Merchandise and Assortment Planning

Merchandise and Assortment Planning (MAP) is very niche area in SAP IS Retail. Actually MAP is very interesting and can be considered as core and important part of any business. The Merchandise and Assortment Planning actually define's the retailer's strategies after analyzing the market trends and consumer shifts. 

Right product at right place at right time is very essential need to grow any business, and this what MAP makes easy.

Merchandising and Assortment Planning includes four parts:

1.     Strategic Plan

2.     Merchandise Plan

3.     Store Plan

4.     Assortment Plan

Strategic Plan - The strategic target (Sales, Margin, Cost etc) for the company at different distribution chain is decided by the top management. CFO, CEO does this planning. Strategic Planning consists of

Strategic Plan - plan targets at Company & Distribution 

chain level and,

Brand Plan - as next step to break the planned targets down to the brands belong to the company.

Merchandise Plan - Merchandise Planning is the next step after the Strategic Plan where the targets

further breaks down to the hierarchy levels by the merchandisers.

Merchandise Plan consists of the planning for Hierarchy, Markdown  and Inventory to conclude the OTB (Open to Buy) budget for purchasing. Markdown Plan gives the markdowns to ECC through the price planning workbench.

Store Plan - Store Planning is a part of marketing executives and store manager. It is a step after the Brand Plan. The plan involves the targets for the stores for the brands.

Store Plan involves the planning at Store and Hierarchy level for the categories selling under the stores, also the inventory plan to decide OTB (Open to Buy) budget at store level.

Assortment Plan - Assortment Planning includes the planning of Assortments, product mix at category level. Here the user plan for different number of styles for the stores. The Quantities planned here for each assortment goes to ECC to be used in the allocation table to create the purchase order through the OAPC (Operational Assortment Planning and Control) functionality.


For more information please find the document enclosed in the link below:


http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ASOHwEIV3eKyZGZqc2s3eDdfMjQxaGh3bm5jZ3M&hl=en

Warm Regards

Abhishek