Predictive Analytics for Inventory and Marketing Certificate

FIT’s Predictive Analytics for Inventory and Marketing Certificate is an interactive course that covers analytics techniques applied to retail and fashion-related industries.

The certificate course contains lectures, discussions, and case studies involving analytical techniques that can be applied to retail and fashion business scenarios.

Both the analytics and business side of all calculations and techniques will be discussed. How these techniques are used and why they make sense for a business are woven together throughout the course.

You will learn how to analyze demand and retail data and how components such as seasonality, trend, and weather affect the data. You will apply statistical techniques to predict forecasts and measure their accuracy.

In an extended case study for weather analytics, you will analyze the effect of weather on business data. For this you will work directly with visiting industry experts from Planalytics.

You will develop the ability to analyze inventory management decisions using the tools of statistics and probability and gain facility in decision making under uncertainty.

This course will involve hands-on use of common spreadsheet tools with many specific applications involving demand, seasonality, trend, forecasting, tracking, lost sales, lead time, safety stock, promotions, advertising, pricing, and markdowns.

Emphasis will be on common analytical techniques that can be leveraged for any business situation.

Some knowledge of elementary statistics and spreadsheet software is recommended, but there will also be references and a review for anyone needing to brush up on this background. This is a course for the practitioner.

Requirements

• High-speed internet connection

• Standard laptop or desktop capable of running the latest browser and streaming media

• Webcam and speakers