User Interface
The AA user interface consists of several screens that help the user analyze and take action on the results of the market basket analysis and assortment recommendation processes. The following list summarizes the main purpose of each screen:
-
Assortment Recommender - Review the product assortment recommendations made by AA, including the expected halo effects from items in the optimized assortment.
-
Top N Class Affinities - Review the market basket affinity rules identified by AA between different product classes, including insights around the frequency and profitability of the top rules.
-
Top N Subclass Affinities - Review the market basket affinity rules identified by AA between different product subclasses, including insights around the frequency and profitability of the top rules.
-
Top N Promotion Affinities - Review the market basket affinity rules identified by AA between different product subclasses under the effects of a promotion, which can be used to identify the effects promoting a category has on other non-promoted products.
-
Top N Customer Segment Affinities - Review the market basket affinity rules identified by AA between different product subclasses under the effects of a promotion and separated by customer segment, which provides insights into the top promoted product affinities for a targeted group of customers.
The way that you interact with the AA user interface depends on your business role and which insights you want to take action on. For example, a category planner looking to make changes to their assortment to increase margin dollars might start from the Assortment Rec screen. The planner might select the category and one of the top-selling locations, and then review the added or dropped items AA has recommended. From there, the planner can choose to move forward with the recommendations and make the necessary adjustments to the assortment plan or dive deeper into the Product Affinities screens to better understand why certain recommendations are being made.
Regardless of which screen you are examining, a set of global prompts determines the data displayed throughout the application.
On first accessing the application, you make selections from the prompts and click on the Submit button, which will load the remaining application screens based on your selections. Modifying and submitting the prompt values after that time will refresh the screens with new data.
Table 7-1 AA Global Prompts
| Prompt Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
Top 10 By |
Select the primary metric used to rank the market basket results in all places where affinity rules are displayed. |
|
Fiscal Week From |
Select the starting week from which results must be displayed. The values displayed are the week of the Fiscal Calendar. |
|
To |
Select the ending week that results must be displayed for. |
|
Department |
Select the department from the merchandise hierarchy that results must be displayed for. All of the classes or subclasses on the THEN side of an affinity rule will be from the selected Department. |
|
Location |
Select the location from the location hierarchy that results should be displayed for. |
The Top 10 By prompt allows you to select from the following metrics, which are used to determine which affinity rules are displayed and how to sort the results that are shown.
Table 7-2 Top 10 By Options
| Metric Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
Net Sales |
Chooses the top N rules in each screen, based on the net sales retail amount (e.g., Avg Sales from If Items) |
|
Net Quantity |
Chooses the top N rules in each screen, based on the net sales quantity (e.g., Avg Sales Quantity from If Items) |
|
Net Profit |
Chooses the top N rules in each screen, based on the net sales profit (e.g., Avg Profit from If Items) |
Although this prompt indicates "Top 10", you have the ability to select more than 10 results by changing the Top selection in the Market Basket Filters area of the screen, as discussed later in this chapter.
The Fiscal Week From and To prompts allow you to select a range of dates for which the results are returned. Market basket affinity rules may change over time as new sales transactions are processed, so selecting the weeks to review ensures that only the rules that are applicable for that period of time are displayed.
The Department prompt displays a list of departments from the merchandise hierarchy. Selecting a department will limit the data in all screens such that the consequent (or THEN components) of an affinity rule will be from that department.
After all selections are made and the Submit button is clicked, the interface will refresh and display results. Each section of the application is organized under an informational tile that describes the purpose of the screen, along with summarization metrics.
Each tile has the following general properties.
Table 7-3 Info Tile Components
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
|
Title |
A descriptive name for the data contained below the selected tile. |
|
Primary Metric |
A key measure that highlights important data, such as the number of affinity rules available for review for a given set of prompt selections. |
|
Secondary Metrics |
Additional measures that describe the underlying data available when clicking on the info tile. |
Clicking on any info tile's title or primary metric will display the associated data in the lower section of the screen. The data shown in each tile in the application is described in the following Table.
Table 7-4 Info Tile Metrics
| Tile Name | Primary Metric Description | Secondary Metric Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Assortment Rec |
The number of assortment recommendations available for the selected global prompt values. |
For the assortments in the department, the percentage the sales amount changed and the amount the sales changed. |
|
Class |
The number of class level market basket affinity rules available for the selected global prompt values. |
The share of sales profit and sales amount that is represented by all discovered association rules out of the total sales profit and sales amount processed. |
|
Sub Class |
The number of subclass level market basket affinity rules available for the selected global prompt values. |
The share of sales profit and sales amount that is represented by all discovered association rules out of the total sales profit and sales amount processed. |
|
Promotion |
The number of promoted subclass level market basket affinity rules available for the selected global prompt values. |
The share of sales profit and sales amount that is represented by all discovered association rules out of the total sales profit and sales amount processed. |
|
Customer Segment |
The number of customer segment promoted subclass level market basket affinity rules available for the selected global prompt values. |
The share of sales profit and sales amount that is represented by all discovered association rules out of the total sales profit and sales amount processed. |
|
All |
The total number of market basket affinity rules available for the selected global prompt values. |
The last date that market basket insights were executed on. |