Overview
Learn how Alloy can let you know how a retailer's POS forecast changes over time.
Problem Statement
The ability to monitor retailer POS forecast changes over different time periods can be extremely helpful in maintaining on-shelf availability, as well as understanding and predicting potential future retailer order patterns. Alloy makes available older versions of retailers POS forecasts to allow you to view and track adjustments made to their sales forecasts.
How Alloy Can Help
Is your retailer feeling bullish about your products' sales prospects in the months ahead? Have they adjusted their sales forecasts? What does a more aggressive forecast portend for your on-shelf availability? How might their ordering patterns change to adjust?
These are just some of the questions that Alloy can shed light on through making older versions of retailers sales forecasts available to you. It is important to note that Alloy currently supports forecast monitoring for forecasts received from Walmart and Target, among other retailers.
The template we have created for you offers an excellent starting point for you to begin your analysis of tracking and monitoring your retailer forecasts.
To customize and configure your retailer forecasts as you wish, click on the gear icon associated with the widget you’d like to edit. Once the widget editor appears, simply click the pencil on the metric “forecasted unit sales” to configure the view appropriately. Make sure forecast type “Partner” is selected, and choose a new timeframe under “Data Version” for the date when the forecast was downloaded into Alloy.
How to set up your Alloy dashboard
- Sign in to app.alloy.ai
- Click Analysis at the top, and select the tag Alloy Applications Templates
- Open the dashboard called Template - [Retailer Forecast Monitoring]
- From the drop down next to Save, select Save As, and name your new dashboard
- Note: If you do not see the template in your instance, please message your Client Solutions Lead!
Template Adjustments
In order to ensure your dashboard is focused in on the relevant data, you should:
- Add a partner filter to select the retail partner(s) where your product is launching
- Add a product filter to select the relevant new items. You can either use the retailer product ID (e.g. Target DPCI), your company product code (e.g. Vendor SKU) or a category
Tip: Ask your CS contact if you run into any data issues via support@alloy.ai