Weather in Retail: Risk or Opportunity?
Weather plays an influential role in the retail sector, it is the second biggest influencer on consumer behaviour. On rainy days umbrellas can be found in shop fronts. Gloves, hats and candles sell well when it’s cold outside and soft drinks, ice cream and fans when it’s hot. Supply chains are disrupted during severe weather events and shoppers habits change. Retailers not yet using weather insights are missing out on increased sales and efficiency opportunities.
Weather impacts sales, efficiency and safety. UBIMET weather solutions enable you to make informed decisions
Become Weather Smart
Weather adjust your marketing campaigns for the next hour, day or week and adjust your processes accordingly.
Plan with the with weather
Analyse historical weather data for every store to optimise weather correlated sales.
Reduce Waste
Use store specific weather insights to reduce spoiled and/or expired goods with weather responsive stock levels and marketing activities.
Maximise Availability
Reduce unnecessary store closures due to severe weather conditions with working conditions & weather warnings.
Be Health & Safety Compliant
Reduce the risk of accidents and keep your employees and customers safe. Recall weather data post-incident for reporting.
Demand predictive logistics
Predict changes in your supply chain and act accordingly before a problem occurs.
UBIMET Retail Weather Cockpit: Increasing sales, reducing waste
UBIMET helps retail companies to predict weather-dependent sales trends and to increase revenue. This is achieved not only though optimising storage requirements, ensuring that high-demand products are in stock at the right time, but also by optimising promotions so that they really work for you. Weather data is generally not taken into account or not weighted enough in sales forecasts. Reacting quickly to weather forecasts in the retail sector is not yet commonplace if it were it could help prevent businesses from discarding goods. Our Retail Weather Cockpit® clearly shows the connections between weather and the buying behaviour of consumers, assisting businesses to plan their commercial activities better.
The use of weather forecasts in the retail sector can provide exceptional support in the following areas:
- Sales forecasts
- Planning sales campaigns
- Warehousing
- Goods management
- Organising weather-related deals at the point-of-sale
- Scheduling services
By using UBIMET’s tailored weather data, retailers can sell more, throw less away, and at the same time improve customer service and customer satisfaction.
The UBIMET Retail Weather Cockpit® for:
- Precise weather forecasts for optimal sales planning, product scheduling and managing advertising campaigns
- Contrast-rich and engaging weather maps
- Inclusion of all weather-affected products
Weather Triggered Advertising Will Transform Your Sales
Boost Sales
Increase sales and maximize profit by weather targeting adverts
Increase Ad Recall
Match your adverts with the weather conditions of the viewer
Weather adapted pricing
Adjust prices based on the weather (such as sunlight)
Willingness to pay is correlated with the weather
Weather is a well-known factor influencing an individual’s mood and their spending patterns. Every weather condition has its own sales performance correlation with just about every consumer good. What isn’t as well known is that weather not only changes the willingness to purchase a good, but it also influences how much we are willing to spend on goods. Research published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services highlights the impact sunlight has on the mean willingness to pay for a product/service.
- Products
- Green Tea
- Orange Juice
- Gym Membership
- Flight Ticket
- Newspaper Subscription
- No Sunlight Condition
- $3.35
- $2.90
- $32.89
- $400.00
- $11.41
- Sunlight Condition
- $4.61
- $3.51
- $41.67
- $517.98
- $17.79
Source: Kyle B. Murray et Al., The effect of weather on consumer spending, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
Weather-Driven Demand
Going beyond the obvious correlation between the weather and products such as ice cream and umbrellas, weather impacts nearly every industry and every product/service. Research has proven that a year-on-year rise or fall in temperature by just one degree Fahrenheit does have a significant impact on sales of consumer goods. A greater temperature variation or a combination with a secondary weather condition can increase the figures considerably.
- Weekly increase in sales when temperature is 1° F hotter
- Soft Drinks: 2%
- Air Conditioners: 24%
- Suncare Products: 11%
- Infant Apparel: 4%
- Hedge Trimmers: 13%
- Weekly increase in sales when temperature is 1° F colder
- Soup: 2%
- Portable Heater: 15%
- Mousetraps: 25%
- Softline Goods: 2.5%
- Lipcare Units: +5,000
Source: ‘Profit of One Degree’ by wxtrends
Want to integrate hyperlocal weather insights into your own systems?
With the UBIMET API “UBI:Connect” it’s easy to create a connection between your systems and UBIMET’s high-quality hyper-local weather database. Find out more on our dedicated weather API page or ask for more information below.
