Tactics on Inventory Projections (2,242 words)

CS: How do you determine the accuracy of your projections?

Hammond: Within the demand report spreadsheet, I look at each SKU's sales to date versus projected sales through the life of that catalog. I've found that calculation to be as accurate as any software program I've seen.

A few years ago we hired a consultant to help us with some things, and she used a software program to calculate how many products we should be buying. I looked at that and thought, "Well, these are not the numbers I would've used, but maybe the consultant knows something I don't, so let's test this." We kept her projections, and I did my own as I normally do.