What's wrong with trading partner portals

Retail trading partner portals have been creating somewhat of a buzz lately. We happened to read an article in the current issue of the Journal of Trading Partner Practices titled, "Using Portals to Improve Collaboration." Not surprisingly, we have been receiving a lot of questions from vendors regarding the challenges they face in managing trading partner portals.

Just in the past two weeks, vendors have called to asked questions about trading partner portals for Wal-Mart, Target, JC Penney, Goody's, Lowes, Home Depot and Walgreens.

The stated objective of retail trading partner portals is to create a more open and collaborative relationship between the retailer and their vendors by sharing POS activity and other important documents. The expectation is that open communication will improve sell-thru and in-stock. But unfortunately, the proprietary nature of the portals is greatly limiting their effectiveness.

One of our vendor customers has more than two dozen retail customers. Among those retail customers, about two-thirds have a trading partner portal, so this vendor must log-on to more than a dozen different websites each day to analyze POS and conduct other critical business. This is very time consuming and inefficient.  For this vendor, and many more like them, these portals have quickly become a huge drain on their staff time and efficiency.

What are some of the issues with trading partner portals?  Each portal is different, so vendors must learn the in's and out's of each. Data format and availability is different for each portal. The data available in the portal is often different than the data available in EDI 852. e.g. some retailers only report dollars sold within a portal. Many retailers do not permit 3rd parties supporting the vendors to have access to the portal. This discourages a vendor from seeking out category management and data analysis assistance they may not have in-house. The data available within the portal is often very different than the data sent via EDI 852. We have seen large variations in units on-hand reported for an item.

What's wrong with EDI 852? EDI was created many years ago to standardize the format and transmission of data between trading partners. In other words, it was designed to eliminate the proprietary ways of doing things (think trading partner portal) and get everyone within the supply chain onto one single framework. EDI has limitations, but at least it provides a consistent and universally acceptable means of transmitting data. 

Trading partner portals are not inherently a bad idea. Like many technologies, they have just been over extended in ways that don't necessarily make sense for end users. In our conversations with vendors and our review of various trading partner portals, we have found they do have some good uses. First, they are very good for communicating vendor compliance information. In the retail world, compliance information changes daily. Trading partner portals provide a very effective path to communicate shipping requirements, labeling requirements, vendor score cards and other related information. Portals are also very effective for communicating store information and standard document formats like EDI document guides. Unfortunately, many of these portals have been turned into an analysis tool, and for the reasons we outlined in part I of our series, this is not a good application. If POS data is going to be provided through the portal, it should be provide as a simple tab delimited text file, so vendors can simply download the data into their analysis tool.

Vendor portals are also very effective for establishing vendor support communities. Many vendors that support retailers are fairly small organizations. They benefit greatly from the ability to connect with other non-competitive vendors to share ideas and tips. When the vendors improve their capabilities, the retailer benefits too. Some of the best portals we have reviewed provide user groups by geographic region and product category. Some even go so far as to provide user group meeting information, agendas and contacts. This is a very good use of the portal.

One technology we would like to see more retailers incorporate into their trading partner portals is RSS. Really simply syndication (RSS) is a push oriented technology that notifies a vendor when news or other information has been updated. This greatly increases the efficiency of communication because a user does not need to constantly visit the portal and check for updates.

This is the third part of our series on trading partner portals. If you missed part I or part II read that before continuing.

In the first two parts of our series on trading partner portals, we discussed the limitations as well as some positive aspects. In this third and final part, we want to discuss how your organization can dramatically improve the efficiency of your POS and EDI 852 data analysis.

The most efficient way to handle multiple trading partner portals is to first understand they serve two distinct purposes: (1) communication of vendor compliance information and (2) providing POS or 852 data. There are numerous services available which monitor trading partner portals and supply vendors with automated announcement of compliance changes. These services are valuable and worth investigating. You might consider Trading Partners Collaboration as one good resource or Vendor Compliance as another resource.

Many vendors we talk to have not fully considered tools to automate the analysis of POS data. They are working in each of their customers portals or manipulating data in a spreadsheet. This is time consuming and inefficient.  Improve your processes and consider a service like Accelerated Analytics, which can provide item and store level analysis without manually gathering data from the trading partner portals or manipulating data.

Extending the value of EDI 852 data with non-POS data

After you have the basics of EDI 852 data analysis covered,  it’s time to think about adding in non-point of sale source data to extend the value of data analysis.  By linking secondary data, you can create a 360 degree view of what’s happening in the business. 

Non-point of sale data that can be linked to Edi 852 data includes: plan-o-gram files, shipping data, sales force organization, store attributes, warehouse inventory, forecast, demographics and weather data.

·	Shipping data indicating inventory quantities shipped to stores.  Shipping files can include the selling price and cost of each item, so gross margin calculations can be calculated. [database key: UPC/SKU and store number]
·	Sales force organization describes each sales representative's store management responsibilities and sales quota.  [database key: store number]
·	Store attribute files provide additional information beyond the city, state and zip code like mall, region and supplying distribution center.  [database key: store number]
·	Warehouse inventory details quantities available in the vendor's warehouse which is available to be shipped to retail stores. [database key: UPC/SKU]
·	Demographic data describes factors like income, age, ethnicity and language for each store.
·	Weather history and forecast for each store. [database key: store number]
·	Plan-o-gram file describes the SKU assortment for each store.  [database key: UPC/SKU and store number]

By using the UPC/SKU and store number provided in the EDI 852 data, you can link together the files above using the database keys indicated.  Then, very interesting analysis can be conducted, like finding the key demographics for top and bottom performing stores or sales quota attainment at a store and sales representative level.  In addition, with plan-o-gram data linked to store sales and on hand activity, you can determine if the retail is properly executing the plan-o-gram and work with the replenishment manager to fix any issues.

EDI 852 Improves Sales and Inventory Handling

Models for supply chain excellence, including vendor managed inventory (VMI); collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR); efficient consumer response (ECR); and demand-driven supply networks (DDSN), are proving difficult for most retailers to implement.  A fundamental challenge inherent in these models is sharing point-of-sale demand data with suppliers. Although EDI 852 is a common solution, retailers are finding EDI alone does not solve the problem and provide the promised benefits. Why? Because sharing data alone is not enough… suppliers need a tool to analyze the data, draw out insight and then take action.

Now, there is a solution - Accelerated Analytics provides the tools necessary in a hosted solution, so neither the retailer or supplier have to make a costly technology investment.

Accelerated Analytics is a hosted power tool for sharing point of sale (POS) data analysis with suppliers. EDI 852 product activity data based on point of sale (POS) transactions and transmitted via EDI 852 is the backbone of a successful vendor managed inventory program. Unfortunately, our experience has shown very few suppliers are able to use the information. The suppliers we've spoken to are frustrated by what they perceive as an overwhelming amount of point of sale data, because they don’t have the tools to analyze and report. Sending data via EDI 852 to suppliers simply does not translate into an optimized supply chain. Retailers are frustrated with suppliers because they cannot actively participate in vendor managed inventory and sales promotion without the data. It’s a no-win for both sides and a huge lost opportunity.

Until now, the best retailers could hope for was to transmit EDI 852 files to their suppliers, who would accept the data and either print a static report or export the data into Excel.  Already busy suppliers found static reports to be of limited use.  Getting the IT department involved to deal with a huge data file was expensive and too much of a hassle.

Accelerated Analytics changes this entire picture by accepting point of sale data via electronic data interchange EDI 852, or nearly any standard format from the retailer, and providing it to the supplier via our web based point of sale analysis power tool. Accelerated Analytics hosts 100% of the hardware and software, so neither the retailer or supplier have to invest a single dollar.

What if my organization is not using vendor managed inventory (VMI)?
Even if your organization is not currently using vendor managed inventory (VMI), Accelerated Analytics can provide a significant supply chain benefit by reducing costs, reducing inventory levels and increasing profits. Efficient supply chain management requires the rapid and accurate transfer of information throughout a supply system.  Accelerated Analytics accomplishes this goal quickly and with no expensive new infrastructure.  Accelerated Analytics can be used as a tool for VMI or as a stand-along solution separate from VMI.

What if my organization is not using EDI or only using EDI with a small percentage of vendors?
No problem, Accelerated Analytics can accept POS data via nearly any custom data format. In fact, in many situations, there are benefits to not using EDI because we can accept a richer and more granular data set, which improves the analysis results.

Our suppliers are not asking for POS data.
No surprise, they probably lack the tools to manage and analyze that volume of data and they know with greater knowledge comes greater accountability. Successful business transformation does not begin as a reaction, but rather because business leaders have the vision to proactively invest in tools which drive their business forward faster than their competition. If your organization was the market leader in supply chain collaboration which improved your in-stock and inventory turns by 25 or 30%, what would happen to your market share position?

What is CPFR?
(CPFR) Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment is a business practice that combines the intelligence of multiple trading partners in the planning and fulfillment of customer demand. Accelerated Analytics provides the infrastructure to support CPFR by connecting retailers and suppliers together with a POS data analysis tool, shared business best practices and exception management.

Home Depot EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a Home Depot vendor, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852 from Home Depot. 

The Home Depot EDI 852 document will contain SKU/UPC level units sold, units on hand and dollars sold for every store where your products are sold.  The files are sent one time per week summarizing the prior week’s activity.

What can you do with EDI 852 from Home Depot?

• Analyze SKU/store level sales
• Analyze SKU/store level on hand
• Analyze average unit selling price by SKU/store
• Analyze plan-o-gram compliance by verifying on hand and selling at planned stores
• Identify out of stock stores, and even forecast demand based on prior sales
• Group stores into A, B, C categories based on SKU level sales volume

Home Depot merchandisers expect vendors to receive and use EDI 852 data to analyze and manage their SKU activity.  If you are not already using the data, of if you are not using as well as you could be, then you are missing sales opportunities.  Don’t wait for your merchandiser to call you and ask a question you can’t address – start working with the data today.  

Bloomingdales EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a vendor supplying to Bloomingdales, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your Bloomingdales EDI 852 reporting needs.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• We do the EDI 852 translation
• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all Bloomingdales store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Stove level stock-out exposure
• Stove level overstock
• Fast/slow selling items
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our EDI 852 reporting is the best on the market. 

Six key facts your EDI 852 can tell you about your business

A vendor to a large home improvement retailer called Friday,  and asked a very simple question: "What can the EDI 852 data our retail customer is sending us tell us about our business?"

This is a great question and one we hear often. It's worth exploring for a few minutes. Here are six things your EDI 852 data can tell you about your business.

(1) At a store level, what items are out of stock or will go out of stock soon. The key measure here is units on hand. By isolating each of your items at a store level and applying filtering for your desired min/max inventory position, you can quickly determine where the problems exist. We recommend you also calculate an average units sold based on a reasonable time frame for your business (last 4 weeks or last 8 weeks) and then use this to calculate inventory weeks supply on-hand. If your products move very quickly,  convert this to days supply on-hand.  The weeks/days supply on-hand is a predictive indicator that will alert you to trouble while you still have time to take action.

(2) At a store level, what items are overstocked. The key measure here is also units on-hand, but again, the weeks or days supply is very helpful in identifying an overstock situation.

(3) Top selling items. The key measure here is units sold. Isolate one item at a store by store level and then filter the top items by units sold. e.g. top 10 items or top 25 items. We also recommend calculating sell-thru for each of your items. Sell-thru is a composite measure that shows sales and inventory in one metric. Sell-thru is very useful as a filter for top selling items. Maybe more useful than simple units sold.

(4) Poor selling items. This is essentially the same as #3 but simply a reverse on the filter.

(5) Period over period comparisons. We encourage vendors to save all EDI 852 files for at least 18 months. This provides a great opportunity to compare sales and inventory for similar periods and gain an understanding of how to adjust your inventory min/max. (e.g. sales for week 3 2006 vs. week 3 2007)

(6) Regional comparisons. Isolating item sales and on-hand by geographic regions can provide very useful insight. Especially with store level detail that includes zip code and major metro descriptions. Most retailers provide a detailed store list with a hierarchy by region, state, city and zip. Some retailers will also provide rich demographic information, which can be integrated into this analysis.

Most EDI 852 data arrives with only a couple very basic measures for units on-hand and units sold. By extending these units and calculating weeks supply and sell-thru, you can learn a great deal about your business. The coaching we provided to this vendor also included this advise - if you are spending more than 10 minutes manipulating data, it's too long. Engage an outsourced service to do the EDI 852 translation, database storage and number crunching. Focus your team on the analysis activities and engaging with the retail buyers to improve your business.

CVS EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a vendor supplying to CVS, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your CVS EDI 852 reporting needs.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all CVS store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand 

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our EDI 852 reporting is the best on the market. 

Dillards EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a vendor supplying to Dillards, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your Dillards EDI 852 reporting needs.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all Dillards store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our EDI 852 reporting is the best on the market. 

Nordstrom EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a vendor supplying to Nordstrom, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your Nordstrom EDI 852 reporting needs.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all Nordstrom store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. 

Using Accelerated Analytics® with EDI 852 Data

Electronic data interchange (EDI), specifically EDI 852 sales data, is a valuable resource for vendors. Unfortunately, without the proper tools, the data can be difficult to work with and analyze. That is why we created the Accelerated Analytics® POS and EDI 852 data analysis service. We remove all the manual data work and provide you with item and store level reports. Our pre-configured reports provide on-hand, sales and sell-thru for each of your retail partners.

EDI 852 product activity data, based on point of sale (POS) transactions and transmitted via EDI 852, is the backbone of a successful vendor managed inventory program. Unfortunately, the vendors we've spoken to are frustrated by what they perceive as an overwhelming amount of point of sale data, because they don't have the tools to analyze and report. Sending data via EDI 852 to suppliers simply does not translate into an optimized supply chain. Retailers are frustrated with suppliers because they cannot actively participate in vendor managed inventory and sales promotion without the data. It’s a no-win for both sides and a huge lost opportunity.

Case Study A vendor customer of Accelerated Analytics® who supplies to a large retailer,  was faced with the difficulty of analyzing EDI 852 on their items from over 1,800 stores. The data would arrive on Sunday night, which they would translate into a spreadsheet, and then begin to identify slow selling stores and stores in a stock-out situation. The analysis was complex and took about 20 hours of administrative time each week. Worst of all, they have a dozen retail customers that were also offering to send EDI 852 data, but they didn't have the time to analyze that much data. They knew they were missing valuable sales, but they did not have any way to identify the problem stores and communicate with their buyers. They then engaged the Accelerated Analytics® service. Our team set up a custom database in our hosted data center and began translating the EDI 852 data and loading it into our reporting tools. Within two weeks, the vendor had customized reports by item and store showing units sales and on-hand position. From these reports, they were able to quickly determine which stores were causing the lost sales. Using our simple reports, they scheduled a meeting with their buyer. It was a totally new experience for both the buyer and the vendor because they had quantitative reports isolating the problems stores. Together, they determined that a 1,200 store blanket order was the solution. It was the vendors largest order to date, and without Accelerated Analytics®, they would have never been able to show the buyer where the problems were. The vendor estimates our reports increased their sales by over $5 million dollars in less than one month.

Accelerated Analytics® is a comprehensive,  outsourced service. No matter how large or small your IT department is, our service will eliminate the headache of EDI 852 data analysis and provide the reports you need to increase sell-thru and in-stock. Our on boarding process is simple and we already cover over 50 retailers. 

BJ's EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a vendor supplying to BJ's Wholesale Clubs, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your BJ's EDI 852 reporting needs.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all BJ's store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand 

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our EDI 852 reporting is the best on the market. 

Sephora EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a vendor supplying to Sephora, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your Sephora EDI 852 reporting needs.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all Sephora store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our EDI 852 reporting is the best on the market. 

Kohl's EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a vendor supplying to Kohl's, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your Kohl's EDI 852 reporting needs.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all Kohl's store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand 

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our EDI 852 reporting is the best on the market. 

Gaps still exist between vision and reality for EDI 852 data

In a recent conversation with a well known CPG vendor, it became very clear that vendors are still confused by data quality when it comes to EDI 852. Simply put, vendors are struggling with the known and unknown data quality issues that exist with the data retailers send out via EDI 852. Specifically, vendors are increasingly aware that on-hand inventory levels reported in EDI 852 are often suspect at best.
 
This vendor asked a very pointed question; "Why can't retailers get this right, and more importantly, how do they expect us to make decisions on bogus data?" This is a serious challenge and one that needs to be addressed by retailers. If they expect vendors to monitor in-stock and make accurate decisions, the data quality must improve. Fortunately, there are strategies to improve upon the data reported by retailers in order to arrive at a useful decision making tool.
 
First, each vendor has an accurate count of how many units the retailer purchased and they know when the inventory is to be shipped. By subtracting the units sold as reported in the EDI 852 from the shipped inventory units, you can calculate an on-hand value. The key to this work-around is a good starting point. In most cases, this can be determined by examining inventory history and requesting from the retailer a one time inventory position count. It's not a perfect system, but over time, the calculated on-hand becomes more and more accurate and it is a useful decision making tool. There are other strategies as well, but we see this as the most common method for handling poor on-hand reporting accuracy.
 
What strategies are you using to deal with poor data quality?  More importantly, what retailers are you working with that are not reporting accurate on-hand?  Many times, the starting point is simply identifying what data you can trust and what data you can't. 

JC Penney EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a vendor supplying to JC Penney, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your JC Penney EDI 852 reporting needs.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all JC Penney store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our EDI 852 reporting is the best on the market. 

Retail Sales Increasing

Despite uncertain economic reports, retailers are expected to report increased sales, according to an article in the WSJ.  Of interest to this blog, the article noted retailers have been doing a good job of managing inventories in a difficult environment.  As we work with our clients, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on forecasting sales demand and identifying out of stocks.  We have blogged a lot about how to use EDI 852 and point of sale data to manage inventory effectively, and now is a great time to get started if your organization is not fully using data to improve your business.  With instock rates in the 98% range, a vendor still has the opportunity to increase sales significantly with better inventory management.  Don't miss your opportunity to get that last 2 or 3% of sales.

Home Depot EDI 852 Reporting

If you are a Home Depot vendor, you are eligible to receive product sales activity and inventory data via EDI 852. Preparing to setup and receive the EDI 852 files can be confusing, and creating usable reports for your team can be very time consuming. Fortunately, Accelerated Analytics® provides a simple, outsourced service for all your Home Depot EDI 852 reporting needs.  Our team works with dozens of Home Depot vendors like Quickie, W.M. Barr, Techtronic Industries, Worthington Cylinders, Trex, and many more.  

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting, and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all Home Depot store data on all your SKU's into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• Sales by BYO
• Sales by Market
• Sales Velocity by Store (A,B,C,D,E)
• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand 

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our EDI 852 reporting is the best on the market. 

Store Level Merchandising Analysis Using EDI 852

The following is a step by step process to aid replenishment vendors in identifying stores on an item level basis, that are losing sales due to inventory stock outs or inventory that is present but unavailable for sale.  Such unavailable inventory may include lost or damaged items or items on the shelf but not available to the customer for any of a variety of reasons.  This process assumes that the vendor is receiving accurate and detailed EDI 852 Product Activity Data (or POS data via Retail Link or Partners Online, etc) on no less than a weekly basis from their retailing partners.  This article will focus on identifying and addressing underachieving stores. 

Step 1
The vendor will calculate average weekly sales velocity (Avg WS) at an item level across all stores.  This is best calculated using the most recent twenty-six weeks of sales.  Thus, for a given item, the calculation would be:

            Sum(last 26 wks. unit sales) = Avg WS
                               26

Step 2
Calculate the average item sales velocity (Avg WS) for each item for all stores for the last ten weeks of sales.  For each item, look at the last ten weeks of unit sales at the store level and separate the items by store into five categories.  For ease of identification, label these categories A-E.  The categories are as follows:

A.  Most recent two weeks of sales.

• Stores with sales in the last two weeks for any given item will fall into this category

B.  Most recent four weeks of sales.

• Stores with no sales in the last four weeks for any given item will fall into this category

C.  Most recent six weeks of sales.

• Stores with no sales in the last six weeks for any given item will fall into this category

D.  Most recent eight weeks of sales.

• Stores with no sales in the last eight  weeks for any given item will fall into this category

E.  Most recent ten weeks of sales.

• Stores with no sales in the last ten weeks for any given item will fall into this category

The total percentage of sales of any given item for a given category can be accurately calculated by dividing the number of stores per item in any category by total stores (TS). 

            Total Stores in a Category  = % each category is of the total
                         (TS)

This percentage calculation is a better, more accurate way to judge relative performance of each category than by comparing unit sales.

Identifying & Addressing Underperforming Stores
The remaining article focuses on underperforming stores, that is, stores that fall into categories D or E.  Now that you know how many stores are in categories D or E, go back to the list of items and the last 10 weeks of sales, and identify what store numbers are present in the bottom two categories and not in any of the other categories. These stores are stores with no sales in the past 8-10 weeks.  Pull the current inventory on hand for each store.

Out of Stock Stores
Stores with no sales and zero inventory on hand are most likely out of stock stores.  Vendors will want to identify the last week that a given store recorded a sale for a given item in categories D-E.  The vendor can then estimate lost sales by unit for that item/store combination by multiplying the number of weeks since the last sale by the average weekly sales (Avg WS) calculated in Step 1.

            (Avg WS) *[Sum(weeks w/o sales)] = Lost sales by unit due to stock-out (LU)

Lost sales by unit (LU) can also be multiplied by the price of the item to determine lost sales in terms of revenue (LR).

            (LU) * (price of given item) = LR

Inventory stock-out problems are typically due to one of two things: Inaccurate inventory replenishment reorder points or inventory availability issues on part of vendor.  If that item was out of stock due to high reorder quantity, then a vendor can contact the replenishment manager at the retailer responsible for the underperforming store(s) and suggest changing the inventory replenishment set point, using lost revenue (LR) as the rationale for the recommendation.  This exercise can be performed for all item/store combinations that had few or no unit sales for an 8-10 week period (categories D-E) and showed no inventory on hand.

Stores with Inventory on Hand, But No Sales
Some of the stores are going to reflect no unit sales in the past 8-10 weeks, but still have on hand inventory. This typically indicates inventory which is misplaced, lost, stolen or stock on the shelf, but out of view of the customer for whatever reason.  It may also include damaged inventory and inventory otherwise unavailable for sale.  In this case, the vendor would contact the retailer and investigate the problem.  The inventory replenishment system from the retailer will not release an order for new merchandise until the vendor visits the store directly or contacts the store manager to investigate the problem and demonstrate that the product is not available for sale.  It is useful, when contacting the store manager, to know the date of the last unit sold.  This date, and the average weekly unit sales (Avg WS) calculated in Step 1, will indicate to the store manager when a sale should have occurred.  That is, if, on average, a given item is sold every other week, and 8-10 weeks have passed at a given store without a sale despite recorded inventory on hand, this is indicative of a problem, since 4-5 units should have been sold during that timeframe. 

Business Rationale for Store Level Merchandising Analysis
Conducting a store level merchandising analysis can be a time consuming effort for a vendor.  Many vendors have trouble rationalizing the expense, especially vendors with very good in-stock rates.  But, even a vendor with an in-stock rate of 98.5%, still has 1.5% of stores out of stock.  In a typical 3,000 store chain, this could represent as many as 45 stores out of stock.  If those stores averaged just one unit sold per week, that translates to as many as 2,340 units of lost sales per year.  Since this represents only a single item, and out of stock stores typically are out of multiple items and average significantly more than one unit sold per week per item, this vendor is looking at hundreds of thousands, or potentially, millions of dollars of lost revenue (LR) per year, despite a very high in-stock rate of 98.5%.

Resources:   Whitepapers on SKU Sales Analysis, Store Analysis, Out of Stock Analysis and SKU Forecasting are available.  http://www.acceleratedanalytics.com/download-whitepapers/

Retail sales improvement requires careful forecasting

The WSJ reported retail sales Rose 3.3%, showing signs consumers are returning to stores.  This is a great sign for the retail market as it seems a turnaround may be in the works.  Macy’s posted a 3.4% increase, Saks reported 7% and Costco 8%.  As demand begins to increase, vendors need to keep a careful eye on the supply chain.  Retail buyers have been operating on low open to buy for over a year, so inventory levels may be below where they will need to be to satisfy demand.  Vendors using EDI 852 data for forecasting need to make some careful adjustments to their forecasting model to not be caught by surprise.  Here’s why.  Forecast models use historical demand as the foundation for current year predictions, but last January was a terrible month for retail sales, so a simple look at comp year demand will give a misleading result.  To correct for this, vendors should be considering not only last year’s demand, but also the prior year’s demand and the current period trend.  By combining these three numbers, vendors will have a more accurate model and hopefully not get caught by surprise.  But even with a good forecast, we expect sales to be unpredictable for the foreseeable future, so vendors must carefully watch demand and inventory levels by analyzing the EDI 852 data weekly or even daily and making push order recommendations to their buyers.

Analyzing Home Depot Market Sales

Over the past month or so, we have been rolling out new sales analysis for our Home Depot vendors on market performance.  Vendors to Home Depot using EDI 852 know buyers often want to receive sales analysis at a market level.  What we often find, however, is the analysis conducted does not take into consideration the number of stores in the Home Depot market.  To conduct a proper POS analysis of Home Depot markets, you really have to take into account the number of stores in market.  For example, Home Depot market 48 has 80 stores, while market’s 138 and 160 have one store.  By summing the units sold from the EDI 852 to a market level and then dividing by the store count in that market, you can get an average sales per store for the market.  This metric is very useful in comparing the performance of the markets in a meaningful way.  In addition, you can use the SKU count in your plan-o-gram to further compare the performance of the stores at a market level.  You might also consider a store level sales analysis, so you can rank your stores by sales volume A to E.  This lets you not only compare the store against the average sale in the Home Depot market, but also against its sales volume peers.  POS sales analysis by Home Depot market can yield some very actionable results, give it a try.