Item Management
SAP Best Practices for Retail
Purpose, Benefits, and Key Process Steps
Purpose
 Within the scope item Item Management, Article creation of single, Generic and structured
articles will be displayed in the process for article maintenance. This scope item also addresses
the principal features of maintaining articles, creating listing conditions using integrated article
maintenance and also at reference handling in the article master.
Benefits
 Manage all business related master data
 Efficient, consistent master data handling incl. mass data handling and high integration
 Efficient discontinuation of item data
Key Process Steps





Create and process a single article
Create and process a generic article
Create and process a prepack
Create and process a sales set
Create and process a display
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Required SAP Applications and Company Roles
Required SAP Applications
 SAP Enhancement Package 7 for SAP ERP 6.0
Company Roles





Retail Master Data Manager
Retail Assortment Planner
Retail Pricing Manager
Retail Non – Seasonal Purchaser
Retail Warehouse Specialist
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Process Flow Diagram
Item Management
Implement
Listing
Maintain
Logistics Data
for All DCs /
Stores
Retail Assortment
ECC Planner
Retail Master Data Specialist
Create Single
Article
(Manually)
Display a
Generated
Assortment
Module
Create a
maintenance
group
Extension of a
maintenance
group by a
template
Create Core
Master Article
with Template
Check the
Article
Creation
Mass
Maintenance
using
Reference
Sites
Check the
Article
Creation for
the Copied
Article
Article copy to
create a new
Article
Mass
Maintenance
using the
Article Monitor
Alternative
Data
Maintenance
(Alternative
Organizational
Levels)
Mass
Maintenance
Using Mass
Maintenance
Tools
Article
Discontinuatio
n
Create Article
List
Follow up and
Replacement
Articles
Store
Characteristic
Values
Characteristic
Value
Grouping
Reference
Handling for
Generic Article
Variants
Process the
Generic Article
Create a
Generic Article
with Variants
Assign the
Characteristic
Profile to a
Merchandise
Category
Create a
Characteristic
Profile with
the new
Characteristic
s
Price Matrix
for Variants of
Generic
Articles
Matrix
Handling for
Master Data
Fields for the
Generic Article
Create
Prepack
Process
Prepack
Display the
Profile Module
for Store M001
using
Assortment
Menu
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Process Flow Diagram
Retail Warehouse
Specialist
Retail Masterdata
Specialist
Retail Pricing
Manager/Specialist
Item Management - continued
Determine
valuation prices
for prepack
components
Goods receipt
without
references
Create a Sales
Set
Department
Store/Shop
Concept
Create display
Process a Sales
Set
Process display
Goods Receipt
without
references
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Set up
structured
article
Create supply
relationship
Price level
groups
Goods Receipt
without
references
Direct store
delivery
Create
Purchase order
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Article Creation
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Article Maintenance/ Listing: Types of Article
The relevant types of articles for Retail are:
Single
article
Case set
=
Sales set
Generic
article
Groups of
articles
with special
sales price
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Shoe-Prepack
=
Prepack
Amount arrangement
of the variants
of an article
Sockes
=
Display
article
combined
with an
particular
packing
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Generic Article/Variants
 Variants - Article, which are only different in particular
characteristics (e.g. colour, value )
 Variants of the articles are combined under a generic article
 Own master record for every inventory-managed variant
Generic article
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Variants
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Creation of a Generic Article in SAP Retail
Definition merchandize category
Assignment of char./profile char. of the material group
Qualifier of the char. as variants-forming
Creation of an article with art. category generic article to merch. cat
Selection of the relevant variants in matrix
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Sales-Set
DC
Vendor
Store
Consumer
Case, ca. 77/54/25 cm, black-brown
89.90
+
Case, ca. 69/46/24 cm, black-brown
59.90
+
Set: Case and travelling bag
threepart case-set
169.90
Travelling bag, ca. 63/32/29 cm. blackbrown
39.90
Constitution of the sales sets with articles of
different material groups is possible
standard sales price only in the store
Component = independent article
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Display
Vendor
DC
Store
consumer
Display consists of a header article and the components
Components = independent article
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Prepack
Vendor
DC
Store
5 Pieces
5 Pieces
10 Pieces
10 Pieces
10 Pieces
5 Pieces
5 Pieces
Consume
r
x size 36
x size 37
x size 38
x size 39
x size 40
x size 41
x size 42
 All Components of the prepack are variants of a
generic article -> same material group
 Vendor allows information about components
 Point of the cancellation (referring to the stock) of the prepack
adjustable
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Inventory Management: Structured - Generic Article
Structured material in logistic procedure
Objekt
Lieferant
DC
Site
Prepack
Display
Price-/ SalesSet
Generic article
-> variants
Inventory Management
Alternative
Inventory Management
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Reference Handling
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Reference Article
Merchandize
category
generic article
Explicit
reference article
gives reference data for
Refsite
Article
New Article
Creation
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Generic Article
Merchandize category
reference article
Explicit
reference article
gives reference data for
Article
Article
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Generic
article
Variants
Changes
copy
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Reference Data
Reference article (merchandize category, reference article, explicit reference article)
Regular
Vendor
Season
Master Data
Purchasingdata
General. Listing
data
Log. data
Refsite
Listing data
distribution
channel
Sales-data
POS Data
Log. data
other site
Customizing / Constants
Copy of changes
Reference data only by generation
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Listing
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Listing Procedure
Process to assign an article to a general assortment of a store
or a distribution center via assortment module
By the listing you define whether and when the article can be
ordered, delivered and sold.
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Assortment Objects
Assortmentmodule
Assortment
DC
South-West
Article
Assortmentmodule
DC South-West
Assortment
StoreLondon
Store London
Assortmentmodule
Assortmentmodule
Assortment module
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General
assortment 1
General
assortment 2
Customer
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Assortment Description
Store
DC
Customer
(General) Assortment
Article
IDoc
Listing conditions
Listing
process
Promotion
Assignment table
Manual Modules
Assortment function
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Assortment Level Rules
Store London
Store Manchester
Assortment-level
Store Nottingham
Deluxe-Assortment
Special-Assortment
Store Bath
Advanced Assortment
Base-Assortment
House type / Customer type
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Process of the Classification Rule Check
Material group blouses
Site
attribute:
Style
"*" (all)
Store London
Article
attribute:
Style
fashionable
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modish
classic
Store Manchester
Store Bath
classic
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Listing Procedure: Process of the Layout Check
Store Manchester
Store London
Layout modules
Cooling
bar
Drinks
.....
Article
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Department Store/Shop-Concept
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Illustration of Department Store/Shop
Definition
Department store: Organisational unit that unifies the various goods
groups of the company under one umbrella. The department
store has no inventory-managing character for goods that are
intended for the consumer.
Shop: A grouping of goods of various article groups that ought to be
presented to the consumer in a consistent overall picture. The
shop is part of a department store.
Type Store
Store category: ‘Dep. Store’
Dep.store Cologne
Distrib.centre south
Type DC
Sportsdep
Type Store
Store category:
‘none’
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Sweets
Type Store
Store category:
‘Shop’
Menswear
Type Store
Store category:
‘Shop’
Womenswear
Type Store
Store category:
‘Shop’
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Characteristics of the Store Category
Shop
Department store

Inventory-managed


To plan
Aggregation level for the
dependent shops

Analysable

Can be used for the
administration of the
consumables

Analysable

Independent profitability analysis

Central object in retailing
Abteilung Kosmetik
Dep.store
Store Munich
..
..
..
..
…….. . . …. …
…….. . . …. …
…….. . . …. …
…….. . . …. …
Warenartikel
5T73
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München
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Direct Store Delivery (DSD)
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Direct Store Delivery: Supply Network
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Direct Store Delivery (DSD) features
 One application with single point of entry to collect some existing master data
maintenance transactions
 An intuitive, user-friendly decision cockpit for the category manager to review related
master data (e.g. prices) for category optimization
 Using a data model to store the supply relationship related master data (distributorstore-item relationships; store specific purchasing, sales and promotion prices)
 Drag- and drop functionality to create/change supply relationships between vendorstore-article
 Allow multiple vendors per article and store
 Selection function for main vendor relationships
 Change of main vendor per article via an additional maintenance screen
 Termination of supply relationships within the workbench
 Automatic update of info records (article-vendor)
 Mass maintenance User Interface (UI) for the category manager to create and change
the supply relationships
 Sales price calculation with list display on a vendor-store level (also mass-update
functionality)
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