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Oracle® Retail Insights User Guide
Release 16.0.202
E88945-01
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5 Dimensions and Attributes

Retail Insights dimensions and attributes represent the structure and activities of a retail organization and make measurement possible. Data is stored at low levels to allow maximum flexibility in reporting. Dimensions and their attributes allow you to summarize this information at higher levels where it is needed to support business decision-making. For example, the Sales fact table holds data at the location, item, and day level. The time, product, and organization dimensions allow you to summarize this data at any level at which it is needed.


Note:

This chapter contains selective lists of dimensions and attributes. See Appendix B, "Reporting on Oracle BI Repository Objects" for information about producing comprehensive listings of Oracle BI repository objects.

Business Calendar

The business calendar (fiscal calendar) is a dimension based on a retailer's calendar and is not aligned with the Gregorian/solar calendar. It is used in place of the Gregorian calendar to eliminate discrepancies in the number of days per month, as well as number of weekend days per month. The business calendar is sometimes just called the time calendar.

The business calendar can be based on a variation of the 4-5-4 calendar or the 13-period calendar. Both of these types of calendars allocate exactly seven days to every week, unlike the Gregorian calendar. Most facts are qualified by a calendar attribute.

The following is the hierarchy of the Business Calendar dimension.

Business calendar dimension hierarchy

Table 5-1 lists the attributes of the Business Calendar dimension.

Table 5-1 Business Calendar Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Fiscal Period

The period of time, generally a month, reflected in financial statements.

Fiscal Year Number

Represents the period of year which company uses for calculating its annual fiscal statement.

Fiscal Year

Represents the period of year which company uses for calculating its annual fiscal statement.

Fiscal Year Start Date

Represents the start date of fiscal year for the company.

Fiscal Year End Date

Represents the end date of fiscal year for the company

Fiscal Half Year

Fiscal half-year period name.

Fiscal Quarter

Represents the fiscal quarter for the company

Fiscal Period Start Date

Represents the start date of fiscal period for the company.

Fiscal Period End Date

Represents the end date of fiscal period for the company.

Fiscal Week

Represents the fiscal week for the company.

Fiscal Week Start Date

Represents the start date of fiscal week for the company.

Fiscal Week End Date

Represents the end date of fiscal week for the company.

Fiscal Day Name

Fiscal Day Name

Fiscal Date

Represents the fiscal date.


4-5-4 Calendar

The 4-5-4 calendar is the default calendar. The calendar can be implemented as 4-5-4, 4-4-5, or 5-4-4, depending upon your needs. In addition, you determine the day of the week on which each week begins and ends. Every quarter contains 13 full weeks. Quarters have two 4-week months and one 5-week month.

13-Period Calendar

A 13-period calendar year is divided into 13 periods of four weeks (28 days). Every fifth or sixth year, there are 53 weeks. The calendar has a 28-year cycle of 6 years, 5 years, 6 years, 6 years, and 5 years. The 13-period calendar hierarchy is as follows.

Thirteen period calendar hierarchy

Gregorian Calendar

The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar that is based on the length of the earth's revolution around the sun. The Gregorian calendar is divided into 11 months of 30 or 31 days, plus February. February has 28 or 29 days, depending on whether the year is a leap year (occurring every four years). Thus, the Gregorian year is either 365 or 366 days.

The following is the hierarchy of the Gregorian calendar.

Gregorian Calendar hierarchy

Note:

Only one type of business calendar (4-5-4 or 13-period) can be installed for Retail Insights, in addition to the Gregorian calendar.

Table 5-2 Gregorian Calendar Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Year Number

This is the Gregorian Year Number

Year

This is the Gregorian Year

Year Start Date

This is the Gregorian Year Start Date

Year End Date

This is the Gregorian Year End Date

Half Year

This is the Gregorian Half Year

Quarter

This is the Gregorian Quarter

Month

Indicate the month.

Month Start Date

This is the start date of the gregorian month.

Month End Date

This is the end date of the gregorian month.

Week

This is the Gregorian Week

Week Start Date

This is the Gregorian Week Start Date

Week End Date

This is the Gregorian Week End Date

Day Name

This is the Gregorian Day Name

Date

This is the Gregorian Date


Time of Day

The Time of Day dimension permits analysis in the areas of loss prevention and employee productivity, where identifying problems and trends requires the use of hourly or smaller time increments. In addition, the Time of Day dimension allows analysis of sales and return transactions on an hourly basis.

The following is the hierarchy for the Time of Day dimension.

Time of day dimension hierarchy

Table 5-3 lists the attributes of the Time of Day dimension.

Table 5-3 Time of Day Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Hour Number 24 Hour Format

Hour portion in 24-hour format.

Qtr Hour Interval

A quarter-hour time slice within the 24-hour period, starting at 0:00 - 0:15to 23:45 - 23:59, numbered from 1 to 4 to indicate the quarter of that hour.

Minute Number

Minute portion in 24-hour or 12-hour format, numbered from 1 to 60 to indicate the minute of that hour.


Employee

The Employee dimension stores data about the employees who work for a retailer. The Employee dimension is attached to sales transactions and is used for productivity and loss prevention reporting.

The employee data that is supplied by Oracle Retail Sales Audit (ReSA) relates only to headquarters employees. In case retailer wants to have all the store and warehouse employees the retailer has to load them into Retail Insights. Other types of employee data that do not exist in ReSA, but are desirable for reporting, pertain to employee hours worked and compensation.

Table 5-4 lists the attributes of the Employee dimension.

Table 5-4 Employee Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Cashier Flag

Indicator of whether if the employee is a cashier, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no. An employee can be both a cashier and a salesperson at the same time.

Sales Rep Flag

Indicator of whether the employee is a salesperson, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no. An employee can be both a cashier and a sales person at the same time.


Cluster

Understanding consumer shopping behavior is important to help retailers when planning assortment, pricing, promotions and other key merchandising decisions.

This includes understanding:

  • Who shops (or is expected to shop) the merchandise area (Department or Class)

  • How they would shop the merchandise area as well as other merchandise areas when in the store

This information helps retailers develop strategies and tactical execution plans that are tailored to meet specific customers needs, thus maximizing customer satisfaction while meeting retailers overall business objectives around increased profitability and growth.

Understanding the makeup of the local consumers shopping each individual store is important in developing assortment, pricing and promotion strategies that are tailored to the local consumer needs. However, given the number of stores at a typical retailer, it is not possible to manually plan these at the individual store level. Hence the need for the intelligent grouping of similar stores into clusters.

Clustering stores enables retailers to manage large chains (that is, greater than 500 locations) in an efficient manner. Effective clustering should involve a small number of clusters providing maximum differentiation among one another, while minimizing the difference between the locations within each cluster. In other words, stores in a single cluster should be fairly homogeneous, while the clusters themselves should be heterogeneous.

Stores can be clustered based on their similarity in attributes such as performance, size or format of store, weather, or based on similarity in customer make up based on their demographic attributes.

Clusters are organized into the following hierarchy: Cluster Group - Cluster - Location: below is an example hierarchy.

Cluster hierarchy example

Cluster Attributes

Table 5-5 Cluster Attribute Dimensions

Attribute Definition

Cluster Group Code

The cluster group code is a business code that is also a unique identifier for a cluster group

Cluster Group Label

The cluster group label is a short description of why the cluster group was built.

Cluster Group Type

Cluster groups are built for multiple reasons, the cluster group type states what the cluster group was built for. Valid cluster group types could be promo, price, markdown, assortment, inventory, replenishment, performance, etc. The cluster group type should be considered required, as it is the only attribute to make sure cluster groups are unique.

Cluster Code

The cluster code is a business code that is also a unique identifier for a cluster within a cluster group.

Cluster Name

The cluster name is a short description of the cluster.

Cluster Description

The cluster description is a long description of the cluster.

Primary Life-stage

Primary life-stage is the most prominent life-stage within a cluster - since clusters can be made up of multiple customer segments - there can be more than one life-stage present. Hence this attribute being the primary or most prominent life-stage attribute value.

Primary Ethnicity

Primary ethnicity is the most prominent ethnicity within a cluster - since clusters can be made up of multiple customer segments - there can be more than one ethnicity present. Hence this attribute being the primary or most prominent ethnicity attribute value.

Primary Education Level

Primary education level is the most prominent education level within a cluster - since clusters can be made up of multiple customer segments - there can be more than one education level present. Hence this attribute being the primary or most prominent education level attribute value.

Primary Typical Lifestyle

Primary typical lifestyle is the most prominent typical lifestyle within a cluster - since clusters can be made up of multiple customer segments - there can be more than one typical lifestyle present. Hence this attribute being the primary or most prominent typical lifestyle attribute value.

Primary Income Level

Primary income level is the most prominent income level within a cluster - since clusters can be made up of multiple customer segments - there can be more than one income level present. Hence this attribute being the primary or most prominent income level attribute value.

Primary Dwelling Type

Primary dwelling type is the most prominent dwelling type within a cluster - since clusters can be made up of multiple customer segments - there can be more than one dwelling type present. Hence this attribute being the primary or most prominent dwelling type attribute value.

Primary Age Class

Primary age class is the most prominent age class within a cluster - since clusters can be made up of multiple customer segments - there can be more than one age class present. Hence this attribute being the primary or most prominent age class attribute value.


Consumer Attributes

Growing retailers need to attract new customers, and the key to attracting customers is understanding them. Oracle Retail Insights offers a means for retailers to understand and attract new customers and in so doing grow their businesses.

Retailers can use Oracle Retail Insights' Consumer Analysis to develop a deep understanding of consumers (that is, those shoppers who are their potential customers). It helps retailers understand the types of purchases each consumer segment makes, where the most desirable consumers live and shop, and in which product categories they should be competing for consumers. Building on that knowledge, retailers can build effective strategies to induce consumers to buy their products, and convert them from out-of-reach, obscure consumers to familiar, loyal, and revenue-producing customers.

Table 5-6 Consumer Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Consumer Household Attributes

Head of Household Age

This attribute is the age of consumer who is designated head of the household.

Household Size

This attribute is the size of a consumer's household.

Income

This attribute lists the income of a household.

Number of Children

This attribute lists the number of children aged 0 to 12 residing in a household.

Number of Teens

This attribute lists the number of teenagers residing in a household.

Number of Adults

This attribute lists the number of adults residing in a household.

Number of Seniors

This attribute lists the number of seniors residing in a household.

Consumer Household Group

Household Size

This attribute lists the number of residents of a household.

Household Income

This attribute lists the income for a household.

Household Income Level

This attribute lists the income level for a household.

Male Age Range

This attribute lists the age range of the male who is designated as the head of the household.

Female Age Range

This attribute lists the age range of the female who is designated as the head of household.

Household Head Age Level

This attribute lists the age level of the person who is designated as the head of the household.

Female Head Education

This attribute lists the highest education level attained by a female head of household.

Male Head Education

This attribute lists the highest education level attained by a male head of household.

Presence of Children

This attribute indicates the presence of children in a consumer's household. Possible values are "Y"and "N".

Ethnicity

This attribute indicates the ethnicity of a household.

Hispanic Household

This attribute indicates whether the household is Hispanic. This is primarily used by US grocery retailers to drive assortment decisions.

Female Head Occupation

This attribute lists the occupation of the female identified as the head of household.

Male Head Occupation

This attribute lists the occupation of the male identified as the head of household.

Female Head Employment

This attribute indicates the time spent at work by the female head of household. 1 = under 30 hours; 2 = 30-34 hours; 3 = 35+ hours; 9 = not employed for pay; 0 = no female head

Male Head Employment

This attribute indicates the time spent at work by the male head of household. 1 = under 30 hours; 2 = 30-34 hours; 3 = 35+ hours; 9 = not employed for pay; 0 = no male head.

Household Composition Group

This attribute lists the household level characteristic that classifies the type of adults residing in each home. This provides insight into the likely household makeup. Examples of Composition Groups are Single, Married, 2 Person, Group

Composition Group Indicator

This attribute lists the household level characteristic that further classifies the makeup of Household. For Household with Composition Group of Single, Composition Group Indicator can be Adult Male or Adult female, for Composition Group Married, Composition Group Indicator can be 1 Male and 1 Female occupant with the same surname.

Tenure Class

This attribute describes whether a majority of households in a segment live in homes that are owned or homes that are rented. In order to do this analysis, household table in RA, should support Home owner and Renter attributes.

Consumer Attributes

Consumer Age Range

This attribute indicates the Age Range for a consumer. This demographic composition can indicate how consumers spend their money. Possible values for Age Range can be "Generation Y", "Generation X", "Younger Boomer", "Older Boomer", "Empty Nester", "Seniors".

Consumer Income Range

This attribute indicates a consumer's income range. This demographic composition can indicate the consumer's propensity to spend the money.

Consumer Gender

This attribute indicates a consumer's gender.

Consumer Ethnicity

This attribute indicates a consumer's ethnicity.

Consumer Nationality

This attribute indicates the nationality of a consumer.

Educational Background

This attribute indicates the educational background of a consumer.

Consumer Occupation

This attribute indicates the occupation of a consumer.

Consumer Region

This attribute indicates the region where a consumer lives.

Consumer Religion

This attribute indicates a consumer's religion.

Consumer Distribution

Allocation Type

This attribute indicates whether the distribution for a department and store is applicable for customer segment or consumer segment.

Consumer Segment

Family Size

This attribute indicates the family size for a demographics based segment.

Consumer Segment Name

This attribute indicates the name of the consumer segment.

Consumer Segment Type

This attribute indicates the type of the consumer segment.

Employment Class

Employment Class collapses a broad range of occupational classes to six categories: Management (Mgmt), Professional (Prof), White Collar, Blue Collar (BC), Service, and Mostly Retired. Employment is classified primarily using the distribution of occupational categories for each segment, supplemented by the index scores.


Organization

The Organization dimension mirrors the structure of the retail company, allowing analysis at every level of the organization. Assessing the contribution of a child attribute to its parent attributes (for example, location to region or chain) allows an analyst to identify the segments of the larger organization that are performing as planned, and those where performance is below expectations. In addition, the Organization hierarchy makes it possible to analyze sales by channel and perform comparable stores analysis.

The majority of business measurements in Retail Insights reference data by attributes of the Organization dimension. Sales and profit, markdowns, stock position, and most other data is held by location, the lowest-level attribute in the Organization dimension hierarchy.

The following diagram illustrates an example organization hierarchy.

Organization hierarchy example

Organization starts at company level, with chain, area, region, district, and store at the lower levels of the hierarchy. A warehouse is a physical storage and distribution facility where inventory may be received, held, and transferred to other locations such as stores. A warehouse can be attached to any level of the organizational hierarchy for reporting purposes, but this is not a requirement.

Sets of Books

Multinational retailers need to maintain multiple sets of books in their financial systems. This need can be driven by a number of different factors such as the following:

  • A company divided into different legal entities (such as brands)

  • A company having operations in different countries (with different currencies and calendars)

When a company operates with multiple sets of books, they may have different physical instances of their business and accounting systems to support this segregation, or they may use a single physical instance of their systems to support the different sets of books. When operating with multiple sets of books in a single installation, a company partitions its general ledger according to the sets of books. Each set of books has its own chart of accounts and other identifying characteristics, such as the primary currency and accounting calendar. The company may also partition other data along these lines to help segregate data more efficiently. Sets of books can segregate structural data as well as the chart of accounts.

Sets of books example

Wholesale

Wholesale functionality, that is, the selling and distribution of products to independently owned customers in a business-to-business transaction, is a market need for many retailers. In contrast to franchise locations, wholesale customers are not owned or licensed by the retailer. Oracle Retail Insights allows retailers who do a significant amount of wholesale business to perform analysis separately from the rest of their regular retail business, with attributes and metrics that are specific to the wholesale business. This enables focused analysis by a retailer who has more than one distinct line of business (retail and wholesale) that have different performance indicators and metrics.

Wholesale Customer Attributes

Table 5-7 lists the attributes of the Wholesale Customer dimension.

Table 5-7 Wholesale Customer Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

DUNS Number

The DUNS number is a nine-digit number assigned to each business location that has a unique, separate, and distinct operation.

Organization Size Code

This attribute is the organization size code.

Competitor Flag

This attribute indicates the organization is a competitor.

Partner Flag

This attribute indicates the organization is a partner.

Prospect Flag

This attribute indicates the organization is a prospect.

Supplier Flag

This attribute indicates the organization is a supplier.

Sales Account Flag

This attribute indicates the organization has a sales account with the retailer.

Sales Ref Flag

This attribute indicates that sales exist for this organization.

Existing Sales Account Flag

This attribute indicates the organization has an existing sales account.

Sales Account Type Code

This field indicates the type of sales account.

Internet home page

This is the URL for the organization's home page.

Customer Since Date

This is the date the organization became a customer.

Customer End Date

This is the date the organization's customer relationship ended. It could be something like the end of the latest sales contract that was not renewed.

Customer Category Code

This field indicates to which category the customer belongs.

Line of Business

Line of business.

SIC Code

This is the Standard Industry Classification code, a four-digit code used by the US government for classifying industries.

SIC Name

Standard Industry Classification name.

Govt ID Type

Government ID Type

Govt ID Value

Government ID Value

Service Provider Flag

This attribute indicates the organization is a service provider.

Potential Sales Volume

This is the potential sales volume of the organization. This should be a range of volume amounts. For example [0-500,000], [500,000-1,000,000] and [1,000,000+].

Annual Revenue

This is the organization's annual revenue amount.

Supplier ID

This is the supplier ID if the organization is a supplier.

Customer Number

This is the internal customer number assigned to the organization.

Primary Contact Name

This is the primary contact name for the organization.

Primary Contact Phone Number

This is the primary phone number for the organization.

Base Currency Code

This is the base currency code of the organization.


Stockholding Franchise Locations

Franchising is the sales and distribution of products to customers who license a retailer's trade name or services, or both, for a fee. Example services provided could include assortment planning, ordering, and store inventory management. A franchise leases the name of the operating retailer but is not owned by them; however in many situations a retailer manages its franchise stores very similarly to how it manages its own corporate stores, including managing its inventory. In such a situation retailers should create stockholding franchise locations as a way to manage their inventory. Because stockholding franchise locations and corporate locations function similarly, Oracle Retail Insights enables retailers to analyze them similarly while retaining the ability to segregate sales at franchise locations from sales at corporate locations.

Non-Stockholding Franchise Locations

If a retailer does not wish to manage the inventory of its franchise locations, those locations can be set up as non stock holding franchise locations and analyzed accordingly. The retailer will retain the ability to analyze franchise sales separately from sales at corporate locations.

New/Remodelled Stores

New or recently remodelled stores tend to be more volatile and can have a skewing effect on business performance indicators. Sales and profits from new or recently modelled stores are not really comparable in business analysis and a retailer may decide to exclude them for analysis.

A store may be flagged as a New or Remodeled store in the Organization dimension. The flag can either be received from the merchandising source system or in case the retailer does not have the capability in the merchandising system to calculate the flag, RI can flag the stores as New or Remodeled through an RI driven logic. The flags can be set to 'Y' or 'N' by utilizing the variable RA_NEW_STORE_DT and RA_REMODEL_STORE_DT in C_ODI_PARAM and the RI existing attributes - remodeled store date (W_INT_ORG_D. ORG_ATTR1_DATE) and new store date (W_INT_ORG_D. ORG_ATTR2_DATE)

Organization Attributes

Table 5-8 lists the attributes of the Organization dimension.

Table 5-8 Organization Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Company

Name of a company. Company is the highest attribute within the Organization hierarchy. A company consists of one or more chains.

Company Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a company.

Chain

Name of a chain. A chain consists of one or more areas.

Chain Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a chain.

Chain Mgr

Name of a chain manager.

Area

Name of an area. An area consists of one or more regions.

Area Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies an area.

Area Mgr

Name of an area manager.

Region

Name of a region.

Region Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a region.

Region Mgr

Name of a region manager.

District

Name of a district. A district consists of one or more locations.

District Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a district.

District Mgr

Name of a district manager.

Loc

Lowest attribute within the organization hierarchy. It identifies a warehouse, store, or partner within the company.

Loc Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a location.

Loc List

Name of a location list. A location list is an intentional grouping of locations for reporting purposes.

Loc List ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a location list. A location list is an intentional grouping of locations for reporting purposes.

Loc Trait

Name of a location trait. A location trait is an attribute of a location that is used to group locations with similar characteristics.

Loc Trait ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a location trait. A location trait is an attribute of a location that is used to group locations with similar characteristics.

Tsf Entity ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a transfer entity. A transfer entity is a group of locations that share legal requirements around product management. A location can belong to only one transfer entity, and a transfer entity can belong to multiple organization units.

Org Unit ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a financial organization unit. An organization unit can belong to only one set of books.

SOB ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a financial set of books. A set of books represents an organizational structure that groups locations based on how they are reported from an accounting perspective.

Tsf Entity Desc

Detailed description of a transfer entity. A transfer entity is a group of locations that share legal requirements around product management. A location can be associated with only one transfer entity, and a transfer entity can be associated with multiple organization units.

Comp Flag

Indicator of whether a location has been opened for configurable time, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no. Generally, comparable stores are locations that are in operation for at least 53 weeks.

New Store Flag

Indicator of whether a location has been opened newly, with values of "Y" for yes and "N" for no.

Remodeled Store Flag

Indicator of whether a location has been remodeled recently, with values of "Y" for yes and "N" for no.

Store Type

Indicator of the type of store, with values of ”Company,” ”Wholesale,” and ”Franchise.”

Address Type

Type of address. Values are as follows:

  • 01 – Business

  • 02 – Postal

  • 03 – Returns

  • 04 – Order

  • 05 – Invoice

  • 06 – Remittance

Loc Name3

Three-character abbreviation of a location name.

Loc Name10

Ten-character abbreviation of a location name.

Loc Name Secondary

Secondary name of a location.

Address Line 1

First line of street address.

Address Line 2

Second line of street address.

Address Line 3

Third line of street address.

City

City of a location.

Postal Code

Postal code of a location.

Phone Number

Primary phone number of a location.

Loc Type

Type of location, with values of ”Store,” ”Warehouse,” and ”External Finisher.”

Linear Distance

Total merchandisable space of a location. Feet is the unit of measure.

VAT Region ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies the Value Added Tax (VAT) region in which a store is located.

VAT Included Flag

Indicator of whether Value Added Tax (VAT) is included in the retail price, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.

Currency Code

Base currency code of the organization.

Break Pack Flag

Indicator of whether a warehouse is capable of distributing less than the supplier's case quantity, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.

Stockholding Flag

Indicator of whether a location can hold stock, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no. In a non-multichannel environment, the value is always "Y".

Loc Mgr

Name of the manager of the organization.

Mall

Name of the mall in which a store is located.

Loc Open Date

Open date of a location.

Loc Close Date

Close date of a location.

Selling Area

Total square footage of a store's selling area.

Remodel Date

Date that a location was last remodeled.

Tsf Zone ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a transfer zone. A transfer zone is an intentional grouping of locations for transferring owned inventory from one location to another. A location can belong to only one transfer zone.

Promo Zone ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a promotion zone. A promotion zone is an intentional grouping of locations for promotion activity. A location can belong to only one promotion zone.

Total Area

Total square footage of a location.

Default WH ID

Warehouse that can be used as the default for creating cross-dock masks. This determines which stores may be sourced by a warehouse, and it only contains virtual warehouses in a multichannel environment.

Store Format Desc

Description of a store format. Examples are Conventional Store, Supermarket, Virtual Store, Catalog Store, and Hard Discount.

Store Format ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a store format.

State

State name of a location.

Country

Country name of a location.

Banner ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a banner. A banner is the name of a retailer's subsidiary.

Banner

Name of a banner. A banner is the name of a retailer's subsidiary.

Channel

Name of a channel. A channel is a method for a retailer to interact with a customer, and it is an outlet for sale and delivery of goods and services to the customer. A retailer can have multiple outlets, such as brick-and-mortar stores, Web sites, and catalogs.

Channel ID

Unique identifier associated with a channel.

Channel Type

Type of channel to interact with a customer. The values are ”Brick and Mortar,” ”Webstore,” and ”Catalog.”

Virtual WH Flag

Indicator of whether a location is a virtual warehouse, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.

Physical WH ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a physical warehouse that is assigned to a virtual warehouse.

State Code

Code that identifies the state of the location.

Sister Store ID

Location that will be used to relate a current store to the historical data of an existing store.

Store Class

Type of store class, which retailers can use to group their stores. The best stores are typically considered ”A” stores, the next-best ”B” stores, and so on. Values can be ”A,” ”B,” ”C,” ”D,””E,” and ”X”.


Comparable Store

Comp stores are really established stores as opposed to new or closed stores. Comp store measurements are important to an analyst because profits and sales from the more established stores provide stable indicators of business performance. New or closed stores tend to be more volatile and can have a skewing effect on business performance indicators. Sales and profits from new or closed stores are not really comparable in business analysis, and as a result, they are not included in the comp store measurements.

The Comparable Store Flag can be sent either from the retailer's merchandising source system or can be derived at in RI. The parameter - RI_COMP_SRC_IND in C_ODI_PARAM drives this choice. If 'Y' then the comparable flag is obtained from the source system. If 'N' RI computes the flag internally.

If the retailer has the capability in merchandising source system to send the comparable store flag, then a pipeline delimited flat file containing Store ID, Comp Store Flag, Effective from Date will form the interface file that must be loaded to W_ RTL_LOC_MTX_DS table. This file can contain flag values in (N, Y, C), representing non-comparable, comparable, and closed stores respectively.

In case the retailer doesn't have the capability in merchandising source system to send the comparable store flag, then the comparison store flag should be calculated according to RI driven logic. The retailer can use the existing RI variable RA_STORE_COMP_NUM_OF_OPEN_DAYS in C_ODI_PARAM table and the store open date (W_INT_ORG_ATTR_D. ORG_ATTR2_DATE) to flag the store as comp or non comp.

RI also provides multiple methods for reporting on comparable stores, depending on the retailer's business needs. In the "Same Store" method of comparison, the stores designated as comp/non-comp/closed in a reporting period have their history grouped under the same statuses for previous years as well, allowing the retailer to always be comparing the same stores this year versus last year in comp reporting. This option is enabled using the SAME_STORES variable in C_ODI_PARAM. If set to 'Y' then this method is enabled for both As-Is and As-Was reporting. The number of years of history to "duplicate" the comp statuses across is configured with the ANCHOR_TO_YEARS variable, which defaults to 2 years (this year and last year).

If Same Stores comp reporting is disabled, then the following two options for Comp Store reporting are available. As-Is comp reporting will take the current value of the Comp Flag and use it regardless of the reporting period. As-Was comp reporting (also known as Group Comp) will consider the historical values of the Comp Flag and directly report a store's history based on its comp status at that point in time. The primary difference in these methods is that As-Is reporting will group all history under a single comp status per store, while As-Was reporting may split a store's history across different comp statuses.

Product

The Product dimension represents the product lines that the company sells. The Product dimension is essential to the department manager who needs to know which items turn the highest profit, or how an item performs within the market as a whole. Because of its importance for analysis in the retail environment, attributes from the Product dimension are present in nearly every data mart in Retail Insights. In most cases, data is kept at the lowest level in the hierarchy (item), to allow maximum flexibility and detail in reporting.

The following diagram illustrates an example product hierarchy.

Product hierarchy example

Product Differentiators

Differentiators are used to define the characteristics of an item. Characteristics such as size, color, flavor, scent, and pattern are attached to items as differentiators within Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS). Differentiators hold all item differentiator identifiers, along with their associated National Retail Federation (NRF) industry codes.

Oracle Retail Insights comes with the following differentiators as an example for reference:

  • Style (Color only)

  • Color for Style

They are arranged in the following hierarchy: Style (Color only) > Color for Style > Item.

These are just an example and can be added to or modified as needed to make them relevant to a specific retail business.

Hierarchy example

Product Attributes

Table 5-9 lists the attributes of the Product dimension:

Table 5-9 Product Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Company Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a company.

Company

Name of a company. A company consists of one or more divisions.

Division Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a division.

Division

Name of a division. A division is the highest category of merchandise within an organization. Typically a division is used to signify the overall category of merchandise, such as hardlines or apparel.

Division Buyer Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a division buyer.

Division Buyer

Name of a division buyer, an executive responsible for purchasing merchandise to be sold in a store or retail channel for a particular division.

Division Merchant Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a division merchant.

Division Merchant

Name of a division merchant.

Group Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a group.

Group

Name of a group. A group is the next level of merchandise in a hierarchy below division. A group consists of one or more departments. A group can belong to only one division.

Group Buyer Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a group buyer.

Group Buyer

Name of a group buyer. A group buyer is an executive responsible for purchasing merchandise to be sold in a store or retail channel for a particular group.

Group Merchant Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a group merchant.

Group Merchant

Name of a group merchant.

Department Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a department.

Department

Name of a department. A department is the next level below group in the merchandise hierarchy. A group can have multiple departments. Key information about how inventory is tracked and reported is stored at the department level.

Department Buyer Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a department buyer.

Department Buyer

Name of a department buyer, an executive responsible for purchasing merchandise to be sold in a store or retail channel for a particular department.

Department Merchant Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a department merchant.

Department Merchant

Name of a department merchant.

Profit Calc Type

Indicator of the profit calculation type, with values of ”Direct Cost” and ”Retail Inventory”.

Purchase Type

Indicator of the purchase type of merchandise, with values of ”Owned”, ”Consignment”, and ”Concession.”

OTB Calc Type

Indicator of the open–to-buy calculation type, with values of ”Cost” and ”Retail.”

Class Number

ID within a department that uniquely identifies a class.

Class

Name of a class. A class is the next level below department in the merchandise hierarchy. A department can have multiple classes. A class provides the means to group products within a department. A class consists of one or more subclasses.

Class Buyer Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a class buyer.

Class Buyer

Name of a class buyer, an executive responsible for purchasing merchandise to be sold in a store or retail channel for a particular class.

Class Merchant Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a class merchant.

Class Merchant

Name of a class merchant.

Subclass Number

ID within a department number and class number that uniquely identifies a subclass. A class can have multiple subclasses.

Subclass

Name of a subclass. A subclass defines the type of merchandise sold in a department and class.

Subclass Buyer Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a subclass buyer.

Subclass Buyer

Name of a subclass buyer, an executive responsible for purchasing merchandise to be sold in a store or retail channel for a particular subclass.

Subclass Merchant Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a subclass merchant.

Subclass Merchant

Name of a subclass merchant.

Item Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies an item.

Item

Detailed description of an item. Item is the lowest-level attribute within a product hierarchy. Sales and inventory facts are tracked at one of the predetermined levels within the Item attribute.

Pack Sellable Number

Unique code from the source system that identifies a sellable pack. A sellable pack is a collection of items that is sold as a single unit.

Pack Simple Number

Unique code from the source system that identifies a simple pack. A simple pack is a pack in which the component items are the same.

Pack Orderable Number

Unique code from the source system that identifies an orderable pack. An orderable pack is a collection of items that is ordered as a single unit.

Pack Flag

Indicator of whether an item is a pack. A pack item is a collection of items that can be ordered or sold as a single unit.

Package Size

Size of the product printed on packaging.

Package UOM

Unit of measurement in which a package size is measured.

Item Level

Indicator of the level within an item family, with values of 1, 2, and 3.

Transaction Level

Indicator of the level within an item family that inventory is tracked, with values of 1, 2, and 3.

Item Level 1 Number

Item number of the highest level in an item family.

Item Level 1 Desc

Item description of the highest level in an item family.

Item Level 2 Number

Item number of the second level in an item family.

Item Level 2 Desc

Item description of the second level in an item family.

Item Level 3 Number

Item number of the lowest level in an item family.

Item Level 3 Desc

Item description of the lowest level in an item family.

Original Retail

Original retail price of an item per unit and is stored in the primary currency.

Mfg Recommended Retail

Recommended manufacturer's retail price of an item per unit, stored in the primary currency.

Pack Number

Item number where PACK_FLG = Y. A pack item is a collection of items that can be ordered or sold as a single unit.

Pack Item Quantity

Quantity of a pack component item units that make up a pack.

Pack Desc

Item description where PACK_FLG = Y. A pack item is a collection of items that can be ordered or sold as a single unit.

Pack UOM

Standard unit of measurement for a pack item.

Item List ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies an item list. An item list is an intentional grouping of items for operational purposes.

Item List Desc

Detailed description of an item list. An item list is an intentional grouping of items for operational purposes.

UDA Head ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a user-defined attribute of an item. A UDA head is a parent of a UDA detail.

UDA Head Desc

Detailed description of a user-defined attribute of an item. A UDA head is a parent of a UDA detail.

UDA Detail ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a user-defined attribute detail of an item. A UDA detail can be a child of only one UDA parent.

UDA Detail Desc

Detailed description of a user-defined attribute detail of an item. A UDA detail can be a child of only one UDA parent.

Diff Type

Indicator of the differentiator type, with example values of ”Size,” ”Color,” ”Flavor,” ”Scent," and ”Pattern.” A differentiator type is a parent of a differentiator.

Diff ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies an item differentiator. Differentiators define the characteristics of an item. A differentiator can be a child of only one differentiator type.

Diff Desc

Description of an item differentiator. A differentiator can be a child of only one differentiator type.

UOM

Standard unit of measurement for an item.

Item Number Type Code

Indicator of the type of numbering system used to identify an item. Values are as follows:

  • Oracle Retail Item Number

  • UCC12

  • UCC12 with Supplement

  • UCC8

  • UCC8 with Supplement

  • EAN/UCC-8

  • EAN/UCC-13

  • EAN/UCC-13 with Supplement

  • ISBN-10

  • ISBN-13

  • NDC/NHRIC – National Drug Code

  • PLU

  • Variable Weight PLU

  • SSCC Shipper Carton

  • EAN/UCC-14

  • Manual

  • Custom Item Type

Item Input Flag

Indicator of whether an item holds inventory for an item transformation, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.

Merchandise Flag

Indicator of whether an item is merchandise, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.

Pack Retail Flag

Indicator of whether a pack has its own unique retail price, or if a pack retail price is the sum of its components' retail prices, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.


Table 5-10 Product Split Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Style

This attribute displays the style of an item.

Color

This attribute displays the color of an item.

Size

This attribute displays the size of an item.

Fabric

This attribute displays the fabric of an item.

Flavor

This attribute displays the flavor of an item.

Scent

This attribute displays the scent of an item.


Promotion

A promotion is an attempt to stimulate the sale of particular merchandise. This can be accomplished by temporarily reducing its price, advertising it, or linking its sale to offers of other merchandise at reduced prices or free. A promotion can take place for many different reasons, such as the desire to attract a certain type of customer, increase sales of a particular class of merchandise, introduce new items, or gain competitive advantage. Tracking of sales and demand by promotion allows retailers to assess the success in attracting customers to purchase items that are placed on promotion.

A single promotion can be part of a larger effort or event. Several promotions can be associated with an event. For example, a summer sale event might consist of multiple promotions.

There are a number of formats in which a promotion can be offered. Some common examples of these formats are as follows:

  • Get a specific percent off the price of an item

  • Buy a certain quantity of an item and get a certain amount off the total purchase value

  • Buy a certain item and get a discount on another item

  • Get free shipping and handling

Every promotion has one of the following promotion formats:

  • General: Get a percent or amount discount on an item.

  • Threshold: Buy a certain quantity or amount of an item and get a percent or amount discount on the item.

  • Mix and Match: Buy a certain quantity or amount of item A and get a percent or amount discount on item B.

  • Service: Get a percent or amount discount on service charges. (If the promotion format is Service, there is a service type. A service type could be monogramming, gift wrap, personalization, or shipping and handling.)

Typically, a promotion on an item is not applied universally. It might be triggered only for certain stores, for certain media, for certain customer types, or for certain offer coupons. The type of circumstance that triggers a promotion is called the promotion trigger type. In a brick-and-mortal market, a promotion is always triggered by the store. In a direct-to-consumer market, there can be different trigger types such as Source Code, Media Code, Selling Item Code, or Customer Type. One promotion can be triggered by only one promotion trigger type.

Promotion hierarchy

Table 5-11 lists the attributes of the Promotion dimension.

Table 5-11 Promotion Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Promo Event ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a promotion event, an event for which one or more promotions are offered.

Promo Event Desc

Description of a promotion event, an intentional grouping of promotion parents.

Promo Event Start Date

Date from which the source record (in the source system) is effective. This represents the start date of a promotion event.

Promo Event End Date

Date until which the source record (in the source system) is effective. This represents the end date of a promotion event.

Promo Event Theme Desc

Description of a promotion event theme that is used to further identify and describe the promotion event.

Promo Parent ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a promotion parent. A promotion parent is an intentional grouping of promotion components within a promotion event. A promotion parent is only a child of a single promotion event. Multiple promotion parents within a promotion event can have overlapping timeframes within the promotion event.

Promo Parent Name

Name of a promotion parent. A promotion parent is an intentional grouping of promotion components within a promotion event. A promotion parent is only a child of a single promotion event. Multiple parents within a promotion event can have overlapping timeframes within the promotion event.

Promo Parent Desc

Description of a promotion parent. A promotion parent is an intentional grouping of promotion components within a promotion event. A promotion parent can only be a child of a single promotion event. Multiple parents within a promotion event can have overlapping timeframes within the promotion event.

Promo Parent Start Date

Date from which the source record (in the source system) is effective. This represents the start date of a promotion parent.

Promo Parent End Date

Date until which the source record (in the source system) is effective. The value is extracted from the source system whenever available. This represents the end date of a promotion parent.

Promo Component ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a promotion component. A promotion component is an intentional grouping of promotion details within a promotion parent. A promotion component is always a child of a single promotion parent, which is only a child of a single promotion event. Multiple promotion components within a promotion parent can have overlapping timeframes within the promotion parent.

Promo Component Name

Name of a promotion component. A promotion component is an intentional grouping of promotion details within a promotion parent. A promotion component is always a child of a single promotion parent, which is only a child of a single promotion event. Multiple components within a promotion parent can have overlapping timeframes within the promotion parent.

Promo Component Start Date

Date from which the record in the source system is effective. Start date of a promotion component.

Promo Component End Date

Date until which the record in the source system is effective. This represents the end date of a promotion component.

Promo Component Type

Promotion component type that is applied to a promotion component, with the following values:

  • 0 - Multi-buy

  • 1 – Simple

  • 2 – Threshold

  • 6 – Finance

A promotion component type is the method to implement a price discount, reward, or credit/financing.


Customer

Knowledge of the customers' preferences and buying behavior allows the retailer to increase sales through up-selling efforts, target customers for promotions, and prevent defection to competitors. In Retail Insights, customer information and transaction history can be used to segment the customer base by one of several methods. This analysis yields important information about who the best customers are, and the affinity of customer segments to particular products.

Customer segments

Oracle Retail Insights has the ability to store customer addresses. It does not store sensitive information that could be used to identify individual customers; however, the data warehouse can be customized to bring in this information if a retailer requires it. Customer address information will be sourced from an external customer management system or from Oracle Retail Customer Engagement (ORCE). Oracle Retail Insights will provide a Source Independent Load interface to feed customer address along with other customer attributes from the Oracle Retail Insights staging tables to the customer dimension.

Table 5-12 lists the attributes of the Customer dimension.

Table 5-12 Customer Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Customer Individual Gender Code

Code for an individual's gender.

Customer Individual Gender

An individual's gender, for example: male, female, not declared.

Customer Individual Marital State Code

Code for an individual's marital state (marital status).

Customer Individual Marital State

An individual's marital state (marital status), for example: single, married, divorced, widowed.

Annual Income

Customer's annual income.

Education Background Code

Code for the education background code of the customer.

Recency Category

Recency category of the customer.

Customer Primary City

Customer primary city of residence.

Customer Primary State Code

Code for customer primary state.

Customer Primary State

Customer primary state.

Customer Primary Postal Code

Customer primary postal code.

Customer Primary Country

Customer primary country.

Address ID

Customer address ID.

Churn Score

Score indicating the likelihood of customer retention.

Customer Status Code

Status code for a customer.

Customer Status Code Description

Status of a customer, for example: potential, first-time, regular.

Education Background

Education background of a customer, for example: bachelor's degree, master's degree).

Ethnicity Code

Code for the ethnicity of the customer, for example: H = Hispanic, G = German, U = Unknown.

Nationality Code

Code for the nationality of the customer.

Customer Type

Type of customer

Nationality

Nationality of the customer.

Occupation Code

Code for the occupation of the customer.

Occupation

Occupation of the customer.

Prospect Flag

Flag to indicate someone who has visited or shopped online, but has not purchased. The retailer may have some information about such prospect customers.

Recency Category Code

Code indicating how recently the customer purchased.

Recency Category

Score indicating how recently the customer purchased.

Frequency Category Code

Code indicating how often a customer purchases.

Frequency Category

Score indicating how often a customer purchases.

Monetary Category Code

Code indicating the monetary value of a customer's purchase.

Monetary Category

Score indicating the monetary value of customer's purchase.

RFM Categories Code

Code indicating the customer's total RFM Score.

RFM Categories

Score indicating the combined recency, frequency, and monetary value of a customer.

Churn Score Range Sort

Sort range for churn score.

Churn Score Range

Range of churn score.

Customer Address Type Code

Code for the type of customer address.

Customer Address Type

Type of address, for example: billing address, delivery address.

Years at Address

Number of years for which the specific address has been in use.

Customer Address Class Code

Code indicating the class of the address.

Customer Address Class

Class of address, for example: residential address, commercial address.

Primary Address Flag

Flag that indicates if the address can be used for all customer communication and reporting purposes.

City

Indicates the City.

State Code

State code.

State

State.

Postal Code

Postal code.

Country

Indicates the Country.

Opt Out Flag

Flag indicating if the address or e-mail address may or may not be marketable.

Customer Birth Month

Customer month of birth.

Customer Birth Year

Customer year of birth.

Age

Indicates the age of customer based on year and month of birth.

Age Range

This demographic attribute for customer represent the range in which his age lies. This attribute will be typically configured by user based on their business needs.

Customer Income Band

Range in which customer's income falls.

Ethnicity Name

Ethnicity of the customer, for example: H = Hispanic, G = German, U = Unknown.

Dwelling Status

The dwelling status classifies all dwellings according to whether they are occupied, unoccupied, or under construction during the time period of the data collection.

Dwelling Size

This attribute lists the floor area for a dwelling unit expressed in the standard unit of measure.

Dwelling Type

This attribute lists the dwelling unit occupied by, or intended for occupancy by, one household. Examples include: detached house, flat, apartment, tenement, trailer park, etc.

Dwelling Tenure

The dwelling tenure attribute refers to the period of the occupancy of a private household in a dwelling. It is expressed in number of years.

Religion

This attribute identifies a customer's religion.

Religion Code

This attribute is the code for a customer's religion.

Social Class

Status hierarchy by which customers are classified on the basis of esteem and prestige. Values - Upper Class, Upper Middle class, Lower middle class, Upper lower class, lower class.

Social Class Code

Code indicating the status hierarchy by which customer are classified on the basis of esteem and prestige.

Family Lifecycle

Indicates the family lifecycle of the customer, Examples include: bachelor, married with no children (DINKS: Double Income, No Kids), full-nest, empty-nest, or solitary survivor.

Family Lifecycle Code

Code indicating the family lifecycle of the customer.

Metro Area Size

Size of population in the metro area where the customer lives.

Activity

Activity based on AIO survey.

Activity Code

Activity code based on AIO survey.

Attitude

This attribute indicates the customer's attitude.

Attitude Code

Code indicating customer's attitude.

Benefit Sought

The main benefits the customer looks for in a product. For example, health, taste, and so on.

Benefit Sought Code

Code based on benefits sought.

Climate

This indicates the weather patterns for the customer's area.

Climate Code

The code indicates the weather patterns.

Customer Lifetime Value

This attribute is a forecast of customer profitability.

Customer Lifetime Value Code

This is the code for customer lifetime value.

Customer Lifetime Value Range

This is the range in which the customer's value falls, for example, Very High/High/Medium/Low

Customer Profitability Code

This is the code for customer profitability.

Customer Profitability

This attribute is a historical analysis of customer profitability, for example, High/Medium/Low.

Interest

This attribute indicates interest based on AIO survey.

Interest Code

Code indicating customer's interests.

Occasion

This attribute indicates when a customer tends to purchase or consume the product. It can be holidays and events that stimulate purchases

Occasion Code

Code indicating when customer tends to purchase or consume the product.

Opinion

This attribute indicates (but is not limited to) customer's political opinions, environmental awareness, sports, arts and cultural issues.

Opinion Code

Code indicating customer opinions.

Readiness to Buy

This attribute indicates customer buying mindset.

Readiness to Buy Code

Code indicating the customer buying mindset.

Hours Worked

The number of hours the customer works.

Age of Kids

This attribute will contain predefined ranges for a customer. The generic range of values will be Range - 0-3, 3-6, 6-10, 11-18, 0-16.

Population Density

Population density of the customer's area. Possible values can be urban, suburban, or rural.

No of Teens

This attribute is the number of teens in the customer's household.

Usage Rate

This indicates light, medium and heavy product usage by the customer.

Years Primary Store

This attribute is the number of years the customer has shopped at their primary grocery store.


Customer Segmentation

Customer segmentation is the process of identifying and classifying customers according to their current and future value to your business. Segmentation identifies your most and least valuable customers based on how frequently and recently customers have purchased, and the monetary value and profitability of their business. You can use this information to establish programs and policies that protect your most valued customers against defecting to a competitor. In addition, segmentation assists the marketing analyst in identifying customers whose purchasing history indicates the potential to become more profitable, as well as those who contribute little value to your business.

Your best customers are those who:

  • Have purchased goods or services from you recently

  • Purchase from you frequently

  • Spend a large amount of money

Table 5-13 lists the attributes of the Customer Segment dimension.

Table 5-13 Customer Segment Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Customer Segment Name

Name of the customer segment.

Customer Segment Type

Indicates the type of customer segment.

Customer Segment Age Range

This attributes indicates the age group for customer segment. This attribute can be used by marketers devise, and endorse items specifically for the needs and perceptions of age groups.

Customer Segment Gender Code

The code indicating gender of customer segment.

Customer Segment Gender

This attributes defines the gender of customer segment. Gender drives marketing decisions for categories like clothing, hairdressing, magazines and toiletries and cosmetics, and so on.

Customer Segment Family Size

Indicates the Family Size for a demographics based segment.

Customer Segment Generation Code

Generation code for creating demographic segments.

Customer Segment Generation

Generation for creating demographic segments. Possible value can be Baby-boomers, Generation X ans so on.

Customer Segment Annual Income Range

The attribute defines target customer segment income range. Retailers will use this attribute to potentially target affluent customers with luxury goods and convenience services. Low Income range customers may be targeted with every day value or discounted items and services.

Customer Segment Occupation Code

Occupation code to classify customer into occupational categories.

Customer Segment Occupation

Occupation for purposes of segmenting into occupational categories.

Customer Segment Education Background Code

Educational background code to classify customer into different education categories.

Customer Segment Education Background

Educational background to classify customer into different education categories.

Customer Segment Ethnicity Code

The code to identify ethnic groups to find customers with special interests.

Customer Segment Ethnicity

This attribute identifies ethnic groups to find customers with special interests.

Customer Segment Nationality Code

Nationality code for the purpose of demographics based segmentation.

Customer Segment Nationality

This attribute identifies nationality to find customers with special interests.

Customer Segment Religion Code

Religious code for the purpose of demographics based segmentation.

Customer Segment Religion

This attribute identifies religious groups to find customers with special interests.

Customer Segment Social Class Code

Code indicating the status hierarchy by which customer are classified on the basis of esteem and prestige.

Customer Segment Social Class

Status hierarchy by which customer are classified on the basis of esteem and prestige. Values - Upper Class, Upper Middle class, Lower middle class, Upper lower class, lower class.

Customer Segment Family Lifecycle Code

Code indicating the family lifecycle of the segment.

Customer Segment Family Lifecycle

Indicates the family lifecycle of the segment, Examples include: bachelor, married with no children (DINKS: Double Income, No Kids), full-nest, empty-nest, or solitary survivor.

Customer Segment Region Code

Region code for the purpose of geographic based segmentation. Possible value can be continent, country, state, or even neighborhood.

Customer Segment Region

Region value for the purpose of geographic based segmentation. Possible value can be continent, country, state, or even neighborhood.

Customer Segment Metro Area Size

Size of population for creating geographic based customer segments.

Customer Segment Population Density

Population density for creating geographic customer segments, Possible values can be urban, suburban, or rural.

Customer Segment Climate Code

The code indicates the weather patterns.

Customer Segment Climate

This indicates the weather patterns for the purpose of geographic based segmentation.

Customer Segment Benefit Sought Code

Benefits sought code for purposes of segmentation based on benefits sought.

Customer Segment Benefit Sought

The main benefits consumers look for in a product. For example, health, taste, and so on.

Customer Segment Usage Rate

This indicates light, medium and heavy product usage segments.

Customer Segment Readiness To Buy Code

Code indicating the customer segment's buying mindset.

Customer Segment Readiness To Buy

This attribute indicates customer segment's buying mindset.

Customer Segment Occasion Code

Code indicating when segment tends to purchase or consume the product.

Customer Segment Occasion

This attribute indicates when segment tends to purchase or consume the product. It can be holidays and events that stimulate purchases

Customer Segment Activity Code

Activity code based on AIO survey.

Customer Segment Activity

Activity based on AIO survey. This attribute can be used to create Psychographic segments.

Customer Segment Interest Code

Code indicating customer segment's interests.

Customer Segment Interest

Indicates interest based on AIO survey. This attribute can be used to create Psychographic segments.

Customer Segment Opinion Code

Code indicating customer segment's opinions.

Customer Segment Opinion

This attribute indicates (but is not limited to) customer segments political opinions, environmental awareness, sports, arts and cultural issues.

Customer Segment Attitude Code

Code indicating customer segment's attitude.

Customer Segment Attitude

This attribute indicates the customer segment's attitude. This can be used to create Psychographic segments.

Customer Segment Value Code

Code indicating customer segment's value.

Customer Segment Value

This attribute indicates the customer segment's value. This can be used to create Psychographic segments.

Customer Segment Source Type

This attribute indicates whether the customer segment was based on customers or households.


Customer Segment Allocation

The customer segment allocation folder under Customer Insights in Oracle Retail Insights enables analysis of the association of a retailer's customer segments to its merchandise and organization hierarchies. That association enables the targeting of specific customer segments with promotions by indicating in what locations and what products a customer segment is most likely to purchase. Note that this is purely for dimensional reporting.

For example, if a merchant sees a strong association between customer segment: farmer; subclass: plows; locations: Midwest Region, she will want to ensure that she has an extended assortment of the plows subclass for that Region. That way she is driving sales as well as meeting or exceeding customer expectations.

The Customer Segment Allocation association itself is done by external systems and interfaced to Oracle Retail Insights. The association level needs to be predefined in the configuration file to determine at what level of the merchandise and organization hierarchy customer segment allocation should be tracked. For example, a retailer could configure association at subclass and store level, or department and region level, or whatever levels are appropriate for their organization. Regardless of what level is chosen during configuration, it is not recommended to drill up or down on those merchandise or organization hierarchy levels during reporting, as that will provide incorrect results.

RFM Analysis

RFM analysis is a database marketing methodology that ranks your customers based on their purchase history. This method employs three criteria for ranking customers according to their value to your company. These criteria are described in the following subsections.

Recency

Recency indicates the amount of time that has elapsed since the customer's last purchase. It is an established principle of marketing that the more recently customers have purchased from you, the more likely they are to make another purchase. Recency is calculated as the number of elapsed days between the last day of the period being analyzed and the date of the last purchase. Customers with the fewest number of days rank in the highest group. Customers with the largest number of days rank in the lowest group.

Frequency

Frequency profiling measures the number of times that a customer has purchased from you since a specified date. The greater the frequency of purchases, the more likely a customer purchases from you in the future. The value is determined for each customer based on a count of the number of days on which transactions occurred for this customer. Customers are rated and placed in segments based on this value.

Monetary

Monetary profiling measures value according to the amount of money a customer has spent in the course of a specified time period. Customers are ranked according to the "total" monetary value of their purchases and assigned to a segment based on this value.

Customer Loyalty

Loyal customers are among the retailer's most precious assets. A loyal customer contributes to your business on a regular basis over an extended period of time and almost always ranks as one of your best customers.

When used in conjunction with RFM analysis, these metrics allow you to assess the importance of various items to your best customers.

In Retail Insights, customer's loyalty scores are tracked at individual customer as well as customer segment level for various grains of promotion, calendar, style, brand and merchandising hierarchy.

Loyalty attributes indicate the likelihood of purchase of merchandise by a given customer or customer segment for the supported attributes.

Table 5-14 lists the attributes of the Customer Loyalty dimension.

Table 5-14 Customer Loyalty Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Seg Dept Loyalty Score

Customer Segment's loyalty scores for Department, Location and Day. This score is an indication of customer segment's experience of purchase of products or services.

Seg Dept Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer segment’s loyalty score for Department, Location and Day by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer segment's experience of purchase of products or services.

Seg Class Loyalty Score

Customer segment’s loyalty score for Class, Location and Day. This score is an indication of customer segment's experience of purchase of products or services.

Seg Class Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer segment’s loyalty score for Class, Location and Day by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer segment's experience of purchase of products or services.

Seg Subclass Loyalty Score

Customer segment ’s loyalty score for Subclass, Location and Day. This score is an indication of customer segment's experience of purchase of products or services.

Seg Subclass Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer segment’s loyalty score for Subclass, Location and Day by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer segment's experience of purchase of products or services.

Seg Style Brand Loyalty Score

Customer segment’s loyalty score for Style, Brand, Location and Day. This score is an indication of customer segment's experience of purchase of products or services.

Seg Style Brand Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer segment’s loyalty score for Style, Brand, Location and Day by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer segment's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Dept Business Month Loyalty Score

Customer's loyalty score for Department, Location and Business Month. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Dept Business Month Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer's loyalty score for Department, Location and Business Month by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Class Business Month Loyalty Score

Customer's loyalty score for Class, Location and Business Month. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Class Business Month Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer's loyalty score for Class, Location and Business Month by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Style Business Month Brand Loyalty Score

Customer's loyalty score for Style, Brand, Location and Business Month. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Style Business Month Brand Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer's loyalty score for Style, Brand, Location and Business Month by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Dept Greg Month Loyalty Score

Customer's loyalty score for Department, Location and Gregorian Month. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Dept Greg Month Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer's loyalty score for Department, Location and Gregorian Month by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Class Greg Month Loyalty Score

Customer's loyalty score for Class, Location and Gregorian Month. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Class Greg Month Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer's loyalty score for Class, Location and Gregorian Month by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Style Greg Month Brand Loyalty Score

Customer's loyalty score for Style, Brand, Location and Gregorian Month. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.

Cust Style Greg Month Brand Loyalty Score by Promo

Customer's loyalty score for Style, Brand, Location and Gregorian Month by Promotion Component Type. This score is an indication of customer's experience of purchase of products or services.


Household

Table 5-15 lists the Customer Household attributes supported by Retail Insights.

Table 5-15 Customer Household Attributes

Attribute Definition

Household Income

Indicates the household income.

Household Class Id

Code for household class.

Household Class

Household class for a customer. Possible values are Nuclear/Joint/Single Parent, Double Income/Single Income.


Supplier

A supplier is a company that supplies goods or a service to another company. In the retail industry, the supplier supplies the retailer with goods, and the retailer sells those goods to customers. The same item can be supplied by multiple suppliers. As a result, a primary supplier is assigned to an item. When reporting by supplier, all items that are sold are attributed to the primary supplier.

Retail Insights supports multiple supplier sites for each supplier. A supplier site is the location from which the supplier ships merchandise. Terms and conditions can be defined at the supplier site level.

The attributes in the Supplier dimension allow the business analyst to rate supplier performance based on delivery history and the quality of products. This information can be used to identify suppliers whose performance is below standard, as well as those who are in compliance with expectations.

The following is the hierarchy of the Supplier dimension.

Supplier dimension hierarchy example

Table 5-16 lists the attributes of the Supplier dimension.

Table 5-16 Supplier Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Supplier Number

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a supplier.

Supplier

Trading name of a supplier.

Supplier Parent

Supplier level. For a supplier site, this value contains the parent supplier number. Sites represent physical locations from which suppliers ship. A null value indicates that this is a supplier.

QC Flag

Indicator of whether orders from a supplier require quality control, with values of ”Y” for yes (unless overridden by the user when the order is created) and ”N” for no, indicating that no quality control is required for this supplier unless indicated by the user during order creation. Quality control for suppliers involves checking the quality of the merchandise received (for example, damaged or over-ripened) and whether received shipments contain the quantity on the receiving label.

VMI Status

Status with which vendor-managed inventory (VMI) purchase orders are created, with values of ”A” for approved and ”W” for worksheet. A null value indicates that the supplier is not a VMI supplier. A VMI supplier does inventory planning for the retailer. A VMI supplier is also responsible for replenishing and reordering the retailer's supply.

Pre Mark Flag

Indicator of whether a supplier's premarked inventory is in separate containers for cross-dock shipping to stores, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.

EDI Flag

Indicator of whether a supplier electronically sends advance shipping notices (ASN), with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.

Intl Currency Flag

Indicator of whether a supplier operates in the same currency as the retailer's primary currency, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no.

Currency Code

Code of the currency that a supplier uses for business transactions.

Supplier Status

Indicator of whether supplier is currently active, with values of ”A” for active and ”I” for inactive.

Supplier Start Date

Date the supplier record was first inserted into the data warehouse.

Supplier End Date

Date the supplier was deleted from the source system.

Currency Description

Description of the currency that a supplier uses for business transactions.

Supplier Name 2

Secondary name of a supplier.

Primary Flag

Indicator of whether the supplier is the primary supplier for the item, with values of ”Y” for yes and ”N” for no. Each item has only one primary supplier. This field does not apply to sub-transaction-level items.

Pack Size

Number of items in a pack. Orders for the item must be placed in multiples of this quantity.

In Order Qty

Minimum quantity of the item that can be ordered at one time.

Max Order Qty

Maximum quantity of the item that can be ordered at one time.

Lead Time

Number of days needed between the date an order for an item is written and the delivery from the supplier to the store or warehouse.

Pickup Lead Time

Number of days needed between the date an item leaves a supplier and the delivery to an initial receiving location.

Inner Pack Size

Break pack size for an item. A break pack is a pack within a larger container.

Supplier Trait ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a supplier trait. A supplier trait is an attribute of a supplier, used to group suppliers with similar characteristics.

Supplier Trait Desc

Description of a supplier trait. A supplier trait is an attribute of a supplier, used to group suppliers with similar characteristics.

VPN

Vendor product number (VPN) associated with this item.



Note:

Supplier attributes are currently not supported in As-Is subject area in the Customer reporting area.

Retail Type

The Retail Type attribute represents the price type at which items were sold or held as inventory. There are four values for Retail Type:

  • Regular

  • Promotional

  • Clearance

  • Intercompany

This attribute segments a number of business measurements by price type, including sales and profit, stock position and value, markdowns, markups, and competitor pricing. This information is valuable when determining a pricing strategy, analyzing inventory value, or evaluating a competitor.

Table 5-17 describes the Retail Type attribute.

Table 5-17 Retail Type Attribute

Attribute Definition

Retail Type

Price type of an item. Values are as follows:

  • R - Regular

  • P - Promotion

  • C - Clearance

  • I - Intercompany

If an item is on promotion and clearance at the same time, the retail type is ”C”.


Product Season

Product season functionality allows you to categorize each item according to different seasons, and phases within seasons. For example, you can assign a season of "Spring" to a group of items, according to the supplier's deliveries of fashion items. Those relationships can be further broken down into the phases, such as "Spring I" and "Spring II." These item-phase-season relationships are then loaded into Retail Insights. You can query sales and inventory data, for example, based on all items in the spring season, or just items in the Spring II phase.


Note:

On a given day, an item can belong to more than one season and more than one phase within a season. Seasonality is designed to group by item/location/day to avoid double-counting.

The following is the hierarchy of the Product Season dimension.

Product season dimension hierarchy

Table 5-18 lists the attributes of the Product Season dimension.

Table 5-18 Product Season Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Season ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a season. A season is a designated timeframe that may or may not correspond with the Gregorian or business/fiscal calendars.

Season Desc

Description of a season. A season is a designated timeframe that may or may not correspond with the Gregorian or business/fiscal calendars.

Season Start Date

Date from which the source record (in the source system) is effective. This represents the start date of a season.

Season End Date

Date until which the source record (in the source system) is effective. This represents the end date of a season.

Phase ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a phase. A phase is a designated timeframe that may or may not correspond with the Gregorian or business/fiscal calendars; however, it falls within a season and is always a child of a single season. Multiple phases within a season may have overlapping timeframes within the season.

Phase Desc

Description of a season phase. A phase is a designated timeframe that may or may not correspond with the Gregorian or business/fiscal calendars; however, it falls within a season and is always a child of a single season. Multiple phases within a season may have overlapping timeframes within the season.

Phase Start Date

Date from which the source record (in the source system) is effective. This represents the start date of a phase.

Phase End Date

Date until which the source record (in the source system) is effective. This represents the end date of a phase.


Trade Area

A trade area is the geographic area serviced by a retail store or proposed retail store. A trade area is defined by whether a consumer shops at the store, and a retailer may have multiple trade areas for the site (primary, secondary, tertiary). Trade areas should be defined in such a way that retailers can determine the demographic, psychographic, or population data for the geography served by the store. This data is pulled from market area data, which is usually based on census blocks in the U.S. The trade area provides a mechanism to map market area data to a specific store because the census blocks (or other method used to store market area data) do not correlate directly to the geographic area served by a store. Examples of ways to define a trade area include using traffic flow studies, a retail gravity model, a zip code method, or commuting data.

Table 5-19 Trade Area Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Trade Area Name

Indicates the name of the trade area

Trade Area Description

This attribute provides a description of the trade area.

Trade Area Type

This attribute describes the type of trade area. Valid values could include Urban, Suburban, Rural, and others.

Pull factor

Pull factors are ratios that estimate the proportion of local sales that occurs in a town.

Commuter population

Number of people who commute in this trade area.

Peak Season Population

The number of people in the Trade Area during peak 'population' season. This is common in Trade Areas with high tourist population ebb and flow.

Tourist Population

The number of people that are tourists in a Trade Area.

State Population

The number of people in the state that the Trade Area resides.

Number of Households

The number of households within a trade area.

Average Family Size

The average number of people within a household that reside in a trade area.

Per Capita Income

The income divided by the total population of a Trade Area.

Avg Num of Vehicles

Average number of vehicles per household in this trade area.

Average Drive Time

This attribute indicates the average time in minutes consumers must drive from their homes to shop.


Reclassification

Reclassification occurs when any entity in a dimension changes its place in the dimension hierarchy, or when one or more attributes of an entity are changed. Reclassification affects Retail Insights reporting, whether you are using as-is, as-was, or point in time analysis. See "Analysis Methods" in Chapter 4, "Creating and Modifying Reports" for more information.

Major Reclassification and Lower-Level Dimensions

A major change occurs whenever an entity changes its place in the product hierarchy (group, department, and item can be reclassified) or in the organization hierarchy (area, region, district, and location can be reclassified). This type of reclassification alters the relationship among entities in a hierarchy.

For example, a single item (white shirt) might be reclassified from the Dress to the Casual subclass.

Item reclassification example

Only the Product and Organization dimensions can undergo major changes, and they are referred to as lower-level dimensions. They are dimensions with major changeable lower levels. Because Product and Organization are aggregating dimensions, a major change results in an altered data aggregation within their hierarchies.

The history of an entity before and after the major change can be tracked and compared. For example, an item can be moved from one subclass to another within its product hierarchy of department and class. While there are many good reasons for a retailer to move, or reclassify, an item in this way, Retail Insights still needs to track sales for that item from its new location in the product hierarchy, both before and after the change.

Retail Insights handles major changes by assigning the reclassified item (to use the same example) a new surrogate key. The surrogate key, along with the dimension's identifier, allow a means to track the dimension, and all transactions related to it, at any point in time.

Minor Changes and Top-Level Dimensions

A minor change means that an attribute of an entity is changed, but its position in the hierarchy remains the same. The dimensions that can only undergo minor changes are known as top level dimensions and consist of every dimension except organization and product. The levels of the top level dimensions cannot be reclassified; they are static.

Product and organization dimensions can undergo minor changes, but minor changes are not significant enough to alter their hierarchies.

For example, a description of a subclass might be changed from ”Humorous Cards” to ”Funny Cards.”

Minor change example

This type of change does not alter the relationship of a subclass to any other level of the hierarchy above or below it. The record is simply updated to reflect the description change; a new surrogate key does not need to be inserted. Minor change dimension processing in Retail Insights is less complex than major change processing.

Customer Order

Oracle Retail Insights' customer order functionality allows retailers to analyze transactions that cross multiple channels, and enables analysis of Oracle's Commerce Anywhere capabilities. It has two dimensions: customer order demand and customer order fulfillment.

For most retailers, effective customer order management has become critical as customers no longer shop only in brick and mortar stores, but expect the ability to interact with retailers across a variety of channels. A customer order is an agreement between the retailer and the customer in which the customer pays for an item and the retailer agrees to make the item available for pickup or delivery at a later date. It consists of two parts, demand and fulfillment. Demand involves facilitating the capturing of customer orders via an e-commerce site, a mobile device, an in-store kiosk or any other similar method. The order fulfillment process, in which the customer takes possession of the product, must be properly managed across those channels to avoid jeopardizing relationships with valued customers who want a seamless experience. An order management system, such as DOO (Distributed Order Orchestration) and GOP (Global Order Promising), is used to manage the order throughout its lifecycle. When an order is initially taken, this application will determine where the order should be sourced based on customer preferences and rules related to fulfillment options set by a retailer (e.g. cost, lead times). Oracle Retail Insights provides a comprehensive set of metrics to help retailers achieve customer satisfaction. Included are key performance measurements for customer order demand and customer order fulfillment.

Oracle Retail Insights' customer order dimension supports a number of different attributes of a customer order to allow performance analysis of retailer's business across all channels. A complete list of these attributes and their descriptions is in the following sections. These attributes allow a user to slice and dice customer order data for analyses by order delivery information, order status, and other customer order details.

For example, if an item in an order line is sold as a substitute for another item (perhaps the original item is unavailable), then both the original item and the substitute item will be identified as such. These attributes can be used to analyze the demand for the original item the customer wanted and the alternative items that were actually ordered and delivered.

Order status is also captured so that retailers can track the order lifecycle and analyze orders based on whether they are backordered, complete, canceled, etc. to discover potential issues involved with customer satisfaction that excessive backorders or cancellations might indicate. A large amount of canceled orders, for instance, could mean there is a group of upset customers who are returning items with which they are unsatisfied or for which delivery time was too late to be acceptable.

Finally, a retailer can identify how an order was shipped, through the requested shipment type and requested shipment method attributes, which identify the carrier and the service type being used to fulfill the order. This could be used in conjunction with the order status analysis to determine if customer dissatisfaction correlates to a specific shipment type or method.


Note:

When using Customer Order Promotion Transaction, Customer Order Transaction, Customer Order Status, and Customer Order Fulfillment dimensions, Salesperson and/or Cashier attributes should be used to represent an employee. Employee Name should not be used with these facts.

Table 5-20 Customer Order Demand Attributes

Attribute Definition

CO Header Demand Status

This attribute provides the status of the customer order header, which could be unique to the retailer's order management system.

Using this attribute a user can identify the status of customer order. Some of the statuses could be "Order Initiate", "Back-ordered", "Partial Picked", "Picked", "Partial Shipped", "Shipped", "Completed" and "Cancelled".

CO Line Demand Status

This attribute provides the status of the customer order line, which could be unique to the retailer's order management system.

Sales Person

This attribute lists the retailer's sales person who was responsible for the transaction and was credited with originating the sale.

Cashier

This attribute lists the employee who processed the sales transaction by receiving the tender from customer.

Customer Service Representative

This attribute lists the employee who helped the customer with any questions or sold them value-added services (re-packaging, gift packing, gift cards, etc).

Origin Demand Channel

This attribute lists the location deemed the point of origin for the customer order.

There are several channels, such as call center, website, SMS advertisement, store cashier, and sales person that could be considered the Origin Demand Channel.

Submit Demand Channel

The location deemed the generation of demand or point of submission for the customer order.

There are several channels, such as customer service center, website, kiosk at store, and store POS system that could be considered the submit demand channel.

The origin demand channel and submit demand channel may or may not be the same for a customer order.

CO Header Number

Each customer order has header information that is primarily customer-related, pertains to the entire order, and is uniquely identified by a Customer Order header number.

Header information also contains information about the conditions that affect how the system processes an order, such as fulfillment type, fulfillment method and delivery dates.
Most of the remaining header information consists of default values from the Address Book, Customer Billing Instructions, and Customer Master, such as tax code and area, and shipping address information.

CO Line Number

The customer order line number is used to uniquely identify the customer order line information, which includes detailed information about the items on the order, such as quantities, prices, status, and shipped quantities. It also contains the customer order header number to identify the order to which the line belongs.

Requested Shipment Type

This attribute provides the type of requested shipment for the customer order line.

Some shipment types could be "Direct Ship to Customer", "Store Pickup", etc.

Requested Shipment Method

Requested Shipment Method is more granular information about the Requested Shipment Type attribute. It defines the method of shipping to the customer.

If the shipment type is "direct ship to cust" the method might be "overnight" or "ground".

If the shipment type is "Store Pickup" the method would refer to how the goods were made available at the store, such as "WH-to-Store transfer", or "Stock from Store", etc.

CO Line Original Item

If an item is not available it may be replaced with a substitute item. In that case Oracle Retail Insights stores the original item as the CO Line Original Item attribute.

CO Line Substitute Item

If a customer orders an item that is not available, a retailer may decide to substitute a similar item that is available to be shipped immediately. This attribute displays the substitute item.

CO Retail Type

This attribute displays the price type that was recorded for the line item. The possible values could be R-Regular, P-Promotion, and C-Clearance.

CO Cancel Reason

This attribute is the reason given by the customer for canceling an order. Examples could be "Backorder Abandon," "Late Delivery," etc.


Table 5-21 Customer Order Fulfillment Organization Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Fulfillment Company Number

This attribute displays the unique ID from the source system that identifies a fulfillment company.

Fulfillment Company

Name of a fulfillment company. Fulfillment Company is the highest attribute within the fulfillment Organization hierarchy. A fulfillment company consists of one or more fulfillment chains.

Fulfillment Chain Number

This attribute displays the unique ID from the source system that identifies a fulfillment chain.

Fulfillment Chain

This attribute displays the name of a fulfillment chain. A fulfillment chain consists of one or more areas.

Fulfillment Area Number

This attribute displays the unique ID from the source system that identifies a fulfillment area.

Fulfillment Area

This attribute displays the name of a fulfillment area. A fulfillment area consists of one or more regions.

Fulfillment Region Number

This attribute displays the unique ID from the source system that identifies a fulfillment region.

Fulfillment Region

This attribute displays the name of a fulfillment region. A fulfillment region consists of one or more districts.

Fulfillment District Number

This attribute displays the name of the unique ID from the source system that identifies a fulfillment district.

Fulfillment District

This attribute displays the name of a fulfillment district. A fulfillment district consists of one or more locations.

Fulfillment Location Number

This attribute displays the unique ID from the source system that identifies a fulfillment location.

Fulfillment Location

This attribute displays the lowest level within the fulfillment organization hierarchy. It identifies a fulfillment warehouse, fulfillment store, or partner within the fulfillment company.

Fulfillment Channel ID

The ID of channel in which a customer order is fulfilled.

Fulfillment Channel

The channel in which a customer order is fulfilled.


Table 5-22 Customer Order Tender Attributes

Attribute Definition

Sales Transaction Number

This attribute displays a unique number through which the sales transaction can be identified. The transaction number is used to add detailed information about the item sales on the transaction, such as quantities, prices, discounts and tender amounts.

Tender Type

The form of payment made for a customer order sales transaction. Examples of tender types include cash, credit card, or gift card.

Transaction Type

This attribute differentiates cross channel liability transactions from normal sales, return transactions, and wholesale sales and return transactions. This is an internally generated attribute used by Oracle Retail Insights.


Reason

The Reason dimension makes it possible to track why a particular action was taken in the areas of inventory adjustment and sales. Return reasons such as "wrong item shipped" or "defective" are tracked by Return Reason. Inventory adjustments are tracked by Inv Adjustment Reason. The Reason attributes do not form a drillable hierarchy.

Table 5-23 Reason Attributes

Attribute Definition

Reason Code

To identify the reason why a particular action had performed depending on the subject area used (For example: Inv Adjustments, Return to Vendor, cost change, price change etc.)

Reason Description

A detailed description of the reason why a particular action had performed depending on the subject area used (For example: Inv Adjustments, Return to Vendor, cost change, price change etc.)

Status Code

To identify the status of the element depending on the subject area used. (For example: Inv Status, Customer order status etc.)

Status Description

A detailed description of the status depending on the subject area used. (For example: Inv Status, Customer order status etc.)

Status Class

This Attribute can be used to identify the different functional areas that status is used for. (For example: Inv Status, Customer order status etc.)

Reason Category

This attribute gives the category of reason for different functionalities (For example: Inventory Adjustment, RTV etc.)


Inventory Transfer

Inventory Transfers are stock movements between a retailer's locations. Inventory Transfers analysis will enable retailers to improve sales and avoid out of stocks by moving stock to locations where it is most needed. Depending on the transaction codes used in creating Inventory Transfers the transfer type is captured in Retail Insights as Normal, Book and Inter Company transfer types. Retail Insights will not support Transfers functionality for Transformable items. Retail Insights holds the inventory Transfers at item, to location, from location, transfer type and day level.

Table 5-24 Inventory Transfer Attributes

Attribute Definition

Transfer Type Code

Indicates the code for Transfer Type. This is based on the origin of the transfer request and determines how transfer behaves.

Transfer Type Description

Indicates the description for Transfer Type. This is based on the origin of the transfer request and determines how transfer behaves. Different Transfer Types that are supported are - Normal Transfer, Book Transfer, Inter Company.

Tsf Zone ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a transfer zone. A transfer zone is an intentional grouping of locations for transferring owned inventory from one location to another. A location can belong to only one transfer zone.

Tsf Zone Desc

Detailed description of a transfer zone. A transfer zone is an intentional grouping of locations for transferring owned inventory from one location to another. A location can belong to only one transfer zone.

Tsf Entity ID

Unique ID from the source system that identifies a transfer entity. A transfer entity is a group of locations that share legal requirements around product management. A location can belong to only one transfer entity, and a transfer entity can belong to multiple organization units.

Tsf Entity Desc

Detailed description of a transfer entity. A transfer entity is a group of locations that share legal requirements around product management. A location can belong to only one transfer entity, and a transfer entity can belong to multiple organization units.


Transfer from Organization

The Transfer from Organization dimension allows tracking of inventory transfers from a location or other organizational attribute. This permits analysis of the number of units transferred and the retail and cost value of the transfer in the organization.

Table 5-25 Transfer From Organization Attributes

Attribute Definition

From Chain Number

Chain in the company from which a transfer originates

From Chain

Name of the chain from where the transfer originated.

From Area Number

Area in the chain from which a transfer originates.

From Area

Name of the Area under the chain from which a transfer originates.

From Region Number

Region in the area from which a transfer originates.

From Region

Name of the Region under the area from which a transfer originates.

From District Number

District Number from which a transfer originates.

From District

Name of the District under the region from which a transfer originates.

From Loc Number

Warehouse, store, or partner location number from which a transfer originates.

From Loc

Warehouse, store, or partner location name from which a transfer originates.

From Tsf Entity ID

Transfer entity ID from which a transfer originates.

From Tsf Entity Desc

Transfer entity description from which a transfer originates.

From Tsf Zone ID

Transfer Zone ID from which a transfer originates.

From Tsf Zone Desc

Transfer Zone description from which a transfer originates.


Market Item

One of the critical components available with Oracle Retail Insights reporting is the ability for a retailer to compare its own performance to that of the market. Market Item attributes allow the retailer to make assortment, promotional and space allocation decisions within a wider context. By comparing its own trends to that of the market it is possible to identify and respond to opportunities and problems quickly and effectively.

Table 5-26 Market Item Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

All Store

Represents the highest level of Market Item hierarchy.

Market Dept

Indicates the second level of Market Item hierarchy.

Market Category

The range of products purchased by a business organization or sold by a retailer is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are known as product categories (examples of grocery categories might be: tinned fish, washing detergent, toothpastes).

Market Subcategory

Each market category divides into sub-categories. A pre requisite to defining the sub-categories is that trends behind the categories are known. Subcategory is defined as grouping of common differentiating characteristics within a larger category.

Market Segment

The next level below Market subcategory. Key information about how inventory is tracked and reported is stored at the Market Segment level.

Market Sub-segment

The next level below Market Segment. This is equivalent to Subclass level of Retailer's merchandising hierarchy.

Market Item Description

Description of the item including characteristics of the market item.

Market Item Brand

Displays the brand associated with the market item. This is level 10 of Market Item hierarchy.

Market Sub Brand

A subcomponent of a brand. For example, if a brand were "Super Cola", the subbrand might be "Super Cola Light".

Market Brand Owner

Brand owner for the Item.

Market Brand Owner Number

Brand owner for the Item.

Market Item Flavor

Indicates the flavor of Market Item.

Market Item Pattern

Indicates the pattern of Market Item.

Market Item Scent

Indicates the scent of Market Item.

Market Item Size

Indicates the size of market item.

Market Package Type

The package type defines as the packaging method chosen by the market item. After choosing the packaging type, retailer should specify the dimensions of the item. The following types of packaging types are available Case Pallet Each.

Market Parent Company

The next level below Market Sub-segment. It Indicate the parent company for the given market item hierarchy.

Vendor Name

The name of the vendor who supplies the market item.

Multi Pack

The multi-pack is defined as package of several individual pack items sold as a unit. This can be broken into multiple pack items.

Universal Product Code

Twelve-digit barcode printed or affixed on virtually everything sold in supermarkets or retail stores, including books, magazines, candy, etc., for automatic checking-out at the cashier counter. UPC not only identifies an item, it also provides real time information on quantity sold, and inventory and ordering information.


Competitor Pricing

A competitor is a retailer with a product range and customer base similar to those for the organization business unit [Store location in RI] and its channels. The competitor entity holds information about each competitor store and associates it with a location in the organization. Competitor pricing details can be associated with a specific competitor location and mapped to an item in the product hierarchy. This structure provides the means to compare competitor prices for similar or identical items, at a direct competitor location. With this type of timely information, promotion and pricing strategies can be implemented by retailers to prevent potentially costly customer defections.

Sample questions that Competitor Pricing Analysis can help answer:

  • How do my prices compare, for specific items, against nearby competitor locations? Against average competitor prices across all competitor locations?

  • How do my prices vary for an Item at the competition, when that Item has regular price, or when it's on promotion, or on clearance at the competitor?

One of the critical components available with Oracle Retail Insights reporting is the ability for a retailer to compare its own performance to that of the market. Market Item attributes allow the retailer to make assortment, promotional and space allocation decisions within a wider context. By comparing its own trends to that of the market it is possible to identify and respond to opportunities and problems quickly and effectively.

Table 5-27 Competitor Pricing Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

COMP_STORE_NAME

Represents the name of the competitor's store.

ADDRESS_LINE_1 - ADDRESS_LINE_4

Contains (up to) four lines of street address information of the competitor's store.

CITY, C_CITY_CODE

Contains the city name and code of the competitor's store.

COUNTY, C_COUNTY_CODE

Contains the county name and code of the competitor's store.

STATE_PROV_CODE, C_STATE_PROV_CODE

Contains the state/province name and code of the competitor's store.

COUNTRY_REGION_CODE, C_COUNTRY_REGION_CODE

Contains the country/region name and code of the competitor's store.

COUNTRY, W_COUNTRY_CODE

Contains the country name and code of the competitor's store.

REGION_CODE, C_REGION_CODE

Contains the region code of the competitor's store.

POST_OFFICE_BOX

Contains the P.O. Box number of the competitor's store.

ZIPCODE

Contains the Zip Code number of the competitor's store.

STORE_OPEN_DT, STORE_CLOSE_DT

The opening and closing dates of the competitor's store.

FAX_PH_NUM

Fax number of the competitor's store.

PHONE

Telephone number of the competitor's store.

WEB_ADDRESS

Web URL of the competitor's store.


Buyer

The Buyer dimension stores data about buyers who are responsible for raising purchase orders. The buyer dimension is attached to the Purchase order transactions and is used to report on order quantity, received quantity, cancelled qty against purchase orders created by the given buyer.

Table 5-28 lists the attributes of the Buyer dimension.

Table 5-28 Buyer Attributes

Attribute Definition

Buyer Name

The name of the person authorized to create purchase order.

Buyer Phone

The current telephone number of the buyer.

Buyer Fax

The current Fax number of the buyer.


Purchase Order

A Purchase order (PO) is a request issued by a Retailer to a supplier, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for products. Sending a purchase order to a supplier constitutes a legal offer to buy products or services

The purchase order dimension stores key details of the purchase orders such as Supplier, Buyer, Order_ Type, import order indicator etc for orders that have been approved at least once are stored in the dimension.

The purchase order dimension is linked to Buyer, Supplier, Item, Organization, Calendar dimensions to report on cost and quantity of ordered, cancelled, received purchase orders against a supplier/Buyer/Item/Location/Time period.

Table 5-29 lists the attributes of the Purchase Order dimension.

Table 5-29 Purchase Order Attributes

Attribute Definition

ORDER_NO

Unique identifier of the purchase order.

BACKHAUL_ALLOWANCE

This field will contain the backhaul allowance value.

BACKHAUL_TYPE

This field contains the type of backhaul allowance that will be applied to the order. Some examples are Calculated or Flat rate

CLOSE_DATE

This contains the date when the order is closed.

CONTRACT_NO

This contains the contract number associated with this order.

CURRENCY_CODE

This contains the currency code for the order.

CUST_ORDER

A flag that indicated whether or not the order is generated for a customer. Currently not being used.

DEPT

This contains the department ID whose items are on the given PO.

EARLIEST_SHIP_DATE

The date before which the items on the purchase order cannot be shipped by the supplier. Represents the earliest ship date of all the items on the order

EDI_PO_IND

This indicates whether or not the order will be transmitted to the supplier via an Electronic Data Exchange transaction.

IMPORT_COUNTRY_ID

The identifier of the country into which the items on the order are being imported.

IMPORT_ORDER_IND

This indicates if the purchase order is an import order.

Valid values are Y (Yes) and N (No).

LATEST_SHIP_DATE

The date after which the items on the purchase order cannot be shipped by the supplier. Represents the greatest latest ship date of all the items on the order

LOC_TYPE

This contains the location type, if the order is raised against a single location. Valid values are S(Store) and W(Warehouse)

NOT_AFTER_DATE

This contains the last date on which the delivery of goods in purchase order will be accepted.

NOT_BEFORE_DATE

This contains the first date on which the delivery of goods in purchase order will be accepted.

ORDER_NO

This is the purchase order number that uniquely identifies an order within source system.

ORDER_TYPE

Indicates the type of order and which Open To Buy bucket will be updated. Valid values include: N/B - Non Basic ARB - Automatic Reorder of Basic BRB - Buyer Reorder of Basic.

ORIG_APPROVAL_DATE

This contains the date that the order was originally approved.

ORIG_IND

Indicates where the order originated.

Valid values include:

0 - Current system generated (used by automatic replenishment)

2 - Manual

3- Buyer Worksheet

4 - Consignment

5 - Vendor Generated

PAYMENT_METHOD

Indicates how the purchase order will be paid.

Valid options are LC (Letter of Credit), WT (Wire Transfer), OA (Open Account).

PICKUP_DATE

Contains the date when the order can be picked up from the Supplier. This field is only required if the Purchase Type of the order is Pickup.

PICKUP_LOC

Contains the location at which the order will be picked up, if the order is a Pickup order.

PICKUP_NO

This contains the reference number of the Pickup order.

PO_TYPE

This contains the value associated with the PO_TYPE for the order.

PURCHASE_TYPE

Indicates what's included in the suppliers cost of the item. Valid values include C (Cost), CI (Cost and Insurance), CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight), FOB (Free on Board).

QC_IND

This indicator determines whether or not quality control checking is required when items for this order are received. Valid values are Y and N.

REJECT_CODE

This contains a code for the reason why the order was rejected during the automatic replenishment approval process.

Valid values include: VM (Vendor minimum not met), NC (Negative cost calculated on an item), UOM (UOM convert error due to incomplete data).

SHIP_METHOD

The method used to ship the items on the purchase order from the country of origin to the country of import.

Valid values include 10 (Vessel, Non container), 11 (Vessel, Container), 12 (Border Water-borne (Only Mexico and Canada)), 20 (Rail, Non-container), 21 (Rail, Container), 30 (Truck, Non container), 31 (Truck, Container), 32 (Auto), 33 (Pedestrian), 34 (Road, Other, includes foot and animal borne), 40 (Air, Non-container), 41 (Air, Container), 50 (Mail), 60 (Passenger, Hand carried), 70 (Fixed Transportation Installation), 80 (Not used at this time).

SHIP_PAY_METHOD

Code indicating the payment terms for freight charges associated with the order.

Valid values include: CC - Collect, CF - Collect Freight Credited Back to Customer, DF - Defined by Buyer and Seller, MX - Mixed, PC - Prepaid but Charged to Customer, PO - Prepaid Only,

PP - Prepaid by Seller

SPLIT_REF_ORDNO

This column will store the original order number from which the split orders were generated from. It will be for references purposes only. The purpose is to allow users a means of grouping orders that were split from an original super order. The original order, once split, will however be removed from the system.

STATUS

Indicates the status of the purchase order. Dimension only holds POs with the following status:

A - Approved

C - Cancelled

SUPPLIER

This field holds the supplier/supplier site against which the PO is raised.

VENDOR_ORDER_NO

This contains the vendor's unique identifying number for an order. These orders may have originated by the vendor through the EDI process or this number can be associated to an Oracle Retail order when the order is created on-line.

REV_NO

Contains the revision number of the PO record.


Allocation

An allocation helps allocate merchandise against each store or warehouse after determining the inventory requirements for the given item, location, and week using real time inventory information. An allocation can either be done in advance of the order's arrival or at the last minute to leverage real-time sales and inventory information. Pre-distribution of product quantities on a purchase order can be done to support faster delivery of goods from a warehouse location to stores. This is tracked via allocations against a given purchase order. Multiple allocations can be raised against a given PO that help distribute the ordered quantity among the stores sourcing from the warehouse.

The Allocation dimension holds details of a given allocation such as the order number against which the allocation was done, the status etc. The Allocation dimension is linked to the Purchase order dimension to report allocations and the allocated quantities against a purchase order.

Table 5-30 lists the attributes of the Allocation dimension.

Table 5-30 Allocation Attributes

Attribute Definition

ALLOC_NO

Contains the unique identifier for the allocation

ORDER_NO

The purchase order number against which the allocation has been raised. This is a common attribute between the Purchase Order Dim and the Allocation Dim.

STATUS

Status of the allocation.

Valid Values:

'R' = Reserved

'A' = Approved

'C' = Closed

PO_TYPE

The PO_Type of the order associated with the allocation

ALLOC_METHOD

Contains the preferred allocation method, which is used to distribute goods when the stock received at a warehouse cannot immediately fill all requested allocations to stores.

Valid values for this field are:

A - Allocation quantity based

P - Prorate method

C - Custom

RELEASE_DATE

Contains the date on which the allocation should be released from the warehouse for delivery to the store locations.

DOC

The ASN or BOL number for an ASN or BOL sourced allocation.

DOC_TYPE

The source of the Allocation.

Valid Values: PO, TSF, ALLOC, ASN, BOL


Tender Type

The tender type dimension holds the various tender types that may be utilized during sales transactions.

Table 5-31 Tender Type Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

TNDR_TYPE_ID

Represents the tender type code.

TNDR_TYPE_GRP_ID

Represents the tender type group to which the tender type ID belongs to.


Coupon

A coupon is a voucher entitling the holder to a discount for a particular product.

Coupons are important vehicles for targeted offers and for driving sales of a desired category. An analysis of coupon use can help retailers understand if the cost of producing and distributing coupons is worthwhile.

Table 5-32 Coupon Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

COUPON_ID

Contains the number that uniquely identifies the coupon.

COUPON_DESC

Contains the description of the coupon associated with the coupon number.

COUPON_SEQ_NO

Contains the sequence number of the coupon.

COUPON_BARCODE

Holds the coupon barcode - only an EAN13 or free text can be entered.

MAX_DISCOUNT_AMT

Contains the Maximum Discount value that can be gained from the coupon.

COUPON_AMT

Contains the percent or dollar value of the coupon.

PERCENT_IND

Specifies whether the coupon amount is a percent or a dollar value.

PROMOTION

Holds the promotion ID. Any open promotion can be selected to be associated with coupons

PROMOTION_COMPONENT_ID

Promotion Component ID field required for RPM. Will be required if a promotion has been selected.

TRAN_LVL_IND

Indicates if this is a transaction level coupon.


Transaction Code

The Transaction Code attribute represents the codes used in merchandising systems to differentiate different types of transactions which occur during daily operations. In Retail Insights, these codes are also used to separate Inventory Receipts based on their associated transaction type.

There are three values for Transaction Code which are used in conjunction with Inventory Receipts:

  • Purchases (20)

  • Allocation Transfer Receipts (44~A)

  • Transfer Receipts (44~T)

Table 5-33 Transaction Code Dimension Attributes

Attribute Definition

Transaction Code

Code which describes the transaction type that generated the inventory receipts.

Transaction Description

Description of the transaction type that generated the inventory receipts.


Retail Insights Attribute Metadata

The following chart provides information about Retail Insights attribute metadata. Users please be aware that you cannot mix facts across as-is and as-was subject areas.

Table 5-34 Retail Insights Attribute Metadata

Merchandise Insights Customer Insights Attributes As-Is As-Was

X


Business Calendar

X

X

X


Employee

X

X


X

Cluster

X

X


X

Consumer Group

X

X


X

Consumer Household Group

X

X

X


Organization

X

X

X


Stockholding Franchise

X

X

X


Non-Stockholding Franchise

X

X

X


Product

X

X

X


Promotion

X

X


X

Customer

X

X


X

Customer Segment

X

X


X

Customer Segment Allocation

X

X


X

Household

X

X


X

Customer Segment Loyalty


X

X


Supplier

X

X

X


Retail Type

X

X

X


Product Season Phase

X

X


X

Trade Area

X



X

Market Item

X


X


Buyer

X

X

X


Purchase Order

X

X

X


Allocation

X

X

X


Tender Type

X

X

X


Coupon

X

X

X


Competitor Pricing

X

X

X


Customer Order

X

X

X


Customer Order Origin Channel

X

X

X


Customer Order Submit Channel

X

X

X


Customer Order Tender Type

X

X

X


Fulfillment Organization

X

X

X


Gregorian Calendar

X

X

X


Customer Order Fulfillment

X

X

X


Customer Order Status

X

X

X


Reason

X

X

X


Shipment Method

X

X

X


Shipment Type

X

X

X


Tender Type

X

X

X


Time of the day

X

X

X


Return to Vendor

X

X

X


Inventory Adjustments

X

X

X


Inventory Transfers

X

X

X


Transaction Code

X

X