for CPG Brands
GENERATING A SALES FORECAST
How to Forecast Sales
For CPG brands, accurately projecting future sales enables everything from budgeting, to trade management, to planning growth strategies.
Companies with more advanced forecasting processes and tools perform better than their peers because they more deeply understand their business drivers and can shape the outcome of a sales period before the period closes.
Here are our best practices for forecasting sales, using Vividly as an example.
1. Ingest Historical Actuals
Vividly uses historical sales figures to determine a baseline. Upload a plethora of data sources, either at the daily or weekly level, by customer and product for:
- Units or Revenue sold
- Stores selling
2. Model Seasonality Factors
CPG sales demonstrate seasonal and holiday cycles. Vividly statistically derives multipliers quantifying these fluctuations. For example, a 1.3x baseline uplift for candy around Halloween based on historical spikes.
The system automatically adjusts historical sales, normalizing seasonal noise to reveal true baselines.
3. Build Statistical Forecasts
With cleansed data, Vividly enables you to to go from the indirect retailer level up to the first receiver level, and shift data from consumption timing to shipment timing.
4. Adjust your trade strategy accordingly
With Vividly's forecasting software, brands receive invaluable visibility into future demand to calibrate strategic plans while minimizing risk.
.svg)
NEXT UP
Connecting Trade Spend and Sales Forecasts for Smarter Planning
.svg)
Own Your Future With Intelligent Forecasting.
Forecasting in Excel is tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone.
Take the guesswork out of forecasting. Vividly automates the entire sales forecasting process and updates any changes in real-time.
See how industry leaders like Liquid Death and Perfect Snacks benefit from Vividly’s intelligent forecasting.
