Starting a new company is challenging, but forecasting sales of new products can be even more challenging if you’re brand new to the market, or you lack historical data to aid in forecasting.
That said, forecasting is a necessity to planning for the resources and inventory you’ll need to meet demand. Being prepared can prepare your new company for success.
Your company will likely start off wanting to develop a strategy that recuperates what you spent to develop and launch the products, in addition to investing in enough initial inventory to meet demands. Planning for a launch is another step that has to be discussed alongside development, as you need a strategy to get the word out. Using audio-visual production at launch events with companies like Smart Works can help provide another layer to these events, helping your launch make an impression.
But how can you do this if this is your company’s first product?
The short answer: you can’t. But there are other resources you can research to estimate costs, inventory, and strategy.
Use Market Research Before and During Product Development
Market research reports are available at a cost of around $2-3,000 and details world market data on specific markets. For instance, if your new product is sports nutrition, you’d likely start researching the market research reports for Sports Nutrition and conducting quantitative data collection to get some figures. Hopefully, you began this research during development.
There you will find estimated market growth over a period of 5-10 years. Geographical targets, cultural trends, packaging, consumer behaviors and more.
With that information, you can develop a strategy targeting specific locations and start determining how to enter different channels, foreign markets and distributor contracts.
Conduct Primary Market Research
Before launching, selecting focus groups, holding surveys and attaining customer feedback and behavior can give you some insight on the initial response to your product by consumers.
But that is not enough to forecast inventory. You should reach out to distributors and determine interest. If you have no pre-existing relationship or products, you might find this to be difficult. You can address the need to fill in the blanks for distributors by launching a pilot product test.
Pilot Product Launch
Launching your new product to a small market may give you a snapshot of what you might expect when scaling. You can also use the feedback and data to polish strategies and propose partnerships.
Dedicated Monitoring
The first several months of your product launch will require consistent monitoring to determine if strategies, pricing, inventory, and production need modification. Ensure you have a dedicated team to monitoring your progress.
As stated in the intro, its always easier to forecast if you have existing products, if you don’t, turning to a company that provides solutions to product launching may be far less costly than trying to do it alone. Super Health Center has nearly 20 years’ experience in product launching, development, branding along with an international presence and existing relationships with vendors. We have intimate insight on product data for forecasting and we have dedicated teams for each brand we bring on.
Work with a Company Experienced in Product Launches
Choosing a single source solution provider like SHC can help you save on employee costs, market research, pilot programs, product market feedback and more. We can put your products in locations throughout the world with our experience in foreign registration and compliance requirements and our partnerships with thousands of locations, vendors and channels throughout the world.
Your new product’s launch must be successful if you want long-term success with your product.
Find out more about what SHC can do for you. Connect with us today