Retailers Become Weather Watchers

There’s no rhyme or reason to the ways of Mother Nature, but some of the nation’s retailers are trying to crack her code.

Looking to reduce the risks associated with the weather, more merchants now use long-range forecasts to help determine their seasonal merchandise, inventory and sales strategies.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. recently saw a summer heat wave coming and decided to skip the traditional markdown of its fans. Eastern Mountain Sports stocked up on rainwear based on a wet spring forecast. After the skies cleared, the company found itself with a 38 percent sales increase.

“If you can predict the intensity of the seasons and what you predict actually happens, that can do lots for your business,” said William Ferry, vice president at Mercer Management Consulting.

For retailers, rainy summers, hot Octobers or snowstorms days before Christmas can cost millions in lost sales. Whether it’s too hot, cold or wet, customers stay home and leave retailers with big inventories that have to be cleared at a discount.

Fed up with the constant weather struggle, some retailers are turning to forecasting firms like Wayne, Pa.-based Strategic Weather Services to help plan merchandise and inventory around the expected weather.

Forecasts help appliance retailers decide how many air conditioners or space heaters to stock, and in which part of the country. Apparel merchants use forecasts to help them try to anticipate clothing trends, and when they should start displaying seasonal merchandise.

Eastern Mountain Sports, a sporting goods/apparel chain gets weekly forecasts as well as outlooks for coming months. In addition, it receives weather in key cities around the country and a 30-year weather history for specific times of the year.

“You can go in all different directions with the weather and this just gives us a little more courage in our planning,” said Doug MacPhee of Eastern Mountain.