Characteristics of the Article Hierarchy 

The following characteristics are available in the article hierarchy:

Responsibility

This characteristic indicates the person responsible for the article hierarchy node assignment (for example, the responsible manager in the branch). You can use this characteristic for reporting purposes in SAP BW. The validity of the node assignment applies implicitly to the assignment of the responsibility.

Reference assignment

In retail planning, key figures are forecast according to your historical sales. If it is a new module, however, there is no historical data. In this case, the sales of the new module should be forecast using a reference module. In the standard delivery, a reference is planned for each node assignment in the article hierarchy. The validity of the node assignment applies implicitly to the assignment of the reference.

Price point group assignment

Price point groups are used to round prices to defined values. All prices between USD 0 and USD 1 are rounded to USD 0.99, for example. Price point groups are classified into price point categories (such as pricing, markdowns, promotion), which determine the applications in which the assigned price point groups are used. You can use this characteristic to assign price point groups to the article hierarchy.

Price group assignment

You can assign a price group to a node in the article hierarchy.

Merchandise classification

With this characteristic, you can divide the merchandise to be structured into fashion merchandise and basics. You can select the elements of the article hierarchy characterized by this characteristic in the processes that are relevant for planning. However, you can also use this characteristic to exclude the elements that are not relevant for planning from the selection.

Role

The role determines the priority and importance of a category. The role is assigned at category level and the assignment is valid for all nodes of the article hierarchy.  You can assign the following four roles:

·        Profiling role

·        Mandatory role

·        Enhancement role

·        Season role

Strategy

Strategies are used to implement the role assigned to the category. The strategy can be assigned and changed at all levels of a category structure. The strategy is automatically passed on from a node to the subordinate nodes and the assigned articles.  You can assign the following six strategies:

·        Increasing the frequency with which customers visit the store

·        Increasing the average purchase amount per customer

·        Improving the gross margin for the category

·        Achieving cash flow

·        Capturing attention

·        Image revaluation

 

You can define additional characteristics of the article hierarchy without modification using the APPEND technique and use them on a customer-specific tab page.