Assortment Suggestion is a tool to help retailers decide which items are suitable for Replenishment. It can also propose assortment groups for items based on the sales statistics and the predefined assortment rules. The whole process can be divided into four main phases:
- In the Selection Phase, the tool selects items based on predefined filters and thresholds.
- In the Rating Phase, the tool performs an analysis on the selected items, where it calculates various metrics and ratings. The tool offers a number of metrics that are good measurements of sales and profits. It is possible to apply different weights on the metrics as well as deactivate any metric. The metric's weight indicates how important it is for the business. The more important the metrics, the higher weights they should have. To normalize all the metrics and present them using a single common unit, the tool implements rating logic. An item can receive either low, medium, or high rating for a particular metric. The ratings are converted to points. Points are multiplied with weights to get weighted scores. The final output is the Total Rating and the Total Score for each item. At the end of this phase, the items are classified into two groups of good and bad candidates for Replenishment. This serves as a guideline for you to choose the suitable Replenishment items.
- In the Proposal Phase, the tool uses the predefined assortment rules to propose assortment group for each item. Assortment rules are criteria based on the above metrics. The tool checks if an item fulfills one or more specific rules and decide which assortment group it should belong to.
- In the Activation Phase, the tool provides an easy way to activate a batch of items to use different types of Replen. Calculation Method and to set all required replenishment parameters. It also provides a way to apply Replen. Assortment Groups and Replen. Grade Codes to items.
The setup for this functionality is described in details in Basic Assortment Suggestion Setup.