BRACING F UNPREDICT

Retail has always had trends, but the speed at which they can turn into sales has changed and grown far more unpredictable. A product can sit unsold for weeks before a TikTok video puts it in front of millions of people. Within hours, a retailer can be dealing with an order volume it had absolutely no way to predict. For customers, that immediacy is part of the appeal: a product appears in a video, catches someone’ s attention, and, within moments, an order is placed. For the businesses behind those sales, things are rather more complicated than a few taps on a screen. The social media side of retail has become incredibly sophisticated, but the physical side still has to keep up. Orders still need to be picked, stock moved, and products sent out.