New Product Forecasting helps you plan demand for products that don’t yet have historical sales data. Swap generates an initial forecast by comparing your new product to similar items in your range, giving you a realistic starting point to review and adjust.
What is New Product Forecasting?
New Product Forecasting allows you to create demand forecasts for products that are still in Draft in Shopify and haven’t started selling yet.
Instead of guessing or starting from zero, Swap:
Finds similar existing products based on tags, categories, and product types
Uses their historical performance as a reference
Visualises the similar products to help you review their forecasts
Generates a draft forecast for the new product
This helps you plan inventory earlier and more confidently — before launch.
How New Product Forecasts Are Built
Swap uses an AI-powered matching model to identify products in your catalogue that are most similar to the new product.
The model looks at signals like:
Product tags
Categories
Product types
Based on these similar products, Swap generates a forecast that reflects real historical demand patterns, rather than assumptions or placeholders.
This makes new-product forecasts grounded in reality, explainable and easy to trust and act on.
How It Works (Step by Step)
1. Create Draft Products in Shopify
Create a new product in Shopify and keep it in Draft status. Swap supports draft products created within the last 3 months.
2. Draft Products Appear Automatically in Swap
Draft products appear almost immediately in the New Product Forecasting section in Swap - no manual setup needed.
3. Generate the Forecast
Click into a draft product and generate its forecast
You’ll see:
Forecasted sales over time
A visual chart similar to Demand Planning
The products Swap used as references
4. Set or Adjust the Launch Date
You can adjust the product’s launch date. Changing the launch date automatically shifts when forecasted sales begin.
5. Adjust Variant-Level Forecasts
You can easily adjust forecasts at the variant (SKU) level to reflect expected size or colour mix. You can use the size curvature of similar products as a help below
6. Mark the Forecast as Done
Once reviewed, mark the forecast as Done.
This helps you:
track which products you’ve already reviewed
keep a clean, transparent forecasting workflow
7. Product Goes Live
When the product status changes from Draft → Active in Shopify, it automatically appears in Demand Planning with its forecast already in place.
Size curvature of similar items
You can also view the size curvature of similar items in an easy view to help you decide on how much to forecast in each variant!
Where New Product Forecasts Appear
New Product Forecasting lives in its own dedicated view, but connects directly into your wider planning workflow:
Draft products → New Product Forecasting
Active products → Demand Planning
Forecast history remains visible for context
Early Access & Feedback
New Product Forecasting is the first version of this feature, and we’re actively collecting feedback and improving how similarity matching and forecasting work over time.
Your input helps shape how this feature evolves!