Understanding customer taste and their buying patterns remains a tricky exercise. The story of L.L. Bean and their snow boots is a great example of how challenging it is to accurately predict demand. The Maine clothing and outdoor company is already sold out of their iconic boot. According to the Yahoo report, click here, there is already a 100,000 name long waiting list for the boot. Wow. Talk about a good problem to have, well maybe.
L.L. Bean cannot just ramp up their manufacturing, well in the long run they might be able to, but not fast enough to meet this pent up demand. Based on their meticulous manufacturing process, it takes half a year to train someone to manufacture the product, you cannot just bring on seasonal labor or outsource to a contract manufacturer to bolster your assembly line. So what should L.L. Bean do? It isn’t as if these shoes are a new product that vastly exceeded the expected demand. These shoes have been around, for what seems…forever.
No…you can’t wear this LL Bean boot
Their popularity is clearly back. I remember my classmates wearing these when I was in high school…and that was a long time ago. I never looked at them as a trendy item, not like what UGGs did or other brands. But clearly the product has regained popularity with the “younger people.” Meaning it is appealing to the 15 – 23 year old segment where trends can truly go viral. When you do a Google search for “L.L. Bean boots” you get sub searches “women,” “men,” “frat,” and “preppy.” Clearly it has mass appeal for the kids!
Should L.L. Bean have had better demand sensing? Could they have anticipated this upswing in orders months ago? Granted, based on the lead time they need with regards to adding manufacturing capacity, it might not have mattered. And how should they monitor this demand moving forward? Will there be this level of demand next winter? Or will some other brand become the cool footwear on campus next winter? This is one area of Matrix Commerce that calls for a high degree of digital sophistication as well as some good old fashion intuition.
Clearly this season is over capacity and there is very little L.L. Bean can do to accelerate the production. Moving forward, L.L. Bean needs to apply some savvy digital monitoring to better gauge the demand for 2015 and beyond. For example – what is the reaction of the shoes? Are they trending on social channels? How are they being discussed on social channels? Are the returns on pace with historic returns? Or are there more or less? L.L. Bean should monitor the fake and knock off products – imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Companies that can produce a similar product will rush into the market if they believe the pent up demand cannot be met or if there is another layer of demand at a lower price point. These are all digital data points that L.L. Bean will have to pull back into their planning and forecasting engines to better manage their supply chain. Of course there is the other strategy of potentially keeping the supply low, to create exclusivity of the product. Hmmm makes one wonder.
But this latest Christmas season and fashion trend story reminds all of us, that accurately predicting future tastes and demands remain a fickle beast. The digital world allows us to cast a wider and more detailed net of what is going on, but we are far from being able to create an precise map for demand.
Now where are my boots…we are having a Nor’Easter here in Boston!
