Merchandise Category 
Purpose
Every article is assigned to a single merchandise category across a whole company. This allows you to classify and structure the entire range of goods offered for sale by your company (breadth and depth).
Merchandise categories can be assigned to stores and store departments. You can also group merchandise categories into hierarchies. A successfully implemented merchandise category hierarchy is an essential tool for efficient merchandise category management. The main focus for the management of your merchandise then shifts from individual articles to merchandise groupings. The aim of merchandise category management is better coordination of various customer considerations at each business location (for example, store), including elements such as variety, price structures and advertising.
Implementation Considerations
These functions are part of the business function Retail Enhancements (ISR_RETAILSYSTEM) that you usually activate with the Retail business function set.
Make use of merchandise categories if you wish to:
· Structure your assortment and departments
· Perform structured analyses in the Information System and plan target and actual values
· Store common data (conditions, for example) on a higher level
Integration
Merchandise categories should only be used for articles processed with the Retail article maintenance function.
Features
· Articles in a merchandise category can be listed automatically in stores to which the merchandise category is assigned, taking the chosen listing procedure into account.
· Sales at the POS need not be on an article basis: they can be processed via the merchandise category (using a merchandise category article).
· Articles belonging to different merchandise categories can be sold under the umbrella of a common value-only article (the “hierarchy article”). This can be useful if, for example, a store has cash registers with fewer merchandise category keys than there are merchandise categories.
· Depending on the merchandise category, you can define specific characteristics which have a classifying function and/or which influence the creation of variants; these characteristics can be useful when you are creating articles and especially useful for defining variants of generic articles.
· Below the merchandise category level, structures (characteristics profiles) are provided which allow a “technical” segmentation of merchandise categories to aid new article listings, or help in creating generic articles and variants.
See also:
The Classification
System