| Oracle® Retail Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service User Guide Release 19.0 F24864-08 |
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| Oracle® Retail Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service User Guide Release 19.0 F24864-08 |
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The Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service (A&IP FSL CS) process establishes the breadth and depth of the product offering (including the color/fragrance/flavor and size level), for Points-of-Commerce and for a given period of time. The analysis of past performance such as color effectiveness, trend adoption, styling visualization, in-store placement, and geographic selling are key inputs into revising a currently planned/executed assortment or building a new assortment. The simplified business process is automated to create and define assortments based on trend and historical data with an option to override by the planner.
The Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service process starts with Creating Assortment Strategy by reviewing history, defining the assortment, creating that assortment at the cluster level using build wedge, moving to Item Planning pre-season for KPIs, creating weekly sales, reconciling the plan with upstream systems, and approving the plan. Then, using the exception driven process, spreading the plan down to sizes and moving ahead with the in-season process.
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service helps the business to anticipate and proactively manage exceptions by utilizing robust real-time alerts to highlight and focus a planner's attention on item issues that need immediate attention. In this way, the planner can manage by exception versus searching through entire data sets to locate problems, saving time and resources to focus on important issues. It also provides a separate route to plan basic lines so that retailers plan basic lines in one go across multiple assortment periods and focus more on seasonal items every assortment period. It also provides a dashboard, which provides a visual tool to quickly analyze in-season item trends based on various KPIs, such as Sales, Gross Margin, and Sell-Thru and also exceptions in the business.
The Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service activity consists of six tasks: Create Assortment, Build Wedge, Item Planning - Basics, Item Planning, In-Season Item Planning, and Item Planning at the store level. Create Assortment focuses on reviewing history, determining the number of options, identifying the best attributes with attribute scoring, creating placeholder positions, and creating the shopping list at the cluster level. Build Wedge focuses on the Auto wedge process, visual planning, providing the planner flexibility to override the wedge options, creating a high-level buy plan, and approving the assortment. Item Planning - Basics focuses on creating an Item Plan for basic/continuous items across multiple assortment periods in one go. Item Planning focuses on creating a plan in advance of when the merchandise is going to be sold, and In-Season focuses on adjusting the original plan based sales once the season has started, as well as factoring in new knowledge about the assortment, completion, promotions or other factors that were not known about during Item Planning. The Item Planning - Basics, Item Planning and In-Season processes also include what-if optimization for pricing decisions to assist the planner in determining optimal markdowns. For any exceptional stores, the planner has the ability to plan for those stores and break down by size for the receipts plan using Item Planning @ Store.
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service leverages the features of the powerful Retail Predictive Application Server (RPAS) platform, including visual planning, exception management, and robust What-If scenarios.
Following is a summary of the key features of Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service.
Assortment period is the duration of the assortment or buying period. Assortment periods cannot overlap and notify the planner of any overlaps through real time alert. Delivery flows are the receipt schedule within an assortment period. There can be many flows associated within an assortment period restricted by the start/end weeks of the assortment period. Flows can be assigned at the style/color/assortment period/cluster level.
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service provides flexibility for planners to use Last Assortment (LA) data in conjunction with Last Year (LY) data, which is especially useful for some fast fashion categories. Last Year or Last Assortment data is easily accessible in separate views to analyze and compare data. The planner can perform the following:
Analyze history/ review history by attributes.
Seed in Create Assortment workspace, Determine # of Options step.
Used to calculate the recommended assortment.
Item status is determined based on thresholds set by the planner to determine the carryover status. All the placeholders created are considered for New status. The target carryover is automatically determined by the threshold carryover units defined at the subclass/cluster level. A mandatory flag is included in the Create Assortment process that helps the wedge builder always recommend the mandatory option.
The Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service Target Options calculation includes a threshold parameter (LY Sales U Min Threshold, LY Receipts U Min Threshold) which allows planners to remove special or one off buys to optimize historical data used within the Rate of Sales calculation.
Example: 16 options to include in the ROS calculation but, 4 out of 16 were small special buys; think surprise and delight items (for example, a retailer may buy a few luxury pieces for assortment presence with minimal receipts). When calculating ROS, you would only want to include 12 options.
WP Rate of Sales will populate with the recommended Rate of Sales during the seeding process. Recommend Rate of Sales is calculated utilizing last year sales. The Rate of Sale calculation takes into account the number of stores that a style was allocated to in order to adjust for under-performing locations with zero sales. There is a WP Rate of Sales measure for the planner to manually adjust after the seed if necessary.
Example: Recommended ROS = LY Sales U / (# of Weeks * LY # of Options * LY # of stores):
LY Sales U: Reg + Promo Sales units from last year or recent history
LY # of Stores: maximum # of stores within the cluster that a style-color was received in:
Focusing on receipts ensures that unproductive stores are taken into account
LY # of Options: maximum number of options sold in stores within the cluster
WP ROS: populated with Recommended ROS during seed process, will recalculate with edits to WP total options
The Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service Wedge Builder utilizes an algorithm that will recommend the minimum number of style-colors based on the assortment strategy that best fit the attribute goals planned for each cluster. It auto-calculates the wedge based on the target mix assignment along with the planner's choice of attributes (maximum of three) and attribute mix breakdown to determine the overall score within each subclass. The Wedge logic takes the total number of options and item status into consideration by completing the Carryover requirements first, followed by fulfilling New status requirements utilizing attribute scores and attribute importance rankings.
There are four key inputs from the Create Assortment process that are considered in Auto Wedge logic:
Options marked as mandatory:
When an option is marked as mandatory, it will be included in the wedge.
Options marked as Basic Carryover items:
When an option is marked as a Basic-Carryover item, it will be included in the wedge.
Target mix percentages:
Target mix percentage is the breakdown of attribute values by the percent of total to the attribute at the subclass/cluster/assortment period level.
Attribute scores:
Attribute score is the method used to determine the attribute value importance which is used to calculate the option score based on the attributes assigned to each option.
Attribute scores are determined by target mix percentages where the lower the score the better, that is, 1= Best.
Style-color scores:
The attributes assigned to each option will determine the overall option score within each subclass. The lower the score, the better the match the option is to be assorted in the wedge.
Demand Transference (DT) logic leverages science to forecast the effect on sales of all the items in the assortment when items are added, removed, or swapped from the assortment. DT enables the planner try out several different assortments beyond the recommendations of Wedge builder to find one that best meets the goals of the assortment. DT uses the item similarity score, item elasticity, and attribute weights as key drivers to determine the profitable items.
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service facilitates the management of an item all the way through its lifecycle, from the Item Planning subclass-level target-setting through in-season management down to the item/store level. It enables retailers to quickly realize benefits and keep up with ever-changing customer expectations. It includes the following capabilities:
Setting targets, identifying breakout of new versus carryover product, determining the number of new options, and setting sales targets by item.
Target creation offers complete flexibility that aligns with all the retailer's business process. The targets can come from MFP, AP, created within IPCS using LY, a demand forecast, or they can be manually created.
In season, Item Planning Cloud Service provides subclass-level open to buy reconciliation to optimize the placement of inventory based on customer fulfillment needs.
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service facilitates the management of basics/continuous items across multiple seasons all the way through its lifecycle, from the Item Planning subclass-level target-setting through in-season management down to the item/store level. It enables retailers to quickly realize benefits and keep up with ever-changing customer expectations. It also enables retailers to plan basic items across multiple assortment periods or multiple seasons in one workspace than having to repeat the same activity for same set of items across multiple workspaces. It includes the following capabilities:
Setting targets, identifying breakout of new versus carryover product, determining the number of new options, and creating a sales plan across multiple seasons by item. The targets can come from MFP, AP, created within IPCS using LY, a demand forecast, or they can be manually created.
Item plans created in the Item Planning - Basics workbook can be aggregated with other assorted items for a selected season in IP Pre-Season and IP In-Season workbooks.
If the total department plans exceed the Targets in seasonal workbooks, the planner has the flexibility to override the plans for basic lines in seasonal workbooks to meet the department Targets.
Since Basics/Continuous items spans across multiple seasons, the planner can plan and finalize the assortments, plan the needed Buy quantity once in Assortment Planning to last multiple seasons, and spread the sales across multiple seasons in the Item-Planning Basics workbook.
In the subsequent assortment periods, if the basic assorted line has an On-Hand inventory and has future item life cycle end date, the item will be automatically marked as basic-carryover and eventually gets a Carryover status for the item. The planner can just mark this as an eligible item and now focus only on seasonal lines. The Build Wedge and Demand Transference processes give the Basic-Carryover item the highest priority after Mandatory items.
With an implementation of only Item Planning Cloud Service, detailed Options planning capabilities are provided to facilitate plan creation and a smart starting point for more detailed Item Planning. The following capabilities are included:
Ability to carry over items from prior assortments
Establish item-level selling patterns using a variety of sources including like item, last year history, curve library, or a demand forecast
Assign product attributes
Determine assortment strategy based on space constraints
Add images for a visual options planning experience
Reconcile against targets
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service provides price and promotion planning capabilities that streamline the layering of events within the context of the sales, inventory, and keep/add/drop assortment planning decisions, reinforces common event structures within the plan, and are supported by standard price elasticity lift and simple optimization models. The capabilities also include markdown planning, with the flexibility of planning either markdown percentages or price points. Following is a summary of the key price and promotion planning capabilities:
Management of promotion and markdown event libraries that simplify planning decisions, reinforce event consistency, and provide flexibility to leverage user-specified elasticity-driven or explicitly-defined event lifts
Item planning process for incorporating time-phased promotion or markdown series into the sales plan seeding process
Enhanced what-if simulation of promotion and markdown event impacts with side by side comparison of two (or more) different scenarios, for easy incorporation into the plan
Visibility to simple, unconstrained markdown optimization based on price elasticity model to inform markdown planning
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service includes additional capabilities for the existing standard, exception-based retailing processes with clear resolution pathways towards prioritized, value-based activities. By automating best practices and adopting exception-based reporting, retailers create more space for innovative and artistic thinking. In addition to the automated alert navigation to quickly find and address exceptions and control where alerts should be evaluated, an Exception Dashboard provides a dynamic, visual starting point for exception management.
Exception management processes include planner guidance to alert for Assortment period overlap, Product Attribute, Fixture capacity, carryover options minimum, new options minimum, Shop Option, Mandatory option inclusion, Attribute mix different to Max target, Attribute not assigned, flow not assigned, receipts difference to sales, in-season projected inventory overages, low sales trends, in-season immediate inventory need, and future inventory needs.
Nested Dynamic Rollup is a configurable option available to view/edit plans/subtotals at various levels. The Define Product Rollup view is used to select product attributes to view in an alternate hierarchy. Nested product attribute roll up is provided with three levels. A planner can set up to three different combinations for nested rollup with a maximum of three levels in each combination. Nesting of dynamic attributes is a configurable option.
For example: As a first combination, you select Brand as a Level 1, Color as Level 2, and Fabric as Level 3 by clicking the list of attributes available at that category.
This allows you to roll up your items by brand, then color inside each brand and then by fabric inside each color. This feature also allows you to view subtotals for each of the levels. You can edit subtotals and spread the values to all the associated child positions.
The planner can analyze, review and edit the proposed assortment based on important attributes. You may select up to three attributes at a time for the dynamic rollup.
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service facilitates increased margin through proper item planning all the way down to the size level. Optimized store-level size profiles can be imported from Size Profile Optimization or from another size profile tool, and automation is used to apply them to the item plans before releasing them to the ordering process. Additional prepack capabilities can be leveraged to round the buy into packs which is used to improve supply chain efficiency. Robust exception management using real time alerts allows the user to efficiently keep an eye on a huge amount of detail without the need for time-intensive analysis.
Assortment and Item Planning Dashboard for FSL focuses on current In-season metrics which allows the dashboard to provide a quick summary view of plans/trends prior to diving into each planning templates. This dashboard talks to the planner about the overall health of business, trends, the high performing and low performing lines based on the pre-determined metrics. The planner decides the metrics the planner would want to watch the trend for the next online day. The overnight batch run would get the dashboard ready for the user to analyze first thing in the morning as soon as the planner logs in to the application.
Four dashboard profiles are provided for A&IP FSL:
Weekly Trends (Key Items) - The Weekly Trends for Key Items shows the graphical view of the key metrics by calendar. It will list the High performing and Low performing n number of items where the number of items for each subclass is a configurable value. The trends are shown for pre-determined metrics Sales U/R, Gross Margin, Gross Margin %, and Sell Thru %.
Product Trends (Key Items) - The Product Trends for Key Items shows the information of products sorted by the selected metric. This provides a graphical view of the top items to bottom items in order. The metrics provided here are Sell Thru %, Gross Margin, Gross Margin %, and Sales U/R to be able to see the order of top to bottom items. The planner will be able to sort the measure to review the product ranks in ascending or descending order for the pre-determined calendar period.
Product Class Trends - The Class Performance provides the true total value of the class. This view enables the planner to review the true performance of the products at the class level and above. The metrics provided here are Sell Thru %, Gross Margin, Gross Margin %, and Sales U/R.
Exceptions (Key Items) - The Exceptions profile shows the exceptions, if any, for the High and Low performing items listed in the dashboard. Real time alerts are provided in this dashboard for various business conditions. The exception dashboard provides a contextual launch into the workbooks for further analysis and resolution of real-time alerts.
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service provides the following benefits:
Simple and highly visual assortment business process to create and define assortments based on trend, history data, customer, and attribute preferences.
Streamlined placeholder creation including like item capabilities and attribute management.
Wedge Builder and Demand Transference capabilities to generate cluster level optimized assortment recommendations.
Simplified workflow for Basic/Continuous items across multiple seasons.
Exception-driven in-season planning to manage key item performance and to break items down to Style-Color using size profiles.
What-if promotional and markdown planning capabilities.
Dashboard to analyze the ups and downs in Sales, GM, and EOP and review Item Planning and in-season exceptions.
Manages the entire lifecycle of an item, including item buy planning and in-season trend analysis.
Unified financial, assortment, and item strategies. Open-to-Buy Reconciliation with merchandise financial plans.
Increased accuracy and reduced markdowns liability with promotional planning through reconciliation of bottom-up item plans to top-down financial plans, preventing overstocks.
Increased return on investment with weekly receipt flow visibility and what-if promotions planning capabilities.
Reduced markdowns and increased profits with proactive in-season item management.
A proactive approach towards business trends.
The high-level steps to complete this process:
Planning Administration:
Planning Administration
Currency Administration
Validate Loaded Data
Planning Maintenance:
Location Clustering
Assortment Period Maintenance
Promotion and Markdown Maintenance
Curve Maintenance
Create Assortment:
Perform Last Year/Last Assortment/MFP Analysis
Set targets and then review them against fixtures plan and/or capacity
Attribute scoring to determine the correct target mix by attributes:
Create new options, set parameters for them and assign attributes
Select the options and compare the assortment to the target
Self-approve the targeted assortment/shopping list
Build Wedge:
Perform Last Year/Last Assortment/MFP Analysis
Review Assortment Strategy
Provide recommended assortment by cluster
Check visual assortment across the assortment period
Plan Buy quantity for the included options in the assortment
Self-approve the targeted assortment
Item Planning - Basics:
Review targets from Assortment Strategy or Assortment Planning and MFP to ensure that item plans will meet financial targets
Override the life cycle Start Date and Lifecycle End date if required
Plan Sales and Margin by item and Location Cluster
Create promotional and markdown plans for the lifecycle of items
Create a receipt and inventory plan by item and Location Cluster
Reconcile to the Merchandise Financial Planning targets for Basic only subclass or reconcile in the Item Planning Pre-Season workbook aggregating plans along with seasonal items
Self-approve the item plan to the Op and Cp versions
Item Planning:
Review targets from Assortment Strategy or Assortment Planning and MFP to ensure that item plans will meet financial targets
Plan Sales and Margin by item and Location Cluster
Create promotional and markdown plans for the lifecycle of items
Create a receipt and inventory plan by item and Location Cluster
Reconcile to the Merchandise Financial Planning targets
Self-approve the item plan to the Op version
In-Season Planning:
Review actuals and trends
Replan Sales and Margin by item to adjust per in-season trends
Replan promotions and markdowns utilizing what-if optimization
Review and resolve real-time alerts
Reconcile to the targets
Self-approve the item plan CP
Item Planning @ Store:
Replan Sales and Margin by item for store exceptions
Replan Receipts and Inventory by item for store exceptions
Apply size profiles and round receipts to packs
Approve store exception plan
Two user roles are provided.
Planner
The intended business user of Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service is an Assortment Planner. Some organizations may call this person a Buyer. The role is responsible for creating an assortment, along with sales and receipt plans, that meet the strategy and financial targets set by the retailer in order to meet holistic financial goals.
Once the Assortment Planning process is completed, the planner can plan the execution of that assortment plan with a weekly sales and receipt plan by item and location cluster.
Planning Administrator
The Planning Administrator role performs periodic administrative steps that drive some of the critical parts of the Assortment and Item Planning process. There are several tasks that must be completed by the Planning Administrator before the Assortment Planner may begin their tasks.
The user should understand these key concepts from Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server Cloud Edition.
Placeholder maintenance enables planners to dynamically create/modify/delete placeholder positions at chosen hierarchy levels, so they can plan for future expected items/locations without having them actually exist in the current system. As part of system configuration, Placeholder Maintenance needs to be enabled for the needed dimensions and levels. It also enables the planner to choose options "Use Like Item" and/or "Assign Attributes" for easy and quick creation of placeholder positions. It also enables planners with the ability to import placeholder items/attributes created externally using Microsoft Excel files. It includes the following capabilities:
Contextual launch for quick creation of placeholder positions that pre-select the launch context
Launch from main menu enables quick ability to add placeholders at any of the enabled dimensions and levels
Ability to copy attributes from selected like position
Modify enabled only when placeholder positions exist
Deletion of unused placeholder positions with proper messaging
Enhanced import of placeholders from Microsoft Excel
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service is highly visual, offering planners the ability to build and plan their assortments just like their customers shop their assortments, visually. Visual capabilities, when deployed using best practices, will not slow solution performance and can use your existing image storage solutions to reduce total cost of ownership. Planners have the ability to view visually and add all the styles available in an assortment and summary pane while understanding the impact of each assortment choice that they have made.
Visual planning includes the following capabilities:
View images associated with each style-color and the configured measures and/or attributes data.
All available style-colors listed in card view format that can be added to the assorted list by dragging and dropping or by clicking on the plus/add icon (+).
Quick summary pane for reviewing the assortment choices made against target and LY.
Ability to move cards from assorted to available by dragging and dropping or by clicking on the close/delete icon (X) with all related summary metrics recalculated accordingly.
Easy to edit configured measures.
Dynamically switch between the measure profiles in the card view.
Easy and quick attribute filtering, with the ability to filter up to five attributes at once.
With dynamic hierarchy, planners can dynamically roll up plans using the attributes defined on the product/location dimension. The workspace plan/dashboard dynamically rolls up instead of rebuilding it. This does not require refreshing of the entire workspace or dashboard. It includes the following capabilities:
Depends on context of workspace/dashboard and selection of attributes.
Support for placeholder positions created without values using the attribute value "unassigned."
In Workspace:
Ability to select up to three product/location attributes by specifying in the Define Product Rollup view.
Refresh the dynamic rollup and use the attributes throughout the workspace without having to rebuild the workspace.
Any view in Workspace dynamically rolls up to the needed attribute using the attribute values.
In Dashboard:
Ability to select product/location attributes; rollup occurs for the attribute values so you can review dashboard metrics in the manner most relevant to your business.
The special filters enable the planner to focus on information that is important for them at that moment. It affects the visible positions of the workspace view by displaying only the data that is fulfilling the requested criteria while all other positions remain hidden. When a special filter is applied to a view, the positions in the query dimensions (X and Y axes) that fulfill the requirements of the query for the particular position of the driving dimension (Z axis) are the only ones shown in the view. It includes the following capabilities:
Easy to use.
Pre-configured.
Quick visual identification when special filter is turned on.
Easy and quick option to turn on/off.
Attribute filtering.
The ability to view images associated with specific positions and attributes is critical for planning. Image display is enabled for specific workspaces and dimensions through configuration. It includes the following capabilities:
View an image associated with a chosen position/attributes.
Scroll through images of positions visible on the grid without having to bring up image displays for each of those positions individually.
Set a default image.
Resize the image as needed.
The ability to select the available attributes at different levels for display and sorting purposes, along with attribute images that can help planners in making decisions easily and quickly. The dynamic rollup of attributes within workspaces and the Dashboard is also available along with support of unassigned attributes for placeholder items. It includes the following capabilities:
Select the needed attributes for display and sort along with supported attribute images at the needed hierarchy levels.
Flexibility to change the display order of attributes as needed.
Easy selection of the sort order.
Quick option to hide/show the attributes in the Pivot Table using Manage Attributes.
With Undo, planners can quickly reverse their actions and undo the edited data for the selected cells or all changes performed after the last calculate operation. When more than one action is performed, all the performed actions are listed. Undo is performed sequentially. It includes the following capabilities:
Operates on entire workspace, not just the current view.
Can be accessed from the Quick action tool bar, Quick action menu, or keyboard short cut (CTRL+Z).
Newest edits are on top of the list and oldest are at the bottom.
The planner can sequentially undo the actions from the top of the list either one by one or multiple/all at once.
Position filtering enables the planner to quickly filter the data of a specific dimension that is important for them at that moment. It affects the visible positions of the worksheet view by displaying only the selected data slices. Position filtering can be applied to any of the views within the workspace. It includes the following capabilities:
Easy and quick option to launch using context menu.
Hides all the other positions and shows only the filtered data.
Quick visual identification when Position Filtering is turned on.
Easy and quick option to remove filter. Can be applied in progressive/regressive.
The ability to filter positions is provided by the available attributes and their values within the wizard process while creating/reviewing the plan. With attribute filtering, planners can make decisions easily and quickly. It includes the following capabilities:
Select the needed attribute for filtering, select the attribute value, and click search.
Flexibility to change the filter on to another attribute as needed.
Easy selection of the attribute and attribute value.
Quick option to select hide/show on the filter result.
Real Time alerts allow the planner to manage by exception. When dealing with large amounts of data at the Item/Location level, it can be difficult to search for and find items/locations that are performing outside of expectations. Real Time Alerts solve that issue by highlighting the most common issues and presenting them in an actionable format for the planner to resolve. Real Time Alerts help to simplify business processes by focusing the planner's attention on prioritized, value-based activities. For the complete list of Real Time Alerts and their calculations, see Appendix A, "Appendix: Additional Information."
Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service uses the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server (RPAS) Online Administration Tools to facilitate data uploads, and as part of scheduling RPAS utilities and scripts that must be scheduled to run batch on Cloud. These tasks are typically done by an Administrator.
For more details about which data uploads and batches can be done through Online Administration Tools, see the Oracle Retail Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service Administration Guide.
The Dashboard allows the administrator to quickly analyze the health of the business. Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service has the Admin Task Status Dashboard that shows the status of the administrative task submitted; the Planning Weekly Trends (Key Items) dashboard that shows the graphical view of High performing and Low performing In-Season metrics by calendar; the Product Trends (Key Items) shows the information of products sorted by the selected In-Season metric for the Pre-Determined Calendar such as WTD, MTD, YTD, and so on; the Class Performance provides aggregated in-Season metrics as the total value of all planned lines for the class level and above; and the Exception Dashboard shows the exceptions for inventory count, immediate need count, future need count, sell thru count, and so on, for all items listed on the dashboard.
The following data is required:
Location hierarchy
Product hierarchy
Calendar hierarchy
Product attributes and attribute values
Location attributes and attribute values
Strategies for each category
Merchandise Financial Planning Current Plan (MFP CP)
Retail Demand Forecasting, Retail Demand Forecasting Cloud Service, or Retail Demand Forecasting Lite Forecast (Fcst)
Last Year/Assortment data
Sell through and markdown data
Sales Retail, Sales Units, and Cost
Curve Library
Price elasticity entered by the Administrator
Promotional lifts entered by the Administrator
Markdown lifts entered by the Administrator
The commonly used versions are listed in the following table:
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| WP | Working Plan |
| OP | Original Plan |
| CP | Current Plan |
| LY | Last Year |
| LA | Last Assortment |
| TGT | Target |
The base intersection of data are listed in the following table:
| Hierarchy | Base Level |
|---|---|
| Product | Style-Color |
| Calendar | Assortment Period in Assortment Planning, Week in Item Planning |
| Location | Cluster for both Assortment and Item Planning
Store for exceptional store level Item Planning |
A forecast is a projection of future sales. It can be used for planning financials and inventory. Various forecasting methods are provided to generate forecasts for item planning depending on the planned period, pre-season or in-season. Administrators have the option to select the desired forecast method for their business needs.
