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Why McKinsey’s two-speed IT is only one half of a good idea

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In a recent article McKinsey advocates the adoption of a two-speed IT environment to go digital. The authors state that 'delivering an enriched customer experience requires a new digital architecture running alongside legacy systems'.

 

Yes, the article and its recommendations generally hit the mark: agile, scrum, small podular teams, a modular approach to development in short iterative cycles with a beta-testing, fail fast mind-set. All the buzzwords from Eric Ries’ 2011 book The Lean Startup are represented. It’s a proven method, we know it works. We also know that not all enterprise systems - nor the people in the organisation - can run at that clock-speed and should maintain a slower cycle of change.

 

However, the fallacy of the statement lies in the use of the term legacy. The Oxford dictionary defines ‘legacy’ in this context as 'software or hardware that has been superseded but is difficult to replace because of its wide use'. It leads readers to believe that with a legacy core –say a mainframe patchwork or an ERP that hasn’t been upgraded in 7 years - they can adopt a two-speed IT environment and tackle the digital age head on. This could not be further from the truth. That form of two-speed IT represents the fast track to high cost and short-term success coupled with a growing complexity that will increasingly thwart the very objective it portrays to achieve: speed to innovation.

 

In reality, the core supporting your business should never be considered legacy - it is the foundation upon which an organization operates. The operating model is embedded in it, and while that will change over time, it supports your business. The day you consider it legacy should be the day you start making plans to replace it.

 

All the focus in digital is on the customer experience, yet the digital economy mandates a broader shift in thinking than just digitizing the customer journey. It is naïve to think that a mobile experience coupled with some digital marketing and social initiatives define the digital enterprise. Digital needs to be woven into the fabric of the organization from sourcing and manufacturing to distribution and channel-agnostic but channel-aware services, looking through organizations and channels at the entire value chain.

 

Digital means to re-imagine

 

Firstly, Digital means re-imagining the business model - moving from selling products to selling services, from transactions to subscriptions, or shifting from wholesale to direct-to-consumer.

 

Secondly, it means re-imagining business processes – for example, taking back control of the promotional calendar pushed on retailers by FMCG brands and ensuring offers that are aligned to the category strategy and are valued by the customer.

 

Thirdly, it means re-imagining the customer experience – focused on presenting a seamless, consistent, authentic view of your brand.

 

A digital core

 

To facilitate and enable that, every organization needs a digital core.

 

Burberry has a digital core (http://bit.ly/1K5fSof). Without it, they would never have been able to take back the licenses for Spain and Japan and re-store their brand image. With it, they have been able to merge digital and physical and lead the way in re-imagining the associate and customer experience across all channels. With it, they are expanding into beauty and fragrance and embracing a completely new business model.

 

burberry customer one o one.jpg

 

Decathlon/Oxylane has a digital core. With over 850 stores in 27 countries across 3 continents and 70% of merchandise from own labels, real-time visibility of the supply chain and inventory from sourcing location to store is crucial. This allows them to optimize allocation of stock from production runs at the source based on local current sell-through rates and the latest forecasts. They have now introduced SKU-level RFID on 80% of items, resulting in extensive benefits in the supply chain, and as the foundation for a vastly enriched in-store experience.

 

Tommy Hilfiger Europe has a digital core. Tommy Hilfiger is launching digital showrooms across Europe (http://bit.ly/1K5f7LK) in a bid to completely re-imagine the showroom environment where retailers come to buy collections for the upcoming season.

 

Tommy.JPG

 

Jeanne Ross at MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research states: "In the 21st century no business can survive without a digital core".

 

A true digital core supports the business in any direction it chooses to take, and does so without decelerating the momentum of change. The core also forms the bedrock for the innovation track of two-speed IT, and that is why collaboration between the two modes of IT is crucial to sustained change and innovation.

 

Perhaps McKinsey should heed Aesop's Fable the Tortoise and the Hare and in a twist to the story, call for an environment of collaboration - it is bound to trump speed alone.


Retail merchandise management - order grouping and integration with forecasting and replenishment (#10288)

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Technical Overview:

The new functionality enhances the integration of SAP F&R and SAP Retail. Exception based ordering can now be executed on SAP F&R and SAP Retail. For this new interfaces and procedures have been provided to transfer F&R order proposals as well as F&R exception from SAP F&R to SAP Retail.

 

Automatically generated or manually entered order proposals can be transferred from F&R to SAP Retail purchase orders thru mass enabled procedures. Criteria for the transfer (e.g. supplier, site, purchasing organization, purchasing group, delivery date) can be defined as selection criteria.

 

Implications on Use Case:

Order list items (articles) are delivered by various suppliers. The new functionality automatically groups articles to source of supplies (suppliers). Thus store associates do not need to care about suppliers and are enabled to focus on quantity review.

The new functionality especially supports the usage of offline capable mobile devices. The user may confirm, change or enter new order list items on the device. The grouping mechanism ensures the update/creation of the appropriate purchase orders.

Source of order proposals and exceptions shown on mobile devices in the store could be either SAP F&R or SAP Retail.

 

Implementation Details:

When transferring order proposals from SAP F&R to SAP Retail purchase orders, proposals are persisted in staging tables first (depending on customizing; for GK integration mandatory). Staging entries are transferred to purchase orders executing report R_MMPUR_RPO_START_PROCESSING, which is designed for mass processing and can be parallelised. The report can be scheduled to run periodically, and recognizes in each run whether existing order items were changed, or new order items were created.

The created purchase orders can be released automatically (with a defined schedule) or manually. The release functionality is based on the “park and hold” function for purchase orders.

 

See the above mentioned screen for the report R_MMPUR_RPO_START_PROCESSING:

 

R_MMPUR_RPO_START_PROCESSING_EN.PNG

 

Find this innovation on the innovation discovery.

NRF’s Big Show: A Memorable Experience

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      NRF16.jpg
As I make it through Blizzard 2016 in the Washington DC metro area, I reflect back on my 4 days in New York for the National Retail Federation Big Show:

 

 

  • Super Saturday was a highlight as always. Great presentations by Congo Voice and Thrive in Joy (Dominican Republic). Emotional performance by country music singer Jimmy Wayne who was raised as a foster kid and now has a mission to raise awareness and money for foster kids across the US – check out his inspirational TED talk! As many of you know, my two trips to Honduras have been life-changing events and I’m looking forward to another Retail Orphan Initiative trip this summer. 

 

 

  • For the second year in a row, the Expo floor opened on Sunday and the traffic on the floor was fantastic. Lots of energy and buzz in the SAP booth around the showcases which included the

 

 

  • Connected Customer, the popular Digital Boardroom, and the Imagination Zone. In the Big Ideas sessions, we heard from Harry & David on supply chain orchestration in the gourmet gifts arena and Maui Jim on their B2B digital transformation. Over the 3 days, 23 presentations packed the Presentation Theatre with hundreds of attendees.

 

 


The NRF Board of Directors meeting drove home some key points about the shopping experience – both from my discussions with the CEOs as well as presentations throughout the meeting. A personalized and relevant shopping experience is now the norm in expectations by customers. 

 

 

 

    • But there is now an emergence of one step further on this experience – the creation of a good "memory" from the experience – engaging the "emotions" of the customer. In other words, the product may be used up or need to be replaced, but the "memory" of the experience can’t be taken away. In today’s challenging economy, this is becoming more and more important. 

 

 

    • The challenge for us as Retailers is how to create this memorable experience. In fact, the Harvard Business School is now working with Pauline Brown (former chairman of LVMH) to create a class on the "Aesthetics of Retail". To hear Pauline tell it, she really enjoys fine dining and the food and service is impeccable, but the "noise" of the majority of restaurants creates an experience that is less than expected. It’s all the senses that need to be positively impacted in the shopping experience.

 

 

    • In my discussions with a luxury UK brand that I believe has one of the best clienteling capabilities in the industry (powered by SAP HANA) - it even includes the type of water and croissants that you prefer. For this brand, if a store associate has to leave the customer for 5 minutes to find the product in the store that the customer is wanting, then they believe the "best-in-class" experience has been lost.

 

 

    • The other theme I heard throughout my many CIO meetings during the event was making sure the "basics" are in place in order to innovate – not only having a digital foundation, but connecting all the pieces in real-time, including the basics like inventory management and ensuring that the data is accurate, complete, and easy to access. Beyond connecting the value chain in real-time, the CIOs were intrigued by the infinite innovation opportunities of a digital transformation where they can reimagine shopper engagement, retail processes and business models. 

 

 

 

  • And, of course, I have to mention the final highlight – the NRF Gala on Sunday night. This event is a who’s who in Retail but the purpose is to raise money for students in Retail, including scholarships as you can see from this inspiring video.

 

 

A great way to kick off the year! I look forward to an amazing 2016 and please do visit the SAP NRF Resource Center to access keynotes, theater presentations, and videos from NRF 2016.

 

 


Connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn

Offer Recommendation in SAP Hybris Marketing for Retail Omni-Channel Commerce

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Dear Retail community,

 

SAP Hybris Marketing 1602 has been released in mid of February, 2016.

 

Read what's in for Retail Omni-Channel:



Offer Recommendation and Integration with Hybris Commerce Suite

 

The newOffer Recommendation was released for global availability as part of the SAP Hybris Marketing 1602 release on Feb 15, 2016.

 

Offer Recommendation enables marketers to pick the best of all available promotional offers for every customer, in every channel, in every moment in real-time during customer conversation.

 

A promotional offer is a conditional promise by a seller to selected consumers in combination with an incentive, e.g.

  • If you buy product A and B today, you get 2$ off on product B”
  • If your purchase total is above 100$, you don’t pay any shipping costs”
  • If you buy this cell phone together with mobile contract, you will get a 10$ coupon for your next purchase”.

 

The offer recommendations are determined by sophisticated predictive analytics algorithms and models within the SAP Hybris Marketing recommendation engine. The recommendation application of Hybris Marketing is integrated with the Hybris Commerce Suite’s web content management system (WCMS), allowing the recommended offers to be proposed in the consuming Hybris Commerce channels, e.g. a web shop basket.

 

 

 

Enjoy,

Ingo



Dr. IngoWoesner

Global Director, Outbound Product Management Retail Omni-Channel

SAP SE

ingo.woesner@sap.com

www.sap.com


Follow me on SAP Community Network and LinkedIn

Product Recommendation in SAP Hybris Marketing for Retail Omni-Channel

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Dear Retail community,

 

Introducted with SAP Hybris Marketing 1508, SAP Hybris Product Recommendation provides personalized, context relevant product recommendations in real-time and is well integrated with the Hybris Commerce WCMS application.

 

 

Read what's in for Retail Omni-Channel Commerce scenarios:

 

More details will be added shortly.


1602 release: Product Recommendation

 

The Product Recommendation application within SAP Hybris Marketing has seen further enhancements and new features with the recently shipped 1602 release:

 

Marketing Expert can now maintain the recommendation models through scenarios in order to provide recommendations in different channels

 

New capabilities

  • new model templates and algorithms
  • Define the maximum number of recommendations to be returned by each step/algorithm
  • Define the algorithm generation refresh rate
  • Easily identify when a model has failed to be generated


Find more details in the Hybris Marketing Application Help.
Benefits for customers

  • Be aware when model generation failures occur
  • Control how many recommendations can be returned by a model
  • Always consider the latest customer activity by specifying when a model can be refreshed

 

 

 

 

 

1508 release: Product Recommendation

SAP hybris Marketing 1508 provides important enhancements to personalized product recommendations:

 

  • Support for the SAP HANA Rules Framework (HRF) in addition to the existing predictive algorithms
  • SAP Fiori based UI for the marketer for a rule based influencing of product recommendation results

 

29-10-2015 14-16-16.png

 

This is another great reason why SAP hybris Marketing is a key component of the SAP Retail Omni-Channel Commerce reference architecture.

 

Best regards,
Ingo


Dr. IngoWoesner

Global Director, Outbound Product Management Retail Omni-Channel

SAP SE

ingo.woesner@sap.com

www.sap.com

 

Follow me on SAP Community Network and LinkedIn

 



Article Data Management for SAP Retail Omni-Channel Commerce

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Dear Retail community,

 

SAP Retail Add-On extensions to enhance Hybris Commerce has been released for the releases 5.6 and newer.


Read what's in for Retail Omni-Channel:




Article Data Management - SAP Retail Add-On 1.1 for hybris Commerce 5.7


In Q4/2015 SAP has released the SAP Retail Add-On package 1.1 to support Hybris Commerce 5.7.

 

The content of the add-on version 1.1 (for Hybris 5.7) is identical to version 1.0 (for 5.6), which was released in Q3/2015:

 

The Add-On contains important enhancements to integrate IS Retail with SAP Hybris Commerce Suite 5.7, allowing for even quicker setup and less costly implementation of projects by e.g. supporting the

 

  • Replication of classification data based on Merchandise Category Hierarchy
  • Replication of Retail Single Article
  • Replication of Retail Generic Article


in Hybris DataHub and within Hybris Commerce Suite.

 

The Hybris Datahub maps the Retail Generic Article with its variants into the existing Hybris standard structure of the so-called Multi-Dimensional Product (MDP). This compliance allows to make use of Retail Generic articles and variants in the Hybris accelerators. Please note the release dependency here:

 

  • Hybris 5.6: MDP only supported in B2B Accelerator
  • Hybris 5.7: MDP supported in B2B + B2C Accelerator, but so far not in the responsive version

 

The officially named “SAP hybris Commerce, integration package for SAP for Retail, Version 1.1” is available in the SAP Software Download Center of the SAP Support Portal (search for “hybris integration retail”).

 

 



Article Data Management - SAP Retail Add-On 1.0 for hybris Commerce 5.6


SAP has released the first integration add-on package for SAP for Retail based on hybris Commerce Suite 5.6.

 

It contains important enhancements to integrate IS Retail with SAP hybris Commerce Suite 5.6, allowing for even quicker setup and less costly implementation of projects by e.g. supporting the

 

  • Replication of classification data based on Merchandise Category Hierarchy
  • Replication of Single Article
  • Replication of Generic Article

in hybris DataHub and within hybris Commerce Suite 5.6.

 

The officially named “SAP hybris Commerce, integration package for SAP for Retail, Version 1.0” is available in theSAP Software Download Center of the SAP Support Portal (search for “hybris integration retail”).

 

 

 

 

Customers and partners with S-User can get a glimpse about the 2015/16 Omni-Channel roadmap in the Innovations section of SAP Service Marketplace (use the search term "omnichannel commerce").


Stay tuned for updates and extensions of this blog, and in theSCN space SAP for Retail.

 

Enjoy,

Ingo


Dr. IngoWoesner

Global Director, Outbound Product Management Retail Omni-Channel

SAP SE

ingo.woesner@sap.com   

www.sap.com 


Follow me on SAP Community Network and LinkedIn



MDG for Articles becomes partner solution “SAP MDG, RFM extension by Utopia”

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Dear Retail community,

 

SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) applications provide end-to-end processes for the entire master data lifecycle, covering central governance and consolidation. MDG helps to empower business agility with HANA-based analytics and consumer-grade user experience. It is built on a strong foundation to provide improved business efficiency and process flexibility, enabling simplification.

 

Out-of-the-box MDG applications are

  • SAP MDG for Financial data (financial accounting / consolidation data, companies, profit & cost centers)
  • SAP MDG for Supplier data (corporate, company, and purchasing related data, partner functions)
  • SAP MDG for Customer data (corporate, company, and sales related data, partner functions)
  • SAP MDG for Enterprise Asset Management data (equipment, functional location data, MRO bills of material)
  • SAP MDG for Material data (corporate, sales org, plant, storage, warehouse, valuation & costing data)
  • Vendor, …, and some more.

 

All SAP MDG applications are industry generic based on standard SAP ERP, which caused massive restrictions in SAP IS Retail businesses in case of Material Master. All other generic domains can be used without restriction.

 

This is when MDG for Articles was born, a SAP Retail specific consulting offering, featuring Retail Article Master as a new domain  for SAP MDG.


2016-03-23_16-01-11.png

 

While this consulting solution covered SAP Retail specific article master data, it still was no SAP Standard solution, hence it was not on the SAP Global Price List, and wasn’t covered by SAP standard support and maintenance contracts.

 

This issue has now been solved:

 

Utopia Global Inc., a leading partner in Master Data solutions based in the US, has transferred MDG for Articles into their official Utopia product portfolio, and will ensure customer support, maintenance and continuous improvement.

 

As a consequence, the ex-consulting solution was renamed into “SAP Master Data Governance, retail and fashion management extension by Utopia”, or simply "MDG-RFM".


The Utopia solution is listed on the SAP Global Price List.


Link to SAP Service Marketplace

Link to Utopia product page



Enjoy,

Ingo



Dr. IngoWoesner

Global Director, Outbound Product Management Retail Omni-Channel

SAP SE

ingo.woesner@sap.com

www.sap.com


Follow me on SAP Community Network and LinkedIn


Problems with CAR on HANA SPS10?

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We are implementing CAR POS DTA and started with that on HANA SPS09 level. No big issues seen.

We then upgraded the HANA to SPS10 (to enable further business functionalities) and have since experienced serious unstability problems with both revision 102.04 and revision 102.05.

 

We are using POS DTA and are now (on SPS10) experiencing repeated dumps - e.g. when trying to import the INB queue to the TLOGF and TLOGUS tables.

 

In SPS10, the memory management in the HANA core has apparently been substantially modified by SAP, and in our view it has been released too soon (i.e. with sufficient testing).

 

I would therefore like to get into dialogue with other SAP CAR customers, which might have experienced problems with unstability of HANA SPS10 when being used for CARAB FP2.

 

The purpose is to share experiences and solutions since SAP so far has been very slow in acknowledging and fixing these serious problems.

 

BR

Tommy Baunwall

Enterprise Architect


Great brands compete for your time, not your money

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Part I

 

The Rolling Stones sang about time in 1964. “Time is on my side, yes it is.”

 

Not so for many retailers these days. Unfortunately for some erstwhile great brands, time represents a slow tortuous decline to oblivion. We all read the headlines of bankruptcy and nobody is surprised.  We ask ourselves, when was the last time we set foot in one of their stores? And we come to the same conclusion: not for years. Or we did venture in, only to hurry out. Disappointed, as the fond memories of the brand were tarnished in that short visit.

 

In some brands we can only conclude there is an entrenched apathy. They’re counting on Jagger’s words in the refrain: “You're searching for good times but just wait and see, you'll come runnin' back, you’ll come running back to me.”

 

A shame really, because it’s such a great time to be in business. Generations will look back on this era as one of the most disruptive of their lifetime, with new experiences coming at us on a monthly basis. Globalization, a growing middleclass, new technologies, changed social norms and a more daring, entrepreneurial workforce have given rise to a creativity and innovation that will be hard to emulate in the decades ahead.

 

What many brands don’t seem to realize is that the currency of our time, of the modern consumer, is time itself.

 

Rue La La’s founder Ben Fischman shared that RLL’s competitors are not other retailers, not other brands, not amazon, nor Nordstrom Rack. It’s facebook. Or, what facebook has come to symbolize: all media content, whether TV, streaming video, social, gaming, or news. RLL’s aim is to grab a tiny slice of a consumer’s time at precisely 11am when the daily curated collection is launched. Traffic surges to Amazon heights and 15 minutes later RLL fades away to become background media static, only to revive the next day.

 

FITCH describes GenZ as “shopping in a constant state of partial attention”. There are so many triggers during a day – facebook, instagram, text, 2-minute youtube video, candycrush, the daily Trump. It’s a steady stream of sugar highs that the modern consumer has come to crave. As a brand you need to ask yourself, how do I interrupt that flow, or rather become part of that flow. How do I increase my share of time with the customer, my share of LIFE?

 

An equally important strategy is to minimize the impact to that flow, lower the barriers, and let the consumer help themselves in the absolute minimum amount of time, with intuitive ease. Great brands cut through the clutter by delivering what consumers want, when they want it, without hassle. By simplifying customer experience in a complex world, these brands win customer loyalty. 63% of consumers are willing to pay more for a simpler experience, and 69% are more likely to recommend a brand because it provides a simpler experience. Successful brands are building an experience signature across the collective physical, digital and human touch-points and putting time at the center.

 

Let’s explore 3 strategies that successful brands and disruptors employ.

 

#1 Map the customer journey and compress time

 

25 years ago the author worked a summer job at Ikea. The famous Ikea maze snaked through all departments, starting with manchester and ending in the furniture warehouse and just beyond, the Swedish meatballs. Only personnel knew the shortcuts, hidden behind curtains and PAX wardrobe displays. Over the years hundreds of millions of people have been forced to walk the ikea maze, which allegedly it is finally ditching in their new store formats. Compare that to Amazon, the organization that delivers products and time saving to 54 million households across America.

 

After having pioneered 1-click and the dash button, the Echo is the next stage of the evolution in their relentless pursuit of an improved customer experience. A warehouse issue causing shipping delays some years ago wasn’t solved by staging the longest delays to the least loyal customers as some other businesses may have done. Instead they brought in extra labour at significant cost, to do right by every single customer and ensure delays were minimized. Here is a brand that cherishes customer’s time and will go from strength to strength because of it.

 

Starbuck’s queues are legendary - their ordering app is a god-send for venti iced coffee lovers the world over. Peapod and Freshdirect survived Webvan and have been delivering groceries to your door for over 15 years. Luxury brands have launched personalized shopping experiences in the comfort of VIPs’ hotel rooms. Tuft & Needle has greatly simplified the experience of buying a mattress, Nespresso has brought you quality coffee at the press of a button, Netflix has eradicated video rental late fees, Sprinkles delivers cupcakes curbside, and Uber has eliminated 10 minute waits at that same curb, arms raised to flag down a cab ride where an onslaught on the olfactory senses awaited.

 

Some may say it comes down to an improved customer experience, but at the heart of it all there is one common theme: saving you time.

 

Part II of this blog to follow.

Developing a Successful Online Retail Business

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For online retailers, there's a plethora of digital marketing strategies to explore in the effort to attract and win the loyalty of consumers. Many such strategies are of course targeted towards specific business platforms. After all, what works for a virtual banking site won't necessarily make sense for an online shoe store. At the same time, there's no shortage of online business strategies that remain essentially universal, comprising simple elements sometimes overlooked by even the savviest of businespeople.

 

Given this post is geared more towards the digital layman than, say, Elon Musk, it's possible the following suggestions will occasionally appear obvious to some of you, but you'd be surprised at how many entrepreneurs, especially those of a certain vintage [read: over 40], remain distressingly ill-informed about the wealth of opportunities a few simple online retailing tools/strategies can offer their respective business'. So let's get started. First we'll explore a few software necessities you'd be wise to take note of, and later conclude by introducing a few simple yet key marketing strategies crucial to any online business.

 

Software

 

POS technologies

 

POS systems offer a valuable tool when it comes to saving time and money. The flexibility of payment options they offer enables customers to purchase goods and/or services whenever it's most convenient for them. The ideal POS system will take care of all your returns and refunds, while simultaneously tracking customer payments, transactions, and inventory. Another noteworthy benefit of employing POS technologies is that they afford round-the-clock access to Internet software and data, This way you're able to run reports and manage loyalty programs whenever it suits your schedule. Many vendors also include bookkeeping systems as part of their POS packages, which will in turn help streamline your operation, freeing up time and energy you can use to focus on other business-building methodologies.

 

Shopping Carts

 

Another simple, yet vital, resource you'll likely want to consider is shopping cart software. These days you probably won't need to shop around weighing the pros and cons of the various software available, as most web hosting platforms include some version of shopping cart software enabling customers to do their virtual shopping at their convenience. Customers can add or remove products from their cart, change quantities, and even log out and return to your site whenever it best suits them, knowing they only need to login again to pick up where they left off. This is a huge benefit consumers could never expect from a physical store.

 

Most recent shopping cart software also includes features such as security functions, links to reviews and coupons, or more detailed product descriptions. Not just handy for consumers, these bonus features also provide retailers with built-in ways to better market their products. The integration of shopping carts and mobile POS apps is beneficial for both customers and retailers.

 

Online fax services

 

One advantageous advertising methodology that tends to get overlooked in the digital age are fax services. The ability to send online faxes from websites or email accounts means no more fax machines, paper, toner, or maintenance costs for your office. With nothing more than a mobile phone, you can fax documents saved on a cloud, or receive them, even when you're out of the office. Better, with some online cloud and fax services, you even have the opportunity to choose your own local or toll-free fax number.

 

In some respects fax marketing is fairly similar to email marketing, in that an online cloud/fax service can transmit to an essentially unlimited number of customers via one simple interface. The content of these faxes could contain special coupons, sales events, or unique promotions unavailable to other shoppers, further helping you build a mailing list of loyal customers. It's a relatively inexpensive and novel tool well worth investigating.

 

Strategies

Define your target audience

 

As with traditional, brick and mortar retail businesses, any well run E-commerce operation will direct its promotions towards those most likely to be interested in the product or service they're selling. For example, if you're running an online dating service geared towards Millennials, you're wasting time and money pursuing blanket advertising campaigns that reach out to seniors as much they do your target audience. So it's wise to first identify your target audience as best you can, and then develop marketing strategies with them in mind. Unlike not so long ago when traditional media was the only game in town, Facebook, social media and other, similar platforms enable you to target your most receptive demographic like never before.

 

Content: It's got to be good

 

Having a site that's not only visually pleasing but free of spelling mistakes and poor writing is absolutely essential. There's no better way to have your operation come off as amateur - or worse, potentially disreputable - than to leave it rife with [totally avoidable] spelling mistakes and/or poor grammar. There's simply no excuse for it. It makes you look cheap, like you can't afford a professional writer or don't care enough about your product or customers to warrant the extra bit of effort/expense hiring a professional entails. Given the excellent chance your website is the one and only thing identifying you to potential customers, if you can't even be bothered to get the writing down with no errors, well, what does that say to about the actual product or service itself?  The text on your site needn't be on par with Shakespeare, but it's also not where you want to cut corners. Pretty simple advice, but you might surprised by how many thoroughly capable, intelligent people, tend to overlook it– albeit at their own, and their financial backers, peril.

 

Search engines, spelling, and security

 

Remember, it's not only consumers judging your site, but search engines, crucially important entities that obviously play a huge role in bestowing not only the visibility of your business to the greater world, but it's credibility as well. Ideally, the content of your site should reflect your brand in tone and style, and if only for the sake of trustworthiness and general credibility, you might want to consider including your business' mission statement, services and policies somewhere in there too.

 

A poorly written and/or designed site could easily inhibit a potential customers willingness to place an order with you strictly out of security concerns. After all, how keen would you be to surrender your credit card information to some online business that can't even get it's spelling right? If a business can't do that much, the discerning customer might also start questioning just how much attention said company pays to securing their customers personal information, let alone how well protected their site is from web-hosting vulnerabilities such as the HeartBleed bug that caused so much grief a few years back. Because when unsure, it's all too easy for a potential customer to just go back to Google and do business with your competition instead.

Top 3 Reasons Retailers need to attend SAPPHIRE 2016 - not even mentioning Coldplay

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Every day, we make choices what to eat and what to wear, how to spend our time and money. We’re spoiled for choice.  With an endless and ever-changing buffet of options how do you create a compelling experience to capture the customer’s attention AND follow through with world-class fulfillment?

 

Join us at SAPPHIRE 2016 and hear how Retail companies can leverage digital technologies to accomplish business transformation and create customer experiences that drive life-long loyalty with your customers.

 

golf showcase.PNG

 

 

BE INSPIRED: From the backest back office operations to the customer experience, learn about innovative ways to deliver a compelling omni-channel experience that doesn’t just bring them once, but keeps them coming back again and again. Join thought leaders, Retail experts, and retailers big and small for sessions that take possibilities to reality.

 

Hear Carter's, Brooks Brothers, Discount Tire, Luxottica, FreshDirect, Tumi and many other share their efforts and perspectives. 

 

NETWORK: with access to hundreds of partners, SAP Retail experts, and SAP customers this is THE opportunity of the year to learn, question, and explore all that SAP has to offer, from cutting-edge analytics that deliver insights in an instant to services to help you re-imagine how your business does retail.

 

Join our Retail reception and special interest activities around Fashion, Food Retail and Customer Engagement and Commerce.

 

TRANSFORM: they’ve never known a world without smartphones or Facebook, don’t have brand loyalty, and don’t rely on companies to educate them on products and trends, relying instead on social networks.  Meet Generation Z. When they enter the workforce in the next two years, they’re not going to wait for companies to transform – they’re going to use those networks to find the brands that are already there.

 

Experience digital transformation live in a number of showcases and six live demo sessions that make digital transformation come alive.

 

SAPPHIRE 2016 is your opportunity to GET INSPIRED by the possibilities, NETWORK with the experts, and imagine how you can TRANSFORM retail your way, for your business, to Run Simple and Run LIVE. 


Check out the sample agenda for Retail at SAPPHIRENOW for a complete list of must-see sessions.


And - maybe the 4th reason - join us at the Coldplay concert on the last night of SAPPHIRENOW for an evening’s entertainment.


COldplay.png


To register, go to the SAPPHIRE NOW website, or contact your SAP Account Executive for more information.

Transforming Customer Experience Through Internet of Things

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As the Internet of Things continues to develop, new uses are born every day. The best IOT ideas may still be to come, but even today companies are finding creative ways to drive revenue up and costs down. From merchandise management to on-shelf availability, technology is changing retail and this digital transformation impacts every segment of retail. IoT makes customer-centric merchandising a possibility in all channels. One use case in particular, Heat mapping, is  gaining traction. Retailers can use transparent and real-time customer behavior in the stores to optimize interactions and improve brand experience.

 

Heat Maps

Retailers can use Bluetooth, wifi or video analytics technology to track customers in the stores in real time. Knowing how a customer travels through a store and interacts with products is priceless. Retailers such as Ikea and Whole Foods have been trying to perfect this for years. In the past, this analysis has been done by experimentation and human observation. Now the Internet of Things is making those efforts easier. Information that was previously only available on the web channel is now available in physical stores.  Heat maps can help improve physical merchandising and store layouts and real time analysis of these maps can help managers in large format stores dynamically allocate associates to serve customers wherever they are in the store.


Wayfinding (GPS)

Navigating large department stores such as Macy’s or Walmart is getting much easier with in-store navigation via GPS. Through mobile apps, retailers can help the customer find what they need. Macy’s, for example, offers turn-by-turn navigation to products via its iPhone app. Indoor mapping removes headaches and helps large retailers better serve their customers and reduce lost sales. The opportunity exists to provide personalized shopping experiences as part of the wayfinding solution further increasing basket sizes.


Enhanced basket analysis

Shopping basket analysis helps retailers identify opportunities, identifying product affinities as well as cannibalizations. For example, if a retailer notices that a high percentage of customers who purchase a floor mat are also purchasing air freshener, they can better position the stock in the store or online to match these habits. By using shopping cart analytics to find the probability of two or more products purchased together, retailers can increase basket size.


Gamification

Businesses, especially retail, need to work harder earn customer attention. Building and reinforcing brand is instrumental in this. Millenials in particular are looking for retail as an experience - as opposed to just a transaction. Gamification using the Internet of Things is fuelling long-term loyalty by revolutionizing the in-store experience. When more people participate because it’s fun and exciting, sales and profits rise.


Internet of Me

As the Internet of Things continues to permeate our homes and our lives, retailers can get much better insight to our needs and desires. Our scale knows when we’re on a diet; our refrigerator knows when we’re low on eggs and our car knows when it needs an oil change or the tire pressure is low. This hyperconnectivity gives retailers the ability to make our lives simpler by offering suggested replenishment orders and  target us with relevant promotions. With data sharing becoming more and more commonplace, Jiffy Lube can remind car owners who need an oil change within the next few weeks. Whole Foods can remind shoppers that they’re low on eggs through text or email while they shop.


They way retailers advertise on connected devices is evolving. More and more brands are fighting for our attention and our loyalty. Retailers realize they need to be more targeted in their efforts both online and offline; The days of pay-per-click advertising are coming to an end, replaced by more creative services. The Internet of Things continues to reinvent the retail industry by transforming the customer experience any where, any time.


To learn more about Digital Transformation for Retail, view Retail. Reimagined for the new economy.

7 Ways Mobile Love Blooms at Historically Innovative Macy's

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One reason why Macy's is the largest department store chain in America is its willingness to innovate.

It is a trait that the company's founder, Rowland Hussey Macy, fostered in the mid-19th century at his first store in New York City.

Macy changed merchandise management in the mid-19th century by setting clear prices for goods instead of allowing the traditional practice of bargaining about how much to pay. Today, the company is moving the industry toward mobile commerce techniques reflecting the hyperconnectivity of Internet-loving shoppers.


From Whaler to Retailer

  1. R.H. Macy was the son of retailers on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. In 1822 at age 15, he went to work on a whaling ship. Four years later, he was back on land running his own store, which sold needles and thread.

But Macy was not a successful retailer until 36 years later when he opened his first New York City store, R.H. Macy & Co. The company began life with a rooster as its symbol. However, Macy took little time in switching the icon to a bright red, five-pointed star.

According to a 2015 Macy's blog post, the future retailer got a tattoo of the star on his forearm during his time at sea. Some researchers call the star a nautical symbol of good luck, because it represented the North Star guiding a sailor to port. Now it is one of the brightest stars representing fashion merchandising in ecommerce.


Rough Waters of Retail

Perhaps Macy thought the star would guide his new company to safe shores. These days, the retail journey involves adopting digital tools to create customer-centric merchandising and improve the way that companies function.

In a 2013 interview, Macy's President Jeff Gennette noted that the number of mobile devices in use had exceeded world population. Gennette reported that one out of every seven people on earth participated in an online social network.

Gennette added that if Facebook were compared to world nations based on its population of users, it would be the third largest country. Keep in mind that Gennette made these comments three years ago. Nearly two years later in January 2015, Huffington Post reported that Facebook's population was larger than the more populous nation on earth.

Retailers can no longer ignore the power of social networking and mobile devices to increase sales online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Here are eight of the many ways that Macy's is using smartphones, computer tablets and other mobile devices to innovate today.


Image Search: Finding Clothing You Want

Macy's Image Search application allows customers to submit photos of clothing they like to the app. It searches Macy's for similar items.


Better Tagging: Improving Inventory through RFID

Keeping track of store inventory in real time has become easier at Macy's through tags containing radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors. The ability to find merchandise that is out of place or not yet on the floor increases sales.


Click & Collect: Picking Up Online Purchases In-Store

It used to be that online Macy's shoppers had to visit the company website via computer to find out if items they wanted were in stock locally. Now a mobile app is available for click and collect purchases. This provides personalized shopping that links a customer's virtual and real worlds.


Same Day Delivery: Eliminating Delays

The same digital ability that makes Macy's click and collect purchases possible now enables same day delivery of online purchases. The delivery service is available in major metro areas from Los Angeles to Northern New Jersey.


Smart Fitting Rooms: Experimenting with Mobile

It may not be long before Macy's outfits many of its stores with mobile technology creating Internet-connected dressing rooms. The company's Manhattan Beach, California, store is piloting this "smart" room project.

Shoppers send directions via mobile to sales staff regarding the types, colors and sizes of clothing to place in their smart dressing rooms. Tracking tools, including serialization, allow staff to do quick searches for on-shelf availability. The smart fitting room app directs shoppers to their individual rooms. Each room contains a computer tablet that a shopper can use to notify sales staff when they need additional choices, such as larger or smaller sizes of particular items.

Smart dressing rooms are becoming a popular amenity for in-store shopping. They allow customers to save time by selecting items online before arriving at a store. Shopping time also decreases, because customers don't have to venture onto the sales floor repeated times.


Wearable Technology: Tech Popups

These days, many teenagers and young professionals are more interested in buying new technology instead of clothing. Wearable mobile technology, including Internet-connected smart watches, is attracting these customers.

Instead of merchandising these items, Macy's makes room for popup shops staffed and stocked by popular high technology producers. Last autumn, the chain's Herald Square store in New York City redesigned its basement floor to contain these kinds of popups and other high technology attractions, including seating areas with mobile recharge stations.


Digital Wallet: Storing Coupons & Offers

Millennials are well known for valuing experience over material purchases. They like to travel light in many ways, including avoiding fat wallets. Macy's My Wallet is a mobile app in which shoppers can store coupons and shopping offers. This makes sales transactions easier.



Whale of a Change

  1. R.H. Macy would be amazed to see how his company has changed over the past 155 years. If he were to haunt his Herald Square store -- the site of the movie Miracle on 34th Street -- mobile commerce would make his head spin.

Digital transformation is creating a whale of a world of change in retail.



Hyperlinks

Macy's blog, http://www.visitmacysusa.com/blog/history-macys-humble-beginnings-stunning-success,

2013 interview, http://scn.sap.com/community/retail/blog/2013/03/15/its-all-about-the-customers,

Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/facebook-biggest-country_n_6565428.html,

click and collect, http://www.fierceretail.com/story/macys-updates-app-sort-items-proximity/2015-04-07,

same day delivery, http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/08/04/macys-expands-same-day-delivery/31116365/

smart dressing rooms, http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/macys-tests-mobilized-fitting-rooms-as-in-store-transformation-continues

wearable mobile, http://www.fierceretail.com/story/macys-debuts-one-below-millennials/2015-09-29

My Wallet, http://m.macys.com/m/campaign/splash/wallet/faq?cm_mmc=VanityUrl-_-wallet-_-n-_-n

Source

a roundup of info at http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140915005587/en/Macy%E2%80%99s-Outlines-Developments-Omnichannel-Strategy-Technology

Retail Outside In

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Shoppers no longer HAVE to shop at your stores!
In fact, they no longer have to shop at any store anymore. Shoppers don´t go online any more. They LIVE online, with the mobile device as their remote control to the world and to all aspects in life, including shopping. Yet, around 80% of mobile shopping baskets are still being abandonned. This rate is much lower when it comes to desktop purchases. In 2015, for the first time, Google observed more mobile searches than desktop searches.

 

Still, shoppers love to go to stores. Why? Still the same old promises: Convenience, expert advice, touch and feel, exploration and a unique social experience. Yet, what has dramatically changed is the customers´ expectation about those promises. Digital alternatives to fullfill their shopping desires have taught consumers to expect more of everything.

 

 

You have to make customer WANT to shop in your stores.
Really? I do not necessarily think so. It implies a focus on channel profitability and thereby fosters a wrong mindset.

 

What would the right mindset be? Quite Simple. Customer profitability and customer lifetime value. The shopper does not care about channels. Why do you? The customer also does not care about your internal considerations. Why do many traditional department store retailers still organize their sales floor according to internal considerations and wonder why they are in trouble? It´s Retail Inside out. It´s madness. Customer do care about experience. That´s why department stores in Dubai are thriving. Designed from day one with utmost customer experience in mind. Same concept: Department store. Different mindset: Retail Outside In. Retail has traditionally been an Inside Out model. That´s one of the reasons why Retail is one of the most affected industry by digital disruption. Retail winners will be the ones, who disrupt their own business model from Inside Out to Outside In. This will require organizational change management as well as a strategic approach to the next generation IT landscape.

Today´s Retail processes and the corresponding IT landscapes have  been build and carefully optimized for the old Retail Inside Out approach.

 

 

From channel profitability to customer profitabilty
Foot traffic in stores declined by 57% from 2000 to 2015. However, the purchase value for every visit increased by a factor of 2,6 [Mastercad Spending Pulse]. Finally, 64% of all in-store sales are influenced by digital [Deloitte´s Digital influence].

These three figures quite well portray the major shifts in customer behaviour. They also promote customer profitability as the true kpi in the digital economy.

The majority of the buy decision is already taken before a shopper enters your store. Thus, strategies that primarily focus on increasing foot traffic in the store are missing the point. Retailers must embrace that a unique customer experience is not an isolated interaction in the store, but rather a reliable, consistent experiences across all interactions. Being there in all the channels and being useful across all steps of the customer journey truly drives customer profitability. This exercise of mapping the customer´s journey from beginning-to-end forces Retailers to begin collaborating across departments and business networks for the first time. This ultimately implies new business processes and new (mobile) work experiences for business users. However, this is not enough. It also requires making use of IOT Outside In insights to connect the physical world in real-time with business software. IOT optimized business decisions are key in profitably delivering the ultimate customer experience. Delighting your customers is all about everyday innovation.

 

 

Visit our Retail experts at SAPPHIRE NOW to discover more about Retail Innovations in a Digital World.Learn more about the Apple and SAP partnership to revolutionize work experience on iPhone and iPad.


Ralf Kern is Global Vice President Retail and strategy ambassador for SAP. Interested in your feedback! You can also get in touch via Twitter or LinkedIn.

Reforecasting in an automated way

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Problem statement

 

Many times, retailers will generate offers in Promotion Management for Retail (PMR) that are 6-8 weeks or longer before they are active in stores.  In this time period, there are changes that occur constantly with prices, what products will be on promotion, which locations are participating, and possibly new competitors that move into the market. These factors along with many others change your forecast.

 

To get an updated look on the impact of the promotion, or quantities expected to sell by product/location/day, it is a best practice to reforecast offers within 2 weeks of when they will be active in order to adjust your quantities based on these changes.

 

In this Customer Activity Repository (CAR) tip in a minute we will look at how you reforecast offers in an automated way in order to update your forecast to adjust to different factors.

 

Prerequisites

 

  • You have fully installed and implemented the following modules in SAP CAR:
    • Unified Demand Forecast modeling and forecasting (UDF)
    • Demand Data Foundation (DDF) required data layer
  • You must be on RTLDDF 100 SP6 or RTLDDF 200 SP2, otherwise apply SAP Note 210763.
  • You have the authorization to run transaction SPRO in your CAR system
  • You have authorization to run transaction SE38 in your CAR system.
  • You have fully installed and implemented SAP PMR.
  • You have PMR offers you wish to forecast.

 

 

Create the program

 

1. Logon to your SAP server using SAP logon

2. Go to transaction SE38 and enter a name for the program you are about to create

3. Select the create button

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4. Copy and paste the code below into your own program (just below the line with the REPORT keyword)

 

Note: Only version offers can be entered. Leading offers are not supported. Also, this code only works for recommended offers. If it is anything else then the results will not be saved.


*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*& Takes external offer ids
*& Looks up the internal Offer ids
*& Loads the Offer
*& Calls the What-if forecast on the offer
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*

TABLES: sscrfields,
/dmf/ext_offer_id_sty
.

SELECTION-SCREEN BEGIN OF BLOCK content WITH FRAME.

PARAMETERS sysid TYPE /dmf/log_sys_sty-log_sys_id.
SELECT-OPTIONS offer_id FOR /dmf/ext_offer_id_sty-ext_ofr_id NO INTERVALS.

SELECTION-SCREEN END OF BLOCK content.

*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*&   Event INITIALIZATION
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
INITIALIZATION.

DATA lt_offers TYPE /dmf/ext_offer_id_tty.
DATA ls_offers LIKE LINE OF lt_offers.
DATA ls_offer_id like line of offer_id.

DATA lt_offer_ext TYPE /dmf/ofr_ext_xr_tty.
DATA ls_offer_ext LIKE LINE OF lt_offer_ext.

DATA: lt_ofr TYPE /dmf/ofr_id_tty.
DATA: ls_ofr LIKE LINE OF lt_ofr.

*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*&   Event AT SELECTION-SCREEN ON BLOCK content
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
AT SELECTION-SCREEN ON BLOCK content.


*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*&   Event AT SELECTION-SCREEN OUTPUT
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
AT SELECTION-SCREEN OUTPUT.
* this is equivalent to the PBO of the selection screens

*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*&   Event AT SELECTION-SCREEN
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
AT SELECTION-SCREEN.
* this is equivalent to the PAI of the selection screens
* activated upon F8 or ENTER on the selection-screen.
* if F8, then it will go on to START-OF-SELECTION
* if ENTER then it will return to the selection screen (ok_code is blank first time through only).

*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*&   Event START-OF-SELECTION
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
START-OF-SELECTION.
* F8 has already occurred and mandatory fields verified, data is in parameters already.
* main processing

IF sysid IS INITIAL.
WRITE: 'Failure, logical system is required'.
EXIT.
ENDIF.


" copy input offers into lt_offers

IF offer_id is INITIAL.
WRITE: 'Offers are required'.
EXIT.
ENDIF.

LOOP AT offer_id INTO ls_offer_id.
ls_offers
-ext_ofr_id = ls_offer_id-low.
INSERT ls_offers INTO TABLE lt_offers.
ENDLOOP.

"look up the internal offer ids
TRY.
CALL METHOD /dmf/cl_offer_int=>find_by_ext_id
EXPORTING
iv_log_sys     
= sysid
it_ext_offer_id
= lt_offers
RECEIVING
rt_ext_int_id  
= lt_offer_ext.
CATCH /dmf/cx_offer .
WRITE: 'Cannot convert offer ids'.
ENDTRY.

"copy only the internal ids to input table
LOOP AT lt_offer_ext INTO ls_offer_ext.
ls_ofr
-ofr_id = ls_offer_ext-ofr_id.
INSERT ls_ofr INTO TABLE lt_ofr.
ENDLOOP.

IF lt_ofr is initial.
WRITE: 'Cannot find any internal offer ids.  Cannot forecast'.
EXIT.
ENDIF.

TRY.
/dmf/cl_offer_int_svc
=>force_financial_refresh(
it_offer_id
= lt_ofr
iv_forecast
= 'X' ).
CATCH /dmf/cx_offer .
WRITE: 'Cannot forecast offer_ids'.
ENDTRY.

Write : 'Report completed'.
END-OF-SELECTION.


5. Save and activate the program



Run / Test the program

 

Since there is a possibility of error in the report creation or in the data that you enter, we advise to first run a test in foreground. This will return a small batch that clarifies that everything is working as it should and gives you a better understanding of the variant fields.

 

1. From transaction code SE38

2. Enter the program name that you made in previous steps

3. Use the execute button at the top.

2.PNG

4. Fill in the SYSID and the OFFER_ID boxes

3.PNG

5. Use the execute button to run the test in the foreground

 

 

Changing the number of offers

 

Running a large number of offers could tax the system resources.  To help with parallelizing, you can control the number of financial records, and therefore forecasts, that are included in each batch.  To edit this in the system:

 

1. Execute transaction SPRO

2. Click on SAP reference IMG

4.PNG

3. Navigate to Cross-Application Components -> Demand Data Foundation -> Data Maintenance -> Offer -> click execute on Specify Parameters for Offer Financials

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4. Enter in the number of records, then save and exit

6.PNG

 

 

Run the program in the background

 

Now that you have successfully tested the report and changed your batch size, you can now run the program in the background across a large number of offers.

 

1. Execute transaction SE38 and find the report that you created in the steps above. 

2. Select the execute button

3. Fill in the SYSID and the OFFER_ID boxes

4. Select Program -> Execute in Background

7.PNG

5. Hit green check

8.PNG

6. Select immediate

9.PNG

7. Save

 

 

Review the log

 

Reviewing the log will show you the results of you running the report in the background. The log will either display the error that was encountered or the message ‘Report Complete’. Note that this may take time to show depending on the number of financial records that you entered in previous steps.

 

1. Go to the system drop down at the top

2. Select own jobs

10.PNG

3. Double click the spool of the job name (In this case our job name was ZWHATIF_FORECAST_BACKGROUND. Your JobName will reflect the report that you created earlier)

11.PNG

4. Select type

12.PNG

5. The results of the report are shown

 

 

Displaying the Results

 

As these offers were likely originally created in PMR, you can see the results best in this interface.

To review your results:

 

1. Open NWBC

2. Go to the Promotion Planning Tab

3. Go to Offer Schedule tab

4. Open up Show Quick Criteria Maintenence

13.PNG

5. Search for the offer you want to verify results for

6. Open the offer

7. See the forecast results for the total offer and for the lower level product locations

 

Total Offer

14.PNG

 

Lower Level product locations

15.PNG

 

Note: An empty or 0 value in the columns means that there was no forecast. Also the offer must be a recommended offer for this to have worked.


Omit listed product(s) from forecasting

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Problem statement


I’m getting a forecast from SAP Customer Activity Repository’s (CAR) Unified Demand Forecast module when my product is not listed in that location.  Why would a forecast be generated in this scenario?

 

In Unified Demand Forecast (UDF), we want the ability to forecast new products or new locations.  Since this is the case, we have no way of distinguishing a new product that has no historical sales from one that is just not listed.  From a data point of view, these look the same.  In UDF, the design assumes that every product that is requested will get a forecast returned that is based off of 1) its own sales history, 2) a reference product locations history, 3) hierarchical priors, 4) global priors.  This translates to – every product location will get a forecast.  As a customer, you can control this by using the listing information that is functionally already available in SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

 

 

In this blog, I will illustrate how you can use listing information to determine which products will be forecasted with the UDF module of SAP Customer Activity Repository. The purpose of doing this is to accurately assess the impact of a change on unit sales, for example a price or promotion change. An example of this would be running a promotion on a product that is stocked at one location and is not stocked in another. To get the most accurate forecast you want to remove the location that does not stock the item. By following this guide, we will show you how this can be done with standard integration.


Prerequisites


  • You have installed SAP ERP
  • Listing information is maintained in your SAP ERP system.
  • You have the authorization to run transaction SPRO in your SAP ERP system and to make changes in Maintain Control Parameters.
  • You have the authorization to run transaction DRFOUT.
  • You have fully installed and implemented the following modules in SAP Customer Activity Repository:           
    • Unified Demand Forecast: modeling and forecasting engine
    • Demand Data Foundation (DDF): required data layer.
  • You have authorization and roles in SAP NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) to run Services>Monitor Imports.
  • You have already configured and transferred your master data from your SAP ERP system to your SAP CAR system (This is just to add listing master data to your existing data set in SAP CAR).

 

Procedure


  1. 1. In SAP ERP, change the setting for DRFOUT to send listings for all product-location combinations,  To do this:
    1. a. Execute transaction code SPRO



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     b. Select SAP Reference IMG

 

 

2.png

 

 

     c. Select SAP Customizing Implementation guide -> Logistics - General -> Merchandise Lifecycle Optimization -> Outbound –> click execute on Maintain Control Parameters



3.png



     d. Under Plant Data for Material, check the Send Listing Information check-box.



4.png



Note: For more information on how to run DRFOut, please refer to this link.



2. In SAP CAR: Import the product listings to master data in DDF (if not run automatically as a scheduled job, also referred to as “bypass staging”)


     a. Run the Monitor Imports for Product Location

               i. Go to your NWBC

               ii. Go to the Services Tab

               iii.Select the Monitor Imports -> Monitor Imports



5.png

                 


           iv.Select Manual Processing



6.png


             

                v.Select the Product Location check-box



7.png

              


               vi.Select Execute

               vii.Check the Product Location import on the Monitor Imports main screen for possible error messages. 



3. In SAP CAR: Verify your product-locations were processed into the master data table’s successfully. Internal ID lookup – all lookups in master data in DDF use internal identifiers. So you must first look these up using the SAP ERP identifiers as the external IDs.


     a. Execute transaction SE16     

     b. Enter Table Name: /DMF/PRDLOCEXTXR

     c. Press the Enter key or the Table Contents (F7) button on the top left

     d. Enter your SAP ERP product id in the EXT_PROD_ID filter and the location id in the EXT_LOC_ID filter

     e. Press the execute (F8) button on the top left

     f. You will need to copy and paste the PROD_ID and LOC_ID values to be used in later queries.



4. In SAP CAR: Verify the master data contains the listing status for your product location


     a. Execute transaction SE16

     b. Enter Table Name:  /DMF/PRODLOC

     c. Press the Enter key or the Table Contents (F7) button on the top left

     d. Use the PROD_ID and LOC_ID filters to access the data you are verifying has been transferred from SAP ERP



8.png



     e. Press the execute (F8) button on the top left

     f. Review the LST_STATUS_CD column for your product location combinations

    g. Check to see if it is a 0 or 1 for your product, where 0 is not listed


 

5. In SAP CAR: If your product has time dependent listings, you can also verify the time series results


     a. Go to transaction SE16

     b. Enter Table Name: /DMF/PRODLOC_TD

     c. Press execute

     d. Enter your Product(s) under the PROD_ID filter, using the internal product identifier from /DMF/PRDLOCEXTXR

     e. Enter your Location(s) under the LOC_ID filter, using the internal location identifier from /DMF/PRDLOCEXTXR

     f. Enter LST_STATUS_CD in the Field filter

 

 

9.png

 

 

     g. Review the VALID_FR, VALID_TO and VALUE columns for your product-location combinations

     h. The VALUE column is the listing status, where 0 is not listed.



NOTE:  Time dependent product-location combinations will only forecast from the time in the VALID_FR field to the time in the VALID_TO field where the VALUE field is 1.


 

Now that you have integrated the data from ERP into DDF, and you’ve validated the processing of that data in DDF, you can now configure forecasting to “pay attention” to the listing.



6. In SAP CAR: Set your forecasting configuration in IMG

     a. Go to the transaction SPRO

     b. Select SAP Reference IMG

     c. Select SAP Customizing Implementation guide -> Cross-Application Components -> Demand Data Foundation -> Modeling and Forecasting -> Define Forecasting Control Settings

 

 

10.png

 

 

    d. Select execute

     e. Specify that you want forecasting to use the product location listings, by selecting the check-box Use Prd Loc Listings. 

 

 

Note: You must select this check-box for all entries that correspond to your Diagnostic ID that is used for modeling and forecasting.  By default, the Diagnostic ID field is blank which means that forecasting runs in production mode.  Select your Diagnostic ID for all Time Series Source entries.


 

11.png

 

 

Results

 

The end result of forecasting with listing considerations will be a zero forecast. You can now validate this within the UDF module of SAP Customer Activity Repository.

 

 

Run a production forecast via the Schedule Modeling and Forecasting (link).  Then, validate the results in the following way: 

 

     1. In SAP CAR: Go to transaction SE16

     2. Enter the table /DMF/UFC_TS.

     3. Click execute

     4. Enter your PROD_ID using internal identifiers from/DMF/PRDLOCEXTXR, as shown before.

     5. Enter your LOC_ID using internal identifiers from/DMF/PRDLOCEXTXR, as shown before.

     6. Check the timestamps in the TSTMP_FR and TSTMP_TO columns to see if this is within the delisted time frame.  Each entry in this table is for a time           period (day). It may require looking at multiple records to validate your product-location.

     7. Examine the FC_VAL column. A zero value in the FC_VAL column means that the product-location combination was not forecast during that time period           (day).



If you use SAP Promotion Management for Retail (PMR) that generates a what-if forecast for your promotion, you can view this via the user interface at the product location entries as the system forecast column.  PMR aggregates the forecast to the product location, so you may lose visibility to daily listing.

 


Note: The System Forecast is saved on the offer only if the Offer is in recommended status. You may need to re-forecast to see this value.

 

 

This document is meant as a guide to show how you can limit forecasting based on your listing information.  If you run into issues in this scenario, please refer back to this document as a reference to trace where the issue may be.  In most scenarios, it will be the listing in ERP that needs to be corrected.

SAPPHIRENOW 2016 offers Retailers ways to Re-imagine Customer Engagement

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The Digital Economy has become a reality and this year's SAPPHIRENOW event in Orlando reflected that. In fact, the show had to offer some concrete advice on how to use the newly gained Digital insights to drive innovation in customer experience and ultimately serve your customers like never before.


In theopening keynote SAP CEO Bill McDermottmade it clear that we are living in Customer-to-Business economy and that Business-to-Business-to-Consumer is gone. Everything has to start with that ultimate empathy for the end-user and the experience they are getting from your customers. For SAP that means we need to apply Design thinking principles and imagine what the end customer of our customer is experiencing.

 

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Sports Basement showed how they innovate with SAP HANA and build trust with their customers. Through the mobile In-Store app mobile app designed and build on SAP HANA and the Microsoft Azure platform brings the digital experience into the store. It provides product information allowstheir customers to run relevant price checks on their items vs competition conveniently while they are in store. Sports Basement can use the digital engagement to make powerful cross-sell offers thus building loyalty and trust and adding value while increasing share of wallet.


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Christian Klein, SAP's COO, showed how the Digital Boardroom allows to equip C-level executives with real-time contextual information and ad-hoc analysis and had concrete examples how Retailers respond to demand and opportunities in real time. Check out and illustration in this video.

 

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Under Armour has been at the forefront of Digital for some time. CIO Paul Fipps talked running a live business connecting to all the athletes and leveraging the data to run their business end-to-end.

 

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Burberry CIO Fumbi Chima spoke about their Digital journey to Omnichannel and the essential need to have single view of the customer. Burberry have taken SAP HANA and pushed it too the limits to integrate their in-store and digital experiences.


All of this just came through the 1st keynote - Bill McDermott Live, SAP CEO : Run Live, Run Simple | SAP, time to watch the replay is well spent.


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Just outside the Keynote in the Live Business Area we showed a retail showcase that made a New Digital Experiences come alive. A Sports Retailer that is using sensors to creating compelling offers and issues them in the moment they matter post to the customer.


All of these examples show how Retailers can run a LIVE business succeed in the age of the Digital Economy.


For some impression check out some of the live tweets from the eventhttps://twitter.com/joergkoesters


This is only the first set of highlights for Retail at SAPPHIRENOW - Please come back for more on customer presentations from Carter, Tumi, Rockport and updates on the SAP Apple Retail Clienteling App and many other topics.


Joerg Koesters is aTechnology Marketing Executive with passion for Retail and Consumer industries, and a retail ambassador for SAP. You can also follow him @joergkoesters on Twitter.

Power Your Grocer in the Digital Age with Data

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It’s no secret that today’s consumer is tech-obsessed. Smartphones have slashed the average attention span, online shopping is on the rise, and hundreds of mobile apps aimed at making life easier launch every day. Some of us are so attached to our devices that we’re even sleeping with them.

So why – in the age of same-day delivery, personalized e-coupons, and one-click shopping – are so many food retailers actively choosing to ignore digital and, as a result, the demands of their customers? And how can grocers who want to get ahead use digital and e-commerce to not only deliver an exceptional customer experience but drive profits?

The answer to the first question might lie in anxiety around the complicated logistics of delivering fresh, quality goods to customers, or fears that already razor-thin profit margins will shrink even further if the venture is unsuccessful.

Or maybe it’s based in worry over the perceived time and financial commitment implementing new technology requires. But the reality is that fear and anxiety are no longer valid excuses for lagging behind, and depending on technology alone isn’t the solution, either.

While digital transformation and e-commerce offerings are now necessary to remain competitive in food retail, grocers can only succeed at this by bridging the data gap with comprehensive scalable software solutions.

Grocery’s current data disconnect

In the old world of grocery, the category manager was king, overseeing all aspects of merchandising, from supply chain and vendor relationships to pricing and promotions. Then came the dawn of the digital age, and with it, a new player in the quest for power: e-commerce.

But even today, with the digital age well underway, many grocers still view e-commerce as an outside threat to business rather than as an ally that can be shaped to drive it. And among grocers that have tried to embrace digital and venture into e-commerce, there is frequently a data disconnect between their category manager (merchandising) and e-commerce (marketing), creating new problems rather than solving existing ones.

Tales of dueling online and print promos that essentially enabled savvy customers to get products for free aren’t mere folklore – they’re real, and they’re just one example of what can happen to grocers that don’t have access to real-time, scalable data across the enterprise that can be used to approach customers from a unified front. 

Of course, the disconnect isn’t just between marketing and merchandising; it extends far deeper than that to the supply chain, financials, vendor relationships, and across the enterprise. For many traditional grocers without an integrated software infrastructure, entering into e-commerce will always be a “let’s try this and see what happens” experiment rather than a well-thought out strategy based on data analysis and predictive analytics.

It isn’t enough to simply throw technology at the problem – such a reactionary, myopic take on digital transformation just isn’t viable in the long-term. To be successful, your approach must be calculated, holistic, and based on data analysis.

A unified, data-driven future

Despite the current data disconnect, there are some traditional grocers that are ahead of the digital curve:

  • Loblaw: In Canada, Loblaw has used data-based testing to make “click and collect” e-commerce not just successful but profitable.
  • Brookshire Grocery: In the southern region of the U.S., there’s Brookshire’s, which, although still in the early stages of digital transformation, is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition because of new enterprise resource planning technology that’s optimizing its supply chain and enabling an enhanced omnichannel customer experience.
  • Kroger: Finally, there’s Kroger, the grocery giant that snagged exclusive rights to Tesco’s e-commerce marketing solutions more than 10 years ago, and has been collecting and using customer data to its advantage ever since.

These grocers aren’t relying on technology alone to break into e-commerce. They’ve figured out how to bridge the data disconnect by using leading-edge, integrated software solutions to capture huge swaths of customer data, and then translate that data into actionable insights that deliver on customer expectations and drive profits.

To learn more about how you can get on their level and turn your data into insight, visit SAP at booth #2035 at this year’s FMI Connect event in Chicago, Illinois, from June 20 through June 23.

Internet of Things in Retail - a showcase

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Internet of Things and HCP in action

 

 

The Innovation Lab has built a small, sensor equipped store that shows which IoT scenarios can already today be implemented with the SAP HANA Cloud Platform (HCP). Our retail customers were thrilled by the prospect of using the model themselves instead of having to put up with the usual, extract PowerPoint presentations. The next event in Germany will be the "Handelsforum" in Mannheim on 6th and 7th of July. Feel free to reach out to me if you want a dedicated customer presentation onsite!

 

Realtime dataprocessing, analysis and action

 

As soon as a figurine passes the entrance, you can see how the counter on the corresponding Fiori tile switches from three to four in real time. This means our Playmobil friend is the fourth customer to enter the store. When a few steps later he takes his favorite breakfast cereal off the shelf, a message showing the remaining number of boxes is sent to the system. If it drops below a defined value, an employee gets a message send via smartwatch: It’s time to fill the shelf again. The integration with the back-end system allows to initiate a replenishment order too.

 

Better service thanks to the IoT

 

In addition, heat maps can be generated to show the path customers take and the time they spend in specific areas. This makes it possible to assess multiple placements and determine whether products are positioned well or whether customers wander through the store for long periods because something is difficult to find. It is even technically possible, based on register receipts, to determine the time when buyers of high-priced articles enter the store. This would make it possible to determine the most favorable time for launching new products. And if the number of items placed in the shopping cart is tracked, the system can even initiate the opening of another cash register when needed – before impatient customers start calling out loudly in a Saturday afternoon queue.

 

IoT in Fashion

 

All the same, the Internet of Things (IoT) doesn’t end at the cereal shelves. If a store offers clothing, changing room mirrors that are integrated in the system can suggest different combinations with other articles from the assortment. The customer can virtually browse on the different variants. Sensors on hangars or in the garments allow to report how often a garment was taken into the changing room but then put back again. In such garments, the price and the look seem to be right, but possibly not the cut. As a result, retailers don’t only see which garments are purchased and which aren’t – as is currently the case – but can also deduce why a certain article isn’t selling well.

 

Why HCP

 

There are many interactive systems in the meantime, but only very few of them can match and centrally manage huge datasets with one another and integrate into backend systems. That combined with the development features on HCP is a good reason to check with us how to engage. The Retail Innovation Lab offers the experience and the spirit to pilot innovative use cases with Retail customers world wide.


If you want to learn more about our projects please get in contact with me.

SAP Hybris Commerce, integration package for SAP for Retail

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Dear Retail community,


As you know SAP Hybris Commerce is a generic, backend agnostic commerce platform. Therefore it is not bound to an SAP environment, but is designed to run standalone in any environment.

 

As a consequence it is designed to flexibly adapt to ANY backend system.


A specific integration is typically provided as an "extension" to SAP Hybris Commerce.


 

For SAP for Retail, SAP CAR and other SAP Retail solutions, SAP offers an extension to integrate with SAP Hybris Commerce, so-called "SAP Hybris Commerce, integration package for SAP for Retail X.y".


The package provides SAP Retail specific enhancements to the SAP Hybris Data Hub semantics and to the SAP Hybris Commerce Suite in the areas of Article Data Management and Dynamic Order Sourcing (aka Omnichannel Article Availability, OAA):


  • Article Data Management covers the replication of single articles, generic articles including variants, structured articles, and classification data based on a merchandise category hierarchy.
  • Dynamic Order Sourcing provides retail-specific availability information and sourcing information to your customers across all sales and communication channels.

 

 

The following integration content is provided so far by the SAP Retail Integration Package:


  • Replication of classification data based on Merchandise Category Hierarchy - from Hybris Commerce 5.6
  • Replication of Single Articles - from Hybris Commerce 5.6 / ERP material since 5.3
  • Replication of Generic Articles & Variants - from Hybris Commerce 5.6 > mapped to the Hybris Multidimensional product
    • B2B Accelerator supports Multidimensional Products - from Hybris Commerce 5.6
    • B2B & B2C Accelerators support Multidimensional Products - from Hybris Commerce 5.6
  • Replication of Structured Articles (sets, lots, displays) - from Hybris Commerce 6.0
  • Integration with SAP Retail Omnichannel Availability & Sourcing scenario based on SAP CAR AB Feature Pack 3 - from Hybris Commerce 6.0

 

 

The SAP Retail Integration Package for Hybris Commerce is especially important for SAP Retail Omnichannel Commerce innovations, providing deep integration with new features in SAP CAR Feature Pack 3 and beyond.

 

The table below shows the release dependencies between the SAP Retail Integration Package version and the Hybris Commerce release:

 

 

SAP Retail AddOn version

Based on
Hybris Commerce Version

Released

see SAP Note

Integration Package for SAP for Retail v2.0SAP Hybris Commerce 6.0June 17. 2016SAP Note 2328778

Integration Package for SAP for Retail v1.1

SAP Hybris Commerce 5.7

November 16, 2015

SAP Note 2216889
Integration Package for SAP for Retail v1.0SAP Hybris Commerce 5.6October 8, 2015SAP Note 2216889

 


Customers with a valid SAP Hybris Commerce license can download the SAP Retail integration package free of charge from the new SAP One Support Launchpad>> search for the name SAP INDUSTRY PACK. RETAIL.






Stay tuned for updates of this blog, and in the SAP Retail Omnichannel Commerce - Customer WIKI.



Enjoy,

Ingo



Dr. Ingo Woesner

Global Director, Outbound Product Management Retail Omnichannel

SAP SE

ingo.woesner@sap.com

www.sap.com


Follow me on SAP Community Network and LinkedIn

 

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