SAP IS Retail is a very robust ERP system and comprises of the following major functionalities along with the normal standard functionality from SAP.

Merchandise Management Summary

SAP’s merchandise management application is a completely integrated retailing solution that covers the core processes of a retail company. It maps the complete set of business processes required for competitive assortment strategies, different retail formats, and ECR-driven logistics and distribution. It provides all the functions necessary for modeling business processes in a retail company.With SAP’s merchandise management system, SAP has endeavored to model the full “Value Chain”, all the links in the logistics pipeline from consumer to vendor. Retailers can thus optimize the whole array of business processes and control checks in managing the flow of merchandise and information among vendors, retailers and consumers.Merchandise management comprises the procurement, storage, distribution and sale of merchandise. The key merchandise management processes include:Management of Master DataProvides efficient management for high volume retail master data such as SKUs, locations, vendors, vendor cost, delivery and order cycles and other retail relevant master data. Multiple consistency checks and automatic inbound routines are provided to reduce maintenance effort and insure consistent data, thereby increasing overall efficiency of business transactions. Merchandise and Assortment ManagementIs a sophisticated and highly flexible application for structuring your merchandise ranges. A range consists of a number of SKUs which can be managed as a group and which can be assigned to one or multiple locations for a specific timeframe for procurement, merchandising and sales. Price and Revenue ManagementAllows retailers to stay profitable in highly competitive markets, faced with the challenge of low margins and broad assortments. To better manage product lifecycles, in-season performance of merchandise dictates the pricing strategies needed to best achieve profitable goals, often at the store level. Promotion ManagementComprises all processes, which retailers need for setting up their strategic merchandise budget plans, then buy and price the promotional assortment as well as implementing the promotion program. This means all necessary steps starting with the planning, procurement of actual quantities, announcement and distribution of promoted items and prices to stores and customers as well as reporting and analysis of realized sales in the target group. Purchase Order Management      The supply chain costs can heavily be reduced by optimizing the company internal procurement processes. An integrated purchase order, allocation and distribution, and settlement process is mandatory to manage and control the complete procurement process.DC and Store Replenishment      Replenishment is a method of supplying distribution centers and stores with merchandise in line with the demand for the merchandise. In replenishment planning, requirements are calculated using the current stock situation. When this has been done, follow-on documents (for example, purchase orders or sales orders) are generated for supplying merchandise.Inventory ManagementEnables the retailer to manage and monitor stocks and values and hereby keep the balance of keeping inventory low and at the same time make sure that there are less out-of-stock situations. Goods movements are made in real time and tightly integrated to the financial to keep inventory up-to-date. Warehouse and DC ManagementHelps to store and move goods efficiently and thus keeps the inventory low by guaranteeing a high service level. Picking and packing, controlling logistics documents, and in and outbound monitoring are all part of the process. One addition that facilitates warehouse management is the integration of mobile devices that provide reliable information about goods stored and moved through warehouse locations in real time. Integration of Store Processes (e.g. POS Integration)Supports connectivity to store and POS systems through standardized interfaces. Inbound processing of TLOG data, including sales audit as well as outbound processing of price/item information via ARTS compliant interfaces is provided. Inventory data and other merchandising information is provided to support de-central store systems.In combination with the analytics capabilities of the Business Information Warehouse Retailers are enabled to control and coordinate the whole value chain, and thus react swiftly to changes in consumer behavior.

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