We cut our end-of-season clearance markdown by a third in the first full buying cycle. The weather-signal layer caught a regional demand spike our spreadsheet model missed entirely.
Priya Mehta
Demand Planning Manager, mid-size apparel retailer
Three-signal demand forecasting for mid-market planners
Stop guessing 6 weeks out. Start forecasting.
Automcore reads your POS velocity, local weather signals, and supplier lead times — then tells your planners what to order before the shelf goes empty.
Demand Signal Dashboard
Live
SKU #4812 — Rain Jacket — 6-week projection
| Product | Stock | Flag |
|---|---|---|
| Fleece Pullover L | 1,420 units | Overstock |
| Rain Jacket M | 84 units | Order Now |
| Base Layer XL | 310 units | On Track |
The problem
Your demand plan is already 6 weeks stale.
-
01
POS data sits in one system, weather in another, supplier lead times in a spreadsheet — nobody’s reconciling them in real time.
-
02
Planners hedge with buffer stock that ties up cash. Every over-order is a quiet drain on working capital.
-
03
Stockouts still happen because the hedge was in the wrong SKUs. The shelf goes empty on the item customers actually wanted.
Before Automcore
Avg. forecast error
38%
Dead stock holding cost
$2.1M/yr
Stockout incidents/quarter
14.3
After 90 days
Avg. forecast error
14%
Dead stock holding cost
−60%
Stockout incidents/quarter
4.1
Who it’s for
For the planner who lives in spreadsheets because nothing better fits.
10–200 active SKU categories
1–8 person planning team
$20M–$200M annual inventory spend
Retail, apparel, industrial parts & home goods
Demand Planner
Replaces the manual VLOOKUP routine with a live forecast that updates every 24 hours from actual POS data.
Supply Chain Manager
Gets a single view of reorder risk across all locations and SKUs — before the stockout hits, not after.
Inventory Controller
Sets safety stock levels from model-generated confidence intervals instead of gut feel and historical averages.
VP Operations
Sees dead stock cost trends and forecast accuracy over time — the ROI is visible in the first quarter.
Platform
What Automcore gives your team
01 —
6-Week Rolling Forecast
SKU-level predictions with confidence intervals, updated every 24 hours from live POS data. Your planner sees not just the forecast but how certain the model is — so they know which SKUs to prioritize.
6-Week Forecast — All SKUs
Updated 2h ago
Rain Jacket M
+34% demand ↑
Base Layer S
Stable ±3%
Summer Tee XL
−18% demand ↓
02 —
Reorder Signal Dashboard
Color-coded reorder flags — green (on track), amber (overstock building), red (stockout risk within 14 days). Every planner on the team sees the same signal at the same time.
Reorder Signals — Active
3 flagged
Fleece Pullover L
Overstock risk
Rain Jacket M
Order now
Wool Sweater S
On track
03 —
Scenario Planner
Run “what if supplier delays 2 weeks” or “what if this region gets heavy rain” before committing to a PO. Test the scenario, see the impact, then decide.
Scenario: Supplier +14 days
Impact: High
Rain Jacket M
Stockout in 9d
Puffer Vest L
Stockout in 12d
Base Layer XL
Buffer absorbs
In their words
Planners who stopped hedging
Our buyer used to add 15% buffer stock on every PO “just in case.” Now she orders from the forecast and the buffer went to zero on 60% of SKUs. Cash flow improved noticeably.
Carlos Ybarra
Supply Chain Director, industrial parts manufacturer