Merchandising Planning
Rules drive product mix, allocation, and pricing for optimum business results.
To maximize sales and profits retailers must effectively plan product assortment, allocate the right products to stores and use the space in those stores effectively. Products must be priced right, and marked down and promoted effectively. Business rules can provide new levels of control over these crucial merchandising tasks.
- Allocation and Assortment
- Space and Layout Planning
- Product Pricing
- Markdowns and Promotions
Specialization of products and increasing variations make assortment planning and allocation ever more complex. Different size stores and stores in different locations need different assortments while varying customer demand and ongoing sales planning requires effective allocation of stock to stores. Business rules can define which stores get which products using sales, store and planning data as needed. And using business rules allows the business participants - from central merchandising groups to local store managers - to participate effectively in this process capturing the know-how in the organization and putting it to work.
Each store is different - different in size, shape, location, sales, and clientele. Laying out stores and assigning products to locations and shelf space involves applying best practices, local know-how and contractual obligations. Using business rules allows those who understand the conflicting constraints to specify them, ensuring accuracy, and applies all the rules that need to be applied quickly and precisely.
Managing price variations by store or by region and rapidly changing pricing to respond to market shifts means prices cannot be hard-coded into systems. And when products have warranties, service contracts and other information-based extensions, pricing can become too complex for a simple look-up table. Business rules manage every price from the most complex to the most simple in a common environment to ensure accuracy and deliver agility.
Markdown's driven by stock levels, time on shelf, sell-by dates and more must all be managed accurately. In addition, multiple promotions can overlap, creating pricing complexity. Add in a loyalty program and it can be hard to keep track. Business rules can specify markdowns and promotions precisely and flexibly, integrating them with standard product pricing so that customers always get the right price.
Additional Corticon Retail Solutions: Merchandising Planning, Multi Channel Retail, Store Operations
Related Products:Corticon Business Rules Modeling Studio, Corticon Business Rules Server, Corticon Dialogs
To speak with someone at Corticon, please contact us here, call us at +1 888.619.2424 or email us at info@corticon.com.
