With the coronavirus closing physical offices and stores, retailers are sitting on a mountain of stock from the current season while also having to plan for future seasons without the benefit of traditional tools and data sources.

As merchants look to emerge from the crisis and get back to brick-and-mortar business, they will need to assess what types of products the consumer is actually looking for at that time. Lacking the ability to test products in stores, a lot of retailers’ demand planning insights will need to instead come from digital customer research.

Sourcing Journal’s webinar on April 15 covered how store merchants can move forward if they can’t conduct business as usual. From decisions on assortment to pricing strategies and promotions, listening to real-time consumer insights will be valuable in adapting to meet shoppers’ changing priorities and adapt to shifted seasons.

Listen to the webinar to learn:

• How COVID-19 is impacting consumer sentiment
• When consumers expect stores to reopen
• How the coronavirus has accelerated rue21’s digital product testing
• Why forward-looking data could be more valuable than historical data
• How retailers can identify and leverage tastemakers to predict consumer response to items
• Why the coronavirus disruption could usher in more see-now, buy-now merchandising

Speakers:

• Mark Chrystal, chief analytics officer of rue21
• Greg Flinn, planning and optimization product solutions manager at Oracle Retail
• Jim Shea, chief commercial officer of First Insight
• Edward Hertzman, president of Sourcing Journal Media (moderator)