Erratic Demand Makes Forecasting Demand Difficult

Posted on August 17, 2020 by F. Robert Jacobs
Piecing together a pandemic-era supply chain has become largely guesswork for retailers. Home Depot Inc. says the usual measures it uses to forecast sales are out the window, the WSJ’s Sarah Nassauer writes, leaving the home improvement giant whipsawed by rapid changes in consumer buying patterns that are often running strongly against the company’s assumptions. Home Depot has been a winner in the retail-sector upheaval. Americans stuck at home have turned to home improvement projects and used their government stimulus checks to fund the work, highlighting how the pandemic has boosted parts of the retail landscape while it has battered other parts. But even the winners have had to abandon pre-pandemic business models, dropping systems that had been refined over years to forecast demand or track consumer trends. And uncertainty abounds for the survivors, along with the higher costs that have come with the turn toward e-commerce.
retail.164052.PNG
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a comment