to new heights of efficiency and success with Fabrikatör. Say goodbye to Excel troubles and step into a world where supply planning is smart, simple, and tailored to your needs.

You can learn much more about Fabrikatör's long-term planning. See it in action in only 30 minutes!