Bringing Order Out of Chaos: Forecasting e-Commerce
Document Type
Article
Publisher
Journal of Business Forecasting
Publication Source
Journal of Business Forecasting
Abstract
Decision making in an organization becomes more equivocal when the business environment is dynamic or uncertain. E-commerce faces such and environment, making forecasting an important function in this type of business. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a research study on forecasting e-commerce. The objective was to develop an understanding of the characteristics of doing business electronically, as well as if and how businesses were forecasting demand. Once this was understood, the goal was to determine guidelines for companies to conduct e-commerce forecasting. The challenge to e-commerce executives is to design a forecasting process that is responsive to the demands of the business environment and uses their technological expertise to support this process. Sustainable performance in the e-commerce environment, stemming from a well-designed forecasting process, can only be achieved with careful consideration of the relationship between each of the puzzle pieces in the forecasting method.
Comments
Published by the Journal of Business Forecasting in the Journal of Business Forecasting, volume 20 issue 1, 2001. Bryant users may access this article here.