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Function documentationRelated Sales Dependency

 

Related sales dependency refers to the impact of one product’s sales on the sales performance of other products. This includes both:

  • Cannibalization, where the effect is negative. For example, when a major brand of shampoo has a buy-one-get-one-free promotion, the store brand shampoo may experience a decline in sales during that promotion period.

  • Affinity or halo effect, where the effect is positive. For example, if you have an in-house promotion on frankfurters, sales of frankfurter buns will likely increase accordingly.

The system treats this as DIF (Demand Influencing Factor) information and transfers it to the forecasting engine. The forecast calculation takes dependencies into account when predicting future sales of these products.

The product on promotion is considered the leading product, and the product whose sales are affected is the dependent product. The leading product’s promotion is treated as a regular DIF, whereas the dependent product’s data is considered an RS DIF (Relates Sales DIF). These DIFs are displayed graphically as separate time series in the Time Series screen.

Note Note

The unified forecast shows the effects of all relevant DIFs for a given period. It is not possible to isolate and view the RS DIFs alone if regular DIFs are included in the forecast.

End of the note.

You can define bidirectional pairs, where the leading and dependent products switch roles; that is, for two given products, the leading product in one relationship becomes the dependent product in the other relationship.

You can view related sales dependencies in the various SAP F&R applications (Replenishment Workbench, Product Workbench, and so on). You can see a list of all dependent products for single leading product, or all leading products for a single dependent product.

Integration

The system does not automatically detect a dependency. You must define it manually. All dependencies are defined at the product level.

You can define a dependency in the Maintain Relates Sales Dependency screen, along with a validity area:

  • Generic (for all locations)

  • Specific (for individual stores or store groups)

  • For a certain type of location (stores or distribution centers)

The system performs an authority check: if you do not have the proper authorization, you cannot maintain relates sales dependencies.