Inventory Optimization in Retail SMEs: A Prophet and Python-Based Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37431/conectividad.v6i4.399Keywords:
Predictive models, Prophet, Phyton, Inventory management, SMEs, RetailAbstract
Efficient inventory management is a major challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the retail sector in Latin America. This study proposes the use of Prophet, an open-source tool developed by Meta and implemented in Python, to forecast product demand and optimize inventory planning. We analyzed real daily sales data from 2021 to 2023, with over 15,000 records, achieving an average Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of 6.5%, outperforming traditional methods such as ARIMA. Key benefits include a 22% reduction in immobilized inventory and estimated annual savings of $20,000 USD. The solution was implemented in Google Colab, making it accessible and scalable even for companies with limited resources.
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