As a retailer and supplier, no day is the same, especially when sales peaks can change in an instant. For the majority of the time these changes are completely out of your control, yet it will be the retailer and supplier who both take the blame if availability and accessibility becomes an issue for that particularly product.

As the current market keeps changing, it’s become more difficult to predict consumer patterns, especially with the raise in discounters and online shopping. These days consumers are making trade offs, which are changing all the time.

Everyone is always on the hunt to find those last minute sales peak and trends and stand out behaviours, yet with technology advancing at such a rate, it’s hard to pin point exactly what the consumer will want in the long term, yet short term trends and peaks are easier to plot, however last minute they are.

Here at IFM this is something we like to see ourselves as experts in, and today we’re going to share with you our secret weapons (yes there are hundreds of them) when it comes to working out those sales peaks. Understanding your consumer to this level of detail is what will give you the competitive edge from others, who are all trying to find out what’s behind their customers sales choices.

Use data
Whilst data can’t always predict exactly what the consumer wants and when sales peak will occur, it can give you an overview of what’s happening in-store with your products RIGHT NOW, and the in-depth results and review of the statistics can lead to a retail expert predicting upcoming sales peak.

Having your dedicated Field Merchandising Team on the ground, this enables us to offer data led calls to our clients to identify issues at individual store sku level, intelligently improving availability on behalf of our clients.

Use people
In a world where technology is king, people often forget the importance of people. It’s easy to mis-judge the value of listening to people’s opinions and thoughts, especially when it comes to predicting a sales peaks. Retail experts need to have an understanding what’s happening across the country, whether it’s a national event, regional celebration or even a local trend, it’s vital that retailers and suppliers have this level of understanding of their audience.

Often, an independent outlook can be very beneficial to spot those sale peaks, which is why our in-house retail experts work so well. Now we said we had hundreds of secret weapons and we believe we do. We employ hundreds of people, all out in the field, ensuring we have the best caliber of retail experts across the whole Region.

IFM academy enables us to deliver a wide variety of training programs and blended learning experiences, from our induction program, Our experts in the field, understand what makes the consumer say yes and predicting those sales increases, and even sometimes masterminded their very own sales peaks.

There is never a quick and easy answer to predicting sales peak, as they change so often. But by looking at how people’s behavior at a local, regional and national level, alongside the help of some reliable data, you will position your brand in the best place to deliver outstanding returns.

Want to predict your next sales peak? Speak to one of our experts today…