Looking for a way to more accurately predict demand and optimize inventory? Two often overlooked indicators – product view trends and price elasticity – can become your hidden advantage in order planning. Here’s how to effectively incorporate them into your purchasing strategy.
View Trends – Early Signal of Interest
Growing interest in a product doesn’t always immediately translate into sales. Monitoring views can help catch the beginnings of trends before they appear in sales reports.
How to Use This in Practice:
- Observe sudden increases – Pay attention to products whose views have increased by more than 25% in the last 2 weeks.
- Compare with sales dynamics – If views are growing faster than sales, this may signal upcoming demand growth.
- Treat as an additional hint – The increase in views alone doesn’t guarantee a sales increase, but it can support the decision to slightly increase orders for seasonal or fashion products.
Example:
Blue hoodies record a 40% increase in views with only a 10% increase in sales. This isn’t necessarily a reason to drastically increase the order, but it’s worth considering an additional 10-15% stock above the standard quantity, especially if it’s a product with limited availability from the supplier.
Price Elasticity – Help in Managing Promotions
Knowing how individual products react to price changes can support not only pricing policy but also inventory planning for promotional periods.
How to Use This in Practice:
- Estimate approximate elasticity – Based on historical promotions, check how a 10% price decrease affected sales growth.
- Support promotion planning – For products sensitive to price changes (index >1.5), it’s worth securing additional stock before a planned promotion.
- Use to optimize margin – Products with low elasticity (index <0.8) can maintain stable sales even at higher prices, which is worth considering in your pricing strategy.
Example:
When planning a promotion for sports shoes with a 15% discount, check their historical elasticity. If in the past a 10% discount increased sales by 18-20%, giving an elasticity of 1.8-2.0, it’s worth preparing a proportionally larger stock for the promotional period.
Combining Signals – More Informed Decisions
These indicators bring the greatest value when they serve as a complement to standard sales and inventory analysis:
- Product with increasing views + upcoming promotion – Potentially higher risk of stock depletion, worth securing additional quantity.
- Product with seasonal decrease in views + low elasticity – You can safely reduce the order without major risk of losing sales.
Practical Steps to Get Started
If you want to incorporate these indicators into your ordering strategy, start with:
- Weekly checking of 5-10 most important products for view trends.
- Analysis of historical promotional data to estimate approximate price elasticity.
- Gradually incorporating this information into purchasing decisions, treating them as auxiliary indicators, not main determinants.
Remember that these indicators work best as a supplement to traditional order planning methods, helping to detect upcoming trends earlier and supporting margin strategy.