What this page is for
A new product has no sales history, so the statistical forecast has nothing to learn from — it can’t produce a meaningful Baseline. Spherecast gives you two ways to seed a forecast for these items, plus a status pill so you can track which new products you’ve reviewed.Two ways to seed a new-product forecast
Apply demand profile
A demand profile is a saved seasonal shape — for example “summer-peaking” or “holiday-driven.” You choose a profile and an “Apply from” month, and Spherecast reshapes the forecast from that month onward to match the profile’s pattern, while preserving each year’s annual total. You get realistic seasonality without inventing month-by-month numbers. See Demand profiles for how profiles are built and saved.Manual forecast upload for new items
Upload the numbers you expect for the new item. The “only apply to new items” option defaults on, so an upload won’t disturb established products by mistake. An auto-fill step derives each channel’s warehouse allocations from that channel’s category history, so you don’t have to split the forecast across warehouses by hand.Planning status
Each product-and-channel combination carries a Planning status pill that tracks how far along your review is:| Status | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Untouched | Gray | Not yet reviewed |
| In progress | Yellow | Being worked on |
| Done | Green | Reviewed and complete |
Step by step: forecast a new product with a demand profile
- Find the new product on the demand plan (its Planning status will be Untouched).
- Choose Apply demand profile.
- Pick the seasonal profile that best matches the item.
- Set the “Apply from” month — usually the launch month.
- Confirm. The forecast takes on the profile’s shape while keeping the annual total you expect.
- Mark the item Done when you’re satisfied.
Example
A beverage company launches a new sparkling water in April. There’s no history, so the planner applies a “summer-peaking” demand profile from April onward. The annual total stays at the planned 60,000 cases, but the shape now loads more volume into June, July, and August. For a second launch, the planner instead uploads exact expected numbers with “only apply to new items” on, and Spherecast splits each channel’s volume across warehouses using that channel’s category history.Tip: Demand profiles are best when you know the seasonality but not the exact numbers; the manual upload is best when marketing has given you firm figures. See Import & export for the upload details.