MRP Forecasting
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- Forecasting Made Easy: The Luminous Advantage
- Challenges of Traditional Forecasting
- 3 Ways Luminous Simplifies Forecasting
- Key Takeaways
- Example: Reading Days of Stock
- What Forecasting Helps You Decide
- Tips for Better Forecasts
- Common Questions
- Better Decisions, Less Guesswork
Forecasting Made Easy: The Luminous Advantage
Forecasting in ecommerce can be complicated, especially when you’re selling across multiple channels like Etsy, Shopify, and eBay. Aggregating all of that data in one place and keeping it up to date is a challenge. Luminous makes this process easier by centralizing your inventory and sales data, giving you a clearer view of your stock levels and future needs.
Challenges of Traditional Forecasting
Managing inventory across different platforms can quickly become overwhelming. Without a unified system, it’s difficult to get accurate, up-to-date information. This often leads to delays in restocking, lost sales, or over-ordering.
Luminous changes this by bringing your sales channels and inventory into one system. With all your data in one place, you can make better decisions about reordering from suppliers, replenishing inventory to other warehouses, and managing your raw materials and bill of materials (BOM).
3 Ways Luminous Simplifies Forecasting
- Centralized Data: Luminous brings your sales and inventory data together in one place, giving you a clear, up-to-date view.
- Reorder and Assembly Suggestions: Luminous suggests when to reorder, shows how many days of stock you have left, and tells you when to complete assembly orders.
- Flexible Exports: Easily export your forecasting data to Excel or Google Sheets to account for one-off variables or do further analysis.
Key Takeaways
- Multichannel makes forecasting hard: Sales data spread across Etsy, Shopify, eBay and more is hard to pull together and goes stale fast.
- One system fixes the data problem: With inventory and sales in Luminous, your forecast starts from current, complete data.
- Suggestions, not guesswork: Days of stock left, reorder timing and assembly order timing are surfaced for you.
- Your spreadsheet still has a place: Export to Google Sheets or Excel for the one-off variables only you know about.
Example: Reading Days of Stock
Say you sell a best-selling tote bag:
- You have 600 units available across all locations.
- You sell about 20 units a day across all channels.
- That's roughly 30 days of stock left.
If your supplier takes 45 days to deliver, you're already behind. That's exactly the kind of signal reorder suggestions are designed to surface before it turns into a stockout.
What Forecasting Helps You Decide
- Reordering from suppliers: When to place your next PO, and how much. Set up reorder levels and notifications to get alerted.
- Replenishing other warehouses: When to move stock between locations. See how to create transfer orders.
- Managing raw materials: When to complete assembly orders and what raw goods you'll need. Learn more about manufacturing and assembly.
Tips for Better Forecasts
- Connect every sales channel: A forecast that's missing a channel will underestimate demand.
- Check stock across locations: Use the Stocks Grid to see quantities in one view.
- Layer in what the data can't see: Export to a spreadsheet to adjust for promotions, launches, seasonality or supplier shutdowns.
- Review regularly: Sales patterns change. Revisit your reorder points as demand shifts.
Common Questions
Why is forecasting harder for multichannel brands?
Each sales channel holds its own data, so pulling it together takes time, and by the time you do, it's often already out of date.
What suggestions does Luminous give?
Luminous suggests when to reorder, shows how many days of stock you have left, and tells you when to complete assembly orders.
Can I still use a spreadsheet?
Yes. You can export your forecasting data to Google Sheets or Excel to account for any one-off variables.
Does forecasting cover raw materials?
Yes. Forecasting in Luminous helps you manage your bill of materials and raw goods, not just finished products.
Better Decisions, Less Guesswork
Book a free demo today with Luminous - you’ll have the insights you need to make informed decisions. Whether it’s reordering stock or planning assembly orders, our system helps you stay ahead of stockouts and on top of your supply chain needs.
Video transcript
Why Forecasting Is So Hard in E-commerce
Here's what it looks like to forecast inside of Luminous. First off, why is forecasting so difficult in today's world of e-commerce?
“You mean it'll be difficult?” “Very.”
Let's go through it. If you are selling across Etsy, Shopify, eBay and all these different sales channels, it is extremely difficult to aggregate all of that data into one place. It also quickly becomes out of date.
“Everything you're wearing is tragically outdated.”
One Place for All Your Inventory
On the other side of things, it's also difficult to track inventory all in one place — until you implement Luminous. Overall, this allows you to make better decisions on reordering from suppliers, replenishing to other warehouses, and even managing your bill of materials and raw goods.
Reorder and Assembly Suggestions
Luminous will give you suggestions on when to reorder, how many days of stock you have left, and when to complete assembly orders.
Export Your Forecast to Google Sheets or Excel
Another great thing about Luminous is that we make it extremely easy to manage all of your forecasting inside the system, and also to extract that data into something like a Google Sheet or an Excel file, so that you can account for any other one-off variables you may need to keep in mind.
Overall, forecasting is going to be much easier once you're on Luminous. And that's about it. Thanks, guys.