How retailers are using weather data to schedule discounts

Weather data, once used strictly for inventory planning, is now helping retailers localize advertising.

Big-name retailers such as Walmart are increasingly using analytics to blunt the impact of one of the most unpredictable performance variables of shopping: weather. Weather data, once used strictly for inventory planning, is now helping retailers localize advertising and decide when to discount seasonal items such as sweaters. Walmart, whose inventory planning with artificial-intelligence software incorporates weather analysis, reduced sunscreen prices a couple weeks earlier than usual this year in parts of the U.S. Weather data forecasting a wetter-than-usual autumn in some U.S. regions was a factor in its decision, whereas several years ago, it likely would not have been, said Kirby Doyle, a skin-care category replenishment adviser to the world’s biggest retailer. “In the beginning, (weather data) was just a forecast model for high-level planning,” said Doyle, who works for Beiersdorf, which makes personal-care products. “Now we’re infusing it into preseason planning and throughout the season to diagnose the impact of weather, and for things like scheduling promotions.”