SAP Retail is a completely integrated retailing system. 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 Retail, 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.

The business process area "Retailing" comprises the procurement, storage, distribution, and sale of merchandise. SAP Retail supports both wholesale and retail scenarios.

The Retail Information System (RIS) enables goods movements to be planned, monitored and tracked throughout the whole supply chain.

The key retailing processes include:

• Assortment Management
• Sales Price Calculation
• Promotion Management
• Allocation
• Requirements Planning and Purchasing
• Goods Receipt
• Invoice Verification and Subsequent Settlement of End-Of-Period Arrangements
• Warehouse Management
• Picking and Delivery
• Billing
• Store Supply

The retailing processes enable you to control and coordinate the whole value chain, and thus react swiftly to changes in consumer behavior.

New trends, such as electronic commerce or ECR, flow continually into ongoing development cycles. SAP Retail also allows for changes in legal structures or business practices – franchising, for example. This ensures that retailers not only have a future-proof investment but are able to adapt swiftly to a changing market. The growth of your company is not hampered by system constraints, and you can incorporate changes in the real world smoothly and efficiently into the system.