Increases in extreme weather events impact demand, operational risks and revenue losses for retailers
Weather impacts nearly every retail decision — from inventory levels and staffing to logistics and store safety. Severe weather can disrupt supply chains, shift consumer behavior more abruptly, and force more costly closures. Without better, more accurate, actionable forecasts, retailers are left reacting instead of planning, resulting in greater lost sales, excess inventory, and operational inefficiencies.
Many of AccuWeather’s clients have reported savings of millions of dollars, and one client saved $65 million from simply one AccuWeather forecast. Usually, the payback on our service is between 10:1 and 100:1.
In a recent study, across all time periods and parameters, forecasts from a competitor were 65.6% less accurate than those available at the same time from AccuWeather.
AccuWeather has a 97% annual renewal rate.
AccuWeather forecasts for the start time of snow events had an average error of 1½ hours, whereas other sources averaged more than a 3-hour error, meaning AccuWeather was at least twice as accurate.
Independent studies confirm that AccuWeather’s forecasts are significantly more accurate and more valuable than all others.
You can easily integrate AccuWeather’s notifications into your emergency messaging system for seamless operation, ensuring valuable seconds are not lost when severe weather threatens.
How leading retailers use AccuWeather to stay ahead,
gain the
competitive edge and stay better prepared
Merchandising Optimization
Better align product assortment and inventory levels with more accurate, weather-driven demand patterns.
Marketing Campaign Timing
Trigger better-timed promotions and campaigns based on forecasted weather conditions that most influence shopper behavior.
Supply Chain Planning
Better anticipate weather disruptions to logistics and distribution networks earlier and respond more effectively before they
impact operations.
Risk Mitigation
Reduce store closures, safety incidents, and asset damage
with more proactive severe weather alerts.
Learn more about how AccuWeather can help your retail
business make the best weather-impacted decisions
SkyGuard® Severe
Weather Warnings
More actionable warnings with proven Superior Accuracy™ to better prepare for the real risks and real impacts of severe weather.
Whether you’re keeping customers and employees safer at one of your stores or employees at a distribution center, AccuWeather’s SkyGuard® Severe Weather Warnings can help you plan better, keep people safer, and prevent losses.
Whether floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, hail, snow, ice, or disruptive storms—enhance safety at your susceptible facilities through actionable, highly accurate, site-specific warnings and updates.
Records clearly show that AccuWeather often provides more advance notice to get people to safety and for advanced planning than any other warning source.
AccuWeather’s false alarm reductions – when a government warning is issued for your area, but no immediate threat is expected at your specific location – have proven consistently to greatly reduce costly, unnecessary shutdowns.
For major weather-impacted decisions, our team of over 100 expert meteorologists is available 24×7 to consult and provide insights when key decisions are required.
Long-Range Forecasts
AccuWeather’s Long-Range Forecasts will have you better prepared for every season. If you are not using AccuWeather for your long-term planning decisions regarding stock, supply chains, and staffing, you are at risk of making the wrong decisions.
Whether it’s two weeks to two years, AccuWeather has a team of expert long-range meteorologists who provide forecasts with proven Superior Accuracy months and often days earlier than all sources, ensuring your stores are better prepared for all weather hazards.
Retailers who have leveraged AccuWeather’s weather data understand how weather patterns influence consumer behavior. For instance, winter storms or scorching summer heat waves can significantly impact the demand for
specific products.
specific products.
Severe weather events like hurricanes, snowstorms, and flooding can disrupt the entire supply chain.
Retailers constantly challenge themselves to optimize their inventory. Weather-induced events can lead to sudden spikes in demand for certain products and a decline in sales for others.
Extreme weather conditions, such as flooding, power outages, or temperature fluctuations, can damage inventory.
Historical and Forecast Data
AccuWeather’s Weather Data Can Help you Make Better Data-Driven Decisions. AccuWeather has the cleanest and most accurate historical database, with the greatest temporal resolution (minutes or hours), greatest spatial resolution (downscaled to one km), and the greatest number of parameters (300+) against which to correlate your
business numbers.
As a result of this combination, you can develop the best predictive algorithms that will allow you to forecast future results with the most accuracy.
Use AccuWeather’s uniquely detailed, highly localized, and sterilized historical weather database of 300+ metrics to identify correlations and statistical relationships between past weather conditions (and even forecasts) and your individual product sales by location or territory.
Turn correlations into predictive analytics so you can better anticipate demand and reduce stock-outs or excess inventory and run a more efficient supply chain.
Efficiently manage and process large volumes of weather data, enhancing your data analytics and forecasting efforts. Easy to use data interfaces API or a flat file can be easily delivered to integrate into your FTP server.
Use zip code-specific data for your retail locations to analyze impacts on foot traffic, sales trends, inventory management, and staffing needs. Better manage inventory levels, ensuring that stores are stocked with the right products at the right time and preventing stockouts.
Plug better weather data directly into your
business systems
Integrate AccuWeather’s most accurate weather data into your ERP, POS, or marketing automation platforms to power more adaptive, weather-driven workflows across your organization.
Weather data is available today directly from AccuWeather or via other plug-and-play services like.
