RETAIL STRATEGIC PLANNING: A New Approach for 2021

Out with the old, in with the new! COVID-19 has made traditional strategic planning and budgeting techniques obsolete. One commentator recently stated, “Any data older than five months is useless for predictive purposes.” While this comment may be a bit of hyperbole, there is a ring of truth to it.

Join us as we address key issues facing retail and related companies as they approach the 2021 planning cycle. Our SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) have slightly different perspectives, but together will provide some new guidelines about how to approach this daunting task.

Our panel will address the following topics and more: 

• Winners vs. Losers: How will planning be different for the “have’s” and “have not’s,” that is, those companies who have come through COVID-19 virtually unscathed vs. the “walking wounded”?
• Consumer Demand: How to forecast consumer demand against the backdrop of 2020?
• Supply Chain: Impact of suppliers/manufacturers/importers unable to get credit or be factored on the retail and wholesale supply chains.
• Working Capital: How to forecast WC needs, given uncertainties of how the credit markets might react to continued economic volatility.
• CNN Effect (Or Worse!): What will be the impact on consumer demand in 1Q21, if the outcome of the Presidential election is in doubt for some number of weeks or months?
• Contingency Plans: What will banks consider to be a “bankable” plan and what might they require in terms of contingency plans?