Dive Brief:

• Start-ups are helping retailers figure out the always-complicated project of determining inventory needs, prices, and availability of goods for the holidays, Bloomberg reports. 

• Data firms working in the “freight forwarding” industry have raised some $1 billion since last year, double that of the five years before that, Bloomberg says, noting research from PitchBook Data. And data stalwarts are hardly ignoring the space.

• Cargo ships carrying goods worldwide moved some $19 trillion worth of merchandise last year, according to the World Bank, and labor shortages at West Coast ports here made the holidays something of a nightmare.

Dive Insight:

The holidays, coming at the end of the year, are traditionally a time for retailers to unload inventory, to clear the way for new merchandise to sell in the coming year.

But it’s also a time to acquire the things — hot toys and other in-demand items — that shoppers will be clamoring for as must-have gifts. The new Star Wars movie, released at the beginning of December, for example, is already creating huge demand for related merchandise. 

That can be a tall order, or orders, especially with cargo rates and availability so hard to pin down. Enter data and analytics, which promise to bring more transparency to the space so that retailers can plan what to put on their shelves, not to mention what their own prices should be.

It’s not like long lines or inventory troubles will go away, but investors and retailers are clearly hoping that data will help.