The recent cold and wet wave sweeping across Australia show how weather can affect retail sales. The effect is stated to be 3.2%.
Which I can believe as a while ago, I did a study of my clients sales data and the weather. What I showed was that changes in temperature much more then the rain made impact sales of many products. I guess that people can reschedule in the day when they go shopping or pick a place which is covered if it is raining but if its too hot or cold many will cancel going shopping today. Also, I found that specific products do sell well if the weather is appropriate.
This a smart retailer can take advantage of, for example, have a stand filled with goods that are suitable for a hot day, another if it is raining, etc. In the appropriate weather, bring that stand to the front and move the inappropriate one to the back. Also, they can check that their drink fridge, is full on a hot day. I have seen figures of 200% increase in drink sales during a heat wave.
This is all too easy to do as seven-day forecasts are reasonably accurate nowadays.
Here is a step by step plan to take advantage of the weather.
Create a list of your products based on the weather; all you need to do is check the days that were unusually hot, cold, wet, etc. Now see what happened using your sales report from our system and your experience to see what sold well on those days.
Now bundle these products together by hot, cold, wet day etc.
Now every week, get the seven-day forecast here, select your area and see what coming days are abnormal.
Now you have a coming sales window, make sure you are prepared as by matching your product to match the appropriate weather conditions, you can increase conversions and sales.
