Overview
Predictive purchasing helps you forecast the order quantity for a predicted amount of future sales. The projection is based on several factors, including the number of past sales and the current available quantity. Past sales are used to determine the velocity or the rate of sales per day over a given date range. Velocity is then multiplied to calculate the deficit supply for multiple date ranges. In more complex cases, days in stock and on-order quantities are also factored into the prediction.
Before you use Predictive Purchasing, read about the Predictive Purchasing tools and the configurations you need before you get started.
You can create a scheduled task that automatically exports a predictive purchasing Excel file.
| TERM | DEFINITION |
| Days OF Order | Days of past sales on which you are basing the prediction. This generates a daily velocity. Days with no stock availability are skipped in the Days Of Order Count.
Days with no stock are only skipped when the client setting Use InStock days in predictive purchasing data is enabled.
|
| Days To Order | Days to which you are multiplying the daily velocity to generate an Add to PO Qty. While the deficit supply will be calculated for all dates, this selection enables a quick add to PO. See below. |
| Velocity | Rate of sales per day when calculated by Qty Sold in Days of Order divided by Days of Order. |
| Deficit Supply | Predicted deficit to your supply for multiple date ranges calculated as (Velocity x Deficit Days) – (Available quantity + On Order). See below. |
Example: Days of Order 30/ Days to Order 15
In this example, 108 units sold in the past 30 days (Qty Sold column). Since it is based on a 30-day period, per day velocity is 3.6.
- Deficit Supply 15 — Multiplying 3.6 by 15 = 54. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 15 of 26. ((108/30) * 15) – 28 = 26
- Deficit Supply 30 — Multiplying 3.6 by 30 = 108. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 30 of 80 ((108/30) * 30) – 28 = 80
- Deficit Supply 45 —Multiplying 3.6 by 45 = 162. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 45 of 134. ((108/30) * 45) – 28 = 134
- The same calculation for 60 and 90; see below for an explanation of 11/M.
Since Days To Order 15 was selected, the deficit qty of 26 was auto-entered into the Qty field to add to a PO.
You have the option to exclude certain channels within a company from predicted purchasing.
- Go to Settings > Purchasing > Predicted Purchasing Excluded Channels > Check Enabled for channels you want to exclude from predicted purchasing report > Save.
Generate a Purchase Prediction
Purchasing predictions are generated automatically when the client setting Calculate Qty Sold in X days for Predicted Purchasing is enabled. This client setting is enabled by default.
Additionally, the service Product Inventory Movement Service must be running on your server. This service runs once daily around 2 AM.
To generate a Purchase Prediction:
- Go to Purchasing > Tools > Predictive Purchasing.
- Select the Days Of Order / Days To Order from their respective default filter dropdowns.
- Select Yes from the Show Only with Qty Ordered default filter.
- Click Search to populate the grid with items with the columns from the accordion below.
| COLUMN | DEFINITION |
| ProductID | The product SKU. |
| ProductName | The product name. |
| ASIN | Amazon Standard Identification Number |
| Avail. Local Qty | Quantity in all warehouses. |
| Qty To Order | Automatically populated. You can update this field manually by:
|
| Velocity | Rate of sales per day. Calculated as Qty Sold in Days of Order divided by Days of Order. |
| Qty Sold | Quantity sold in the selected Days of Order. Based on the Client Setting above, it will calculate sales for the days the inventory was available. This means that if there were days within the selected Days of Order when there was no available inventory, those days will be skipped in the count. |
| Deficit Supply | The predicted deficit to your supply. This is calculated as follows: (Velocity x Days To Order) – (Available quantity + On Order). |
| 11 Mo | Quantity Sold in a given month for 11 months back. This can be helpful when trying to determine quantities to order for seasonal periods, which are often different than preceding non-season months. For example, if you are at the beginning of November and want to determine how much to order for the coming seasonal month of December, this column will look back 11 months – to December – and display the quantity sold for the month of December. This can be used as an indicator if you need to order more quantity than was calculated based on the regular velocity. |
| On Order | Shows how many units are on open Purchase Orders. PO must be set as “Approved” to consider quantity “On Order.” It is critical for determining if a product needs to be ordered and, if so, how many units to purchase. After determining how many units are needed for the given time period, both the available quantity and OnOrder quantities are factored in to determine how many need to be ordered. Clicking the OnOrder Quantity will open the related PO. |
| Vendor | Default vendor for the product. |
| Vendor Price | Price for the default vendor. |
| Amazon BuyBox Price | Retail price of Amazon’s BuyBox. Many online sellers use this information to determine if they can be competitive on a given product, or if they should discontinue the product. Read how to get the Amazon BuyBox. |
If the settings or services were not properly configured or if any client settings were changed since the last time the Predictive Purchase data was calculated, please follow these steps to re-calculate this data:
- Go to Purchasing > Tools > Predictive Purchasing.
- If the services above have been set, go to Step #3 above.
If not, or if you want to calculate based on even more recent data, open the Action menu and choose Generate Data for Sold Since Last Year > Go. This will calculate data for all products in your catalog. Alternatively, you can select specific items on the grid and choose Generate Data for Selected SKUs from the Action menu. SKUs will only appear in the grid after Steps 5 and 6 have been completed.
Add Items to PO
- Deficit quantity based on the Days To Order selection will auto-populate in the QTY field; edit the field as necessary.
- Select the products on the grid.
- Open the Action Menu and choose Add to PO > Go. You will be prompted to create a new PO or add to existing.
- Choose your option and click Continue.
When a PO is created with default Case Qty enabled, the supplied units will be added as Case Units.
Export a Predictive Purchase Report
You can create a scheduled task that automatically exports a predictive purchasing Excel file. You can save the file for future reference and documentation. This report will track a variety of information, like Site Cost or Average Profit.
In the exported Excel file, TotalQtyExt is the available qty of the SKU + the available qty of all its replacement products.
To export a Predictive Purchase report:
- Go to Purchasing > Predictive Purchasing > Search > Select the items you want.
- Go to the Action menu > Export to Excel.
Predictive purchasing helps you forecast the order quantity for a predicted amount of future sales. The projection is based on several factors, including the number of past sales and the current available quantity. Past sales are used to determine the velocity or the rate of sales per day over a given date range. Velocity is then multiplied to calculate the deficit supply for multiple date ranges. In more complex cases, days in stock and on-order quantities are also factored into the prediction.
Before you use Predictive Purchasing, read about the Predictive Purchasing tools and the configurations you need before you get started.
You can create a scheduled task that automatically exports a predictive purchasing Excel file.
| TERM | DEFINITION |
| Days OF Order | Days of past sales on which you are basing the prediction. This generates a daily velocity. Days with no stock availability are skipped in the Days Of Order Count.
Days with no stock are only skipped when the client setting Use InStock days in predictive purchasing data is enabled.
|
| Days To Order | Days to which you are multiplying the daily velocity to generate an Add to PO Qty. While the deficit supply will be calculated for all dates, this selection enables a quick add to PO. See below. |
| Velocity | Rate of sales per day when calculated by Qty Sold in Days of Order divided by Days of Order. |
| Deficit Supply | Predicted deficit to your supply for multiple date ranges calculated as (Velocity x Deficit Days) – (Available quantity + On Order). See below. |
Example: Days of Order 30/ Days to Order 15
In this example, 108 units sold in the past 30 days (Qty Sold column). Since it is based on a 30-day period, per day velocity is 3.6.
- Deficit Supply 15 — Multiplying 3.6 by 15 = 54. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 15 of 26. ((108/30) * 15) – 28 = 26
- Deficit Supply 30 — Multiplying 3.6 by 30 = 108. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 30 of 80 ((108/30) * 30) – 28 = 80
- Deficit Supply 45 —Multiplying 3.6 by 45 = 162. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 45 of 134. ((108/30) * 45) – 28 = 134
- The same calculation for 60 and 90; see below for an explanation of 11/M.
Since Days TO Order 15 was selected, the deficit qty of 26 was auto-entered into the Qty field to add to a PO.
You have the option to exclude certain channels within a company from predicted purchasing.
- Go to Settings > Company Settings > Predicted Purchasing Excluded Channels > Check Enable for companies you want to exclude from predicted purchasing.
Generate a Purchase Prediction
Purchasing predictions are generated automatically when the client setting Calculate Qty Sold in X days for Predicted Purchasing is enabled. This client setting is enabled by default.
Additionally, the service Product Inventory Movement Service must be running on your server. This service runs once daily around 2 AM.
To generate a Purchase Prediction:
- Go to Inventory > Predicted Purchasing.
- You also have the option to go Inventory > Manage Inventory and search for the SKUs you want to regenerate the data for. Then, from the Action menu, you can select the action Generate Predicted Purchase Data.
- Select the Days Of Order / Days To Order from their respective dropdowns.
- Check Only show rows with quantity to be ordered to see items with deficit quantities only.
- Click Search to populate the grid with items with the columns from the accordion below.
| COLUMN | DEFINITION |
| ProductID | The product ID. |
| ProductName | The product name. |
| ASIN | Amazon Standard Identification Number |
| Avail. Qty | Quantity in all warehouses. |
| Qty | Automatically populated. You can update this field manually by:
|
| Velocity | Rate of sales per day when calculated by – Qty Sold in Days of Order divided by Days of Order. |
| Qty Sold | Quantity sold in the selected “Days of Order.” Based on the Client Setting above, it will calculate sales for the days inventory was available. This means that if there were days within the selected “Days of Order” when there was no available inventory, those days will be skipped in the count. |
| Deficit Supply | The predicted deficit to your supply. This is calculated as follows: (Velocity x Days To Order) – (Available quantity + On Order). |
| 11/M | Qty Sold 11 months back in time for a full month period. This can be helpful when trying to determine quantities to order for seasonal periods, which are often different than preceding non-season months. For example, if you are at the beginning of November and want to determine how much to order for the coming seasonal month of December, this column will look back 11 months – to December – and display quantity sold for the month of December. This can be used as an indicator if you need to order more qty than was calculated based on the regular velocity. |
| On Order | Shows how many units are on open Purchase Orders. PO must be set as “Approved” to consider quantity “On Order.” It is critical for determining if, and how many units, need to be ordered. After determining how many units are needed for the given time period, both the available quantity and on order quantities are factored in to determine how many need to still be ordered. Clicking the OnOrder Quantity will open the related PO. |
| Vendor | Default vendor on the product. |
| Vendor Price | Price of the default vendor. |
| Amazon BuyBox Price | Retail price of Amazon’s BuyBox. Many online sellers use this information to determine if they can be competitive on a given product, or if they should discontinue the product. Read how to get the Amazon BuyBox. |
If the settings or services were not properly configured or if any client settings were changed since the last time the Predictive Purchase data was calculated, please follow these steps to re-calculate this data:
- Go to Inventory > Predicted Purchasing.
- If the services above have been set, go to Step #3.
If not, or if you want to calculate based on even more recent data, open the Action Menu and choose Generate Data for Sold Since Last Year > Go. This will calculate data for all products in your catalog. Alternatively, you can select specific items on the grid and choose Generate Data for Selected SKUs from the Action menu. SKUs will only appear in the grid after Steps 5 and 6 have been completed.
Add Items to PO
- Deficit quantity based on the Days To Order selection will auto-populate in the QTY field; edit the field as necessary.
- Select the products on the grid.
- Open the Action Menu and choose Add to PO > Go. You will be prompted to create a new PO or add to existing.
- Choose your option and click Continue.
When a PO is created with default Case Qty enabled, the supplied units will be added as Case Units.
Export a Predictive Purchase Report
You can create a scheduled task that automatically exports a predictive purchasing Excel file. You can save the file for future reference and documentation. This report will track a variety of information, like Site Cost or Average Profit.
In the exported Excel file, TotalQtyExt is the available qty of the SKU + the available qty of all its replacement products.
To export a Predictive Purchase report:
- Click Manage Inventory > Predicted Purchasing > Search > Select the items you want to create a report for.
- Click the Select Action drop down menu > Click Export to Excel > Go.
