Demand forecasting is a focal point for the entire organization in the ongoing effort to improve operational efficiency. Placer’s foot traffic data is available per location or aggregated on a chain, region, or industry level, allowing you to gauge demand top-down and bottom-up and improve forecasts accuracy.
You’ll be able to answer these questions after reading this article:
- What are the latest demand trends in different categories, regions, and points of sale?
- In which retail customers or channels should you increase inventory and where should you manage your inventory more carefully?
- How should you plan for an upcoming holiday or event?
Get started with the following steps:
Step 1: Review foot traffic trends for industries
a. Open the Industry tab and search your industry of interest. Industry metrics are available nationwide and also by state, CBSA, or DMA. To compare different industries or regions, you may add up to 8 different industry segments to the report.
b. Review the Overview and Variance reports to examine the latest foot traffic metrics across different aggregations. Compare performance to previous periods to gauge the changes in demand.
c. Go to the Variance List under the Variance report to get a snapshot of changes in foot traffic in different chains, across any comparison period. If you identify any significant and ongoing uptick or downturn in visits, you may want to ensure your forecasts reflect these changes.
d. Review Share of Visits in the Overview report to understand the relative performance of different industries or regions ans see whether adjustments in supply are needed.
e. To assess demand in specific chains within the industry, scroll down to Ranked Chains to see the top-performing chains. Click your chain of interest to open a Chain report.
Step 2: Review foot traffic trends for chains
a. Open the Chains tab, and search your chain of interest. Chain metrics are available nationwide and also by state, CBSA, or DMA. To compare different chains or regions, you may add up to 8 different chain segments to the report. You may also pull custom tags set up for your account to analyze different store clusters.
b. Use the Overview and Variance reports to examine the latest foot traffic metrics across different aggregations, and compare the performance of each chain to previous periods to gauge the changes in demand.
c. Go to the Variance List under the Variance report to get a snapshot of changes in foot traffic in different stores, across any comparison period. If you identify any significant and ongoing uptick or downturn in visits, you may want to ensure your forecasts or local distribution reflect these changes.
d. You can also review Share of Visits in the Overview report to gauge the foot traffic market share of each chain and see whether adjustments in supply are needed.
e. Scroll down to Ranked Venues to see the top-performing stores in the chain. If you’d like to examine the visits trend for specific stores, click your location of interest to open a Property report.
Step 3: For customers who have added the Events expansion feature, adjust forecasts to better account for big events
Events such as concerts, sports games, and conferences can boost local consumption of specific products for a short period of time. To prepare for such events, CPG suppliers need to deliver sufficient inventory for their local retail partners. Using the Events feature, you can get information about estimated attendance at major events and adjust your forecasts and product assortment accordingly.
a. In the Property report of the relevant venue, navigate to Area Analysis in the left sidebar and scroll to Events. In the Time Period filter, choose Future Events.
b. Filter for the events you want to analyze and click on the map icons to see more information about each event, or scroll down to the event log to see a list of all upcoming events and their estimated attendance.
Pro Tip: To access foot traffic data for any industry or chain at scale, use Placer’s Premium Export data feed. This data feed provides a monthly delivery of various foot traffic metrics, allowing you to combine up-to-date visitation data into your first-party data and build internal reports, applications, and dashboards. For more information on Premium Export or to request pricing information, click here.
