IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jofsma/v24y2019i3d10.1057_s41264-019-00068-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sales forecasting in financial distribution: a comparison of quantitative forecasting methods

Author

Listed:
  • Jiří Šindelář

    (University of Finance and Administration Prague)

Abstract

This paper deals with the issue of forecastability of sales activities of independent financial advisers (agents). Employing the most common quantitative methods on a diverse sample of timelines from multiple advisory companies, we have found that under most settings, these methods offer sub-par performance with high relative errors and no statistical differences between them. When a more granular approach is applied (reflecting sales unit size), ARIMA and the simple moving average emerge as significantly less accurate. This outcome is true for all sales units regardless of their size, when relative error is concerned. Thus, our analysis confirms the difficult forecastability of financial sales, speaking against the utilisation of more sophisticated forecasting methods, which mostly fail when compared to their much simpler and less costly counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiří Šindelář, 2019. "Sales forecasting in financial distribution: a comparison of quantitative forecasting methods," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 69-80, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jofsma:v:24:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1057_s41264-019-00068-3
    DOI: 10.1057/s41264-019-00068-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41264-019-00068-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41264-019-00068-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter M. Catt, 2009. "Forecastability: Insights from Physics, Graphical Decomposition, and Information Theory," Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting, International Institute of Forecasters, issue 13, pages 24-33, Spring.
    2. Robert Salomon & J. Myles Shaver, 2005. "Export and domestic sales: their interrelationship and determinants," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(9), pages 855-871, September.
    3. Chu, Ching-Wu & Zhang, Guoqiang Peter, 2003. "A comparative study of linear and nonlinear models for aggregate retail sales forecasting," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 217-231, December.
    4. Lee, Jongsu & Lee, Chul-Yong & Lee, Kichun Sky, 2012. "Forecasting demand for a newly introduced product using reservation price data and Bayesian updating," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(7), pages 1280-1291.
    5. Green, Kesten C. & Armstrong, J. Scott, 2015. "Simple versus complex forecasting: The evidence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1678-1685.
    6. Mohammad M. Ali & John E. Boylan, 2010. "The Value of Forecast Information Sharing in Supply Chains," Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting, International Institute of Forecasters, issue 18, pages 14-18, Summer.
    7. Dalrymple, Douglas J., 1975. "Sales forecasting methods and accuracy," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 69-73, December.
    8. Syntetos, Aris A. & Zied Babai, M. & Gardner, Everette S., 2015. "Forecasting intermittent inventory demands: simple parametric methods vs. bootstrapping," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1746-1752.
    9. Hyndman, Rob J. & Koehler, Anne B., 2006. "Another look at measures of forecast accuracy," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 679-688.
    10. Paul Goodwin, 2011. "High on Complexity, Low on Evidence: Are Advanced Forecasting Methods Always as Good as They Seem?," Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting, International Institute of Forecasters, issue 23, pages 10-12, Fall.
    11. Dalrymple, Douglas J., 1987. "Sales forecasting practices: Results from a United States survey," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 3(3-4), pages 379-391.
    12. Makridakis, Spyros & Hibon, Michele, 2000. "The M3-Competition: results, conclusions and implications," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 451-476.
    13. Rob J. Hyndman & Andrey V. Kostenko, 2007. "Minimum Sample Size requirements for Seasonal Forecasting Models," Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting, International Institute of Forecasters, issue 6, pages 12-15, Spring.
    14. Donna F. Davis & John T. Mentzer & Teresa M. Mccarthy & Susan L. Golicic, 2006. "The evolution of sales forecasting management: a 20-year longitudinal study of forecasting practices," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(5), pages 303-324.
    15. Green, Kesten C. & Armstrong, J. Scott & Soon, Willie, 2009. "Validity of climate change forecasting for public policy decision making," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 826-832, October.
    16. Adam Gordon, 2010. "The Boundaries of Quantitative Forecasting Methods: Respecting the Limits of Determinism," Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting, International Institute of Forecasters, issue 19, pages 9-15, Fall.
    17. Peter Hofer & Christoph Eisl & Albert Mayr, 2015. "Forecasting in Austrian companies," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(3), pages 359-382, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Armstrong, J. Scott & Green, Kesten C. & Graefe, Andreas, 2015. "Golden rule of forecasting: Be conservative," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1717-1731.
    2. Perera, H. Niles & Hurley, Jason & Fahimnia, Behnam & Reisi, Mohsen, 2019. "The human factor in supply chain forecasting: A systematic review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(2), pages 574-600.
    3. Wellens, Arnoud P. & Boute, Robert N. & Udenio, Maximiliano, 2024. "Simplifying tree-based methods for retail sales forecasting with explanatory variables," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 314(2), pages 523-539.
    4. Kang, Yanfei & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Petropoulos, Fotios & Athiniotis, Nikolaos & Li, Feng & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2021. "Déjà vu: A data-centric forecasting approach through time series cross-similarity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 719-731.
    5. Katsikopoulos, Konstantinos V. & Şimşek, Özgür & Buckmann, Marcus & Gigerenzer, Gerd, 2022. "Transparent modeling of influenza incidence: Big data or a single data point from psychological theory?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 613-619.
    6. Hu, Qiwei & Boylan, John E. & Chen, Huijing & Labib, Ashraf, 2018. "OR in spare parts management: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 266(2), pages 395-414.
    7. Petropoulos, Fotios & Apiletti, Daniele & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Babai, Mohamed Zied & Barrow, Devon K. & Ben Taieb, Souhaib & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bessa, Ricardo J. & Bijak, Jakub & Boylan, Joh, 2022. "Forecasting: theory and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 705-871.
      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    8. Leitner, Johannes & Leopold-Wildburger, Ulrike, 2011. "Experiments on forecasting behavior with several sources of information - A review of the literature," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 213(3), pages 459-469, September.
    9. Hyndman, Rob J. & Khandakar, Yeasmin, 2008. "Automatic Time Series Forecasting: The forecast Package for R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 27(i03).
    10. Wong, W.K. & Guo, Z.X., 2010. "A hybrid intelligent model for medium-term sales forecasting in fashion retail supply chains using extreme learning machine and harmony search algorithm," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(2), pages 614-624, December.
    11. Hill, Arthur V. & Zhang, Weiyong & Burch, Gerald F., 2015. "Forecasting the forecastability quotient for inventory management," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 651-663.
    12. Fildes, Robert & Ma, Shaohui & Kolassa, Stephan, 2022. "Retail forecasting: Research and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1283-1318.
    13. repec:jss:jstsof:27:i03 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Petropoulos, Fotios & Wang, Xun & Disney, Stephen M., 2019. "The inventory performance of forecasting methods: Evidence from the M3 competition data," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 251-265.
    15. Abolghasemi, Mahdi & Hurley, Jason & Eshragh, Ali & Fahimnia, Behnam, 2020. "Demand forecasting in the presence of systematic events: Cases in capturing sales promotions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    16. Katsikopoulos, Konstantinos V. & Durbach, Ian N. & Stewart, Theodor J., 2018. "When should we use simple decision models? A synthesis of various research strands," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 17-25.
    17. Kourentzes, Nikolaos & Petropoulos, Fotios & Trapero, Juan R., 2014. "Improving forecasting by estimating time series structural components across multiple frequencies," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 291-302.
    18. Alysha M De Livera, 2010. "Automatic forecasting with a modified exponential smoothing state space framework," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 10/10, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    19. Litsiou, Konstantia & Polychronakis, Yiannis & Karami, Azhdar & Nikolopoulos, Konstantinos, 2022. "Relative performance of judgmental methods for forecasting the success of megaprojects," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1185-1196.
    20. Meira, Erick & Cyrino Oliveira, Fernando Luiz & de Menezes, Lilian M., 2022. "Forecasting natural gas consumption using Bagging and modified regularization techniques," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    21. Huber, Jakob & Stuckenschmidt, Heiner, 2020. "Daily retail demand forecasting using machine learning with emphasis on calendric special days," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1420-1438.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jofsma:v:24:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1057_s41264-019-00068-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.