NOTE: You can solve the question using excel too.

Question 2 Advanced Micros, a retailer in computer equipment, accessories and gadgets was established about 5 years ago. Since its inception, the organization has now 3 fairly large sales outlets in the north, east and west of Singapore. The owners of Advanced Micros have plans to expand the organization's presence in other parts of Singapore, notably in larger malls with heavier human traffic. They recently recruited you as their Marketing Manager to help improve sales of Advanced Micros. You reckon that a trend analysis of sales and the number of customers patronising Advanced Micos' retail outlets is one of your priority tasks and have requested your sales executive Chris to retrieve data on the total number of customers patronizing Advanced Micros' shops over the last four years. Chris presented to you the following data arranged in chronological order: Jun 2350 2530 Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Year 1 3130 1980 1940 2190 1820 Year 2 2940 3520 3030 3210 3060 Year 3 3990 3730 4110 3840 4320 Year 4 6520 6010 5820 6080 6070 Table 1: Total number of Customers for Jan to Jun, Year 1 to Year 4 3940 5650 Year Jul Oct 3720 Dec 3890 2190 3350 2720 3320 3640 4330 4580 6630 7730 Aug Sep Year 1 2630 2960 Year 2 3990 Year 3 4380 4760 5320 5860 6720 Year 4 5280 5740 5930 6230 7460 Table 2: Total number of customers for Jul to Dec, Year 1 to Year 4 (a) Identify the appropriate forecasting method to analyse the above monthly data on the total number of customers patronizing the retail outlets of Advanced Micros. Provide justifications for the method of anlaysis chosen. (10 marks) (b) Determine the forecasts for the total number of customers for the next 6 months of Year 5. 5 You are required to show clearly the essential steps and working details in your computations of the forecasts with three (3) appropriate sample calculations of key components of your forecasting method. All computations should be rounded up to 4 decimal places. (19 marks)