There’s a lot to learn if you’ve never used demand planning software before. For starters, if you’re not currently using demand planning and forecasting software, you’re likely missing out on profits and customers due to stagnant or low inventory. It’s safe to say there’s a lot that demand planning software can do for your business—the key is finding the right solution that will enable you to predict and keep up with future demand.
Below, we’ll dive into everything you need to know about demand planning and forecasting software and how to choose the right tool for your retail business.
What is demand planning software?
Demand planning software is a specialized tool designed to help retail businesses like yours accurately forecast future demand for their inventory. Also often referred to as demand and forecasting software, this type of tool leverages historical sales data, market trends, and various statistical models to generate reliable and consistent demand predictions. By providing businesses with a clear understanding of anticipated demand, this software enables you to optimize your inventory levels, improve resource allocation, automate workflows, and enhance your overall supply chain efficiency to prevent overstock and stockouts and improve your profitability.
How does demand planning software work?
Demand planning software typically utilizes statistical forecasting methods and machine learning algorithms to gather and analyze sales data, market trends, seasonal patterns, and other relevant factors to identify demand patterns and trends. The demand planning software on the market today, like BrightPearl, also works to integrate external data sources, such as economic indicators and competitor intelligence, to refine your demand forecasting. Ultimately, software for demand planning generates demand projections that can inform your decision-making process to enhance your overall business operations and cash flow.
Essential features of demand planning software
Not all demand planning and forecasting software is created equal. When narrowing down your options, one of the most important things to consider is the software’s features. These features will vary based on vendor, but the most important to keep in mind include:
- Forecasting accuracy: The software should be able to generate accurate and reliable demand forecasts for future demand that align with real-world demand patterns. BrightPearl can provide smart inventory purchasing for all your products with real-time, actionable insights, regardless of season or trend, even during unpredictable times and from multiple inventory locations.
- Integration capabilities: It should seamlessly integrate with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, customer relationship management (CRM) software, and other relevant business applications—which is exactly how our cloud-based ROS was designed.
- User-friendly interface: Good demand planning software will have an intuitive interface that is easy to learn and use, even for users without extensive technical expertise. BrightPearl takes that one step further by ensuring visibility and accessibility among your departments so your teams can easily communicate and have valuable information at their fingertips.
- Collaboration tools: Effective collaboration features are essential for involving stakeholders from different departments in the demand planning process. From our SalesPresenter integration to our fulfillment tools, effective collaboration is guaranteed.
- Scalability: The software should be able to accommodate the growth of your business and handle increasing volumes of data. With BrightPearl, you can scale up or down as much as you need and without hesitation.
- Demand sensing: The ability to monitor real-time demand signals, such as point-of-sale data or social media trends, can help refine forecasts for future demand and identify emerging opportunities or risks. Not only can you automate your demand forecasting with BrightPearl, but we also provide real-time trading insights to double down on your demand sensing so you’ll know what’s trending and what your customer base will need before they know they need it.
- Customization and flexibility: The software should be customizable to meet the specific needs of your business, including the ability to incorporate custom forecasting models or data sources. BrightPearl encourages customization and flexibility from custom mapping to sales order processing to ensure our tool works for you how you need it to.
- Real-time data and analytics: The software should provide access to real-time data and analytics, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and respond quickly to changes in demand. We provide real-time data analytics and trading insights to provide the most accurate forecasting possible.
Advantages of using demand planning software
Demand planning software can benefit your business in a number of ways. The primary advantages of using this software include:
Enhanced inventory management
Demand planning software helps optimize inventory levels by providing the most accurate demand forecasts using real-time data analytics and automation. This prevents stockouts and overstock, which will not only manage your inventory more efficiently but also contribute to significant cost savings.
Better resource allocation
By understanding future demand, businesses can allocate their resources more effectively. With an automated demand planning process that uses real-time data and market trends, future demand is predicted for you, enabling you to allocate your resources from workforce better planning to production scheduling to procurement.
Improved supply chain planning and management
In addition to demand forecasting accuracy, demand planning software can help identify potential disruptions within your supply chain and help you develop contingency plans. This ensures a more resilient and efficient supply chain, which enables you to keep up with customer demand.
Increased customer satisfaction and profitability
From improved forecast accuracy to supply chain management, demand planning software enables businesses to meet consumer demand consistently. Keeping up with consumer demand, especially at a high level, will improve customer satisfaction and profitability.
5 Steps for choosing the right demand planning software
Choosing the right demand planning and forecasting software comes down to understanding your business needs, the features you need, and several other important factors. If you’re in the market for demand planning software, these are the five steps you need to take to ensure you make the right choice:
1. Evaluate your demand planning needs
Before you think about looking at the various demand planning options out there, you need to think about your business first Consider your current and future demand planning needs regarding the complexity of your products, warehousing, frequency of demand fluctuations, and the level of granular data you require to make more effective decisions to maximize sales while keeping up with demand.
2. Determine your budget
Demand planning vendors come with different costs. Some offer cost-based packages, which can make or break your experience using their demand planning tools. You’ll want to consider the initial purchase and ongoing subscription costs, maintenance, and support fees and how that fits into your business’s budget. This will allow you to narrow down your search based on the features you need and what you’re willing to spend.
3. Understand your data integration requirements
Assess the compatibility of your existing systems with the integrations offered by demand planning software vendors. Most platforms will allow you to integrate your ERP seamlessly with certain CRMs and other essential applications—but not all. That’s why it’s important to know exactly what your data integration requirements are before choosing a demand planning tool.
4. Research demand planning software and vendors
Next, make a list of potential vendors to work with, keeping the features and functionality your business requires in mind. In addition to the features they offer, check out their reputation by reading customer reviews and ensure they can provide you with adequate customer support whenever you need it.
5. Make the final choice
Once you evaluate your list of vendors and software for demand planning, consider testing your top three with a free trial or booking a demo. This can help you make your final decision and ensure that you don’t enter into a service contract that doesn’t fulfill your business’s demand planning and forecasting requirements.
Choose BrightPearl for your demand planning and forecasting needs
Choosing the right demand planning tool for your business needs can be tricky. BrightPearl offers the most reliable planning and forecasting software available. By using cutting-edge data analytics and AI technology and automating your demand planning and forecasting processes, we can enhance your decision-making and help you transform your retail business into a high-powered machine that keeps your customers coming back for more.
Book a demo today and see for yourself.
