Retail Store Profiling

Manage the complex challenges of getting a business or organization's Point of Purchase (PoP) products and marketing collateral to many locations efficiently, accurately, and quickly.

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The Store Profile and Distribution System is widely applicable to many organizations and businesses that have multiple locations, including retail stores, banks, gas stations, restaurants, and more. We'll refer to these locations as 'Stores'.

The Store Profile & Distribution allows you to manage your clients' complex distributions from beginning through delivery, generating high volumes of print and fulfillment activities.

Commonly, stores need to distribute products on regular basis to keep up with active promotions, seasonal trends, and changes in merchandise or service offerings. Thus, the frequent need to send products to stores must be satisfied.

Each time a group of products is sent to stores, it is referred to as a Distribution.

The management of distributions can be challenging. For example, not all products may be applicable to all stores, Furthermore, for applicable products there may be different quantities required by store. In order to manage this level of complexity, the distribution relies on Rules.

Rules are defined to determine which stores qualify for a product and the quantity each store receives.

Qualifying and sending the quantity, including factoring in spoilage and the inventory necessary for reserve safety stock, is important for cost control. Rules allow you to handle this easily.

For example, let's say a large expensive cappuccino poster needs to be sent to each store selling cappuccino. It needs to be sent to all stores having 4' x 8' windows, but don't send more than 2 per store. You can set rules for sending the poster based on

whether the store sells cappuccino,

whether the store has 4' x 8' windows,

the number of 4' x 8' windows, and

a maximum number of posters to send per store.

Licensing

The Store Profile & Distribution System is licensed separately. Contact your All Points Support Representative or Sales Representative to license the add-on and obtain an activation key. The first time you access the Store Profile & Distribution System in your OMS, you will be prompted to enter the activation key.

The Distribution Process

Before you Begin

The Store Profile and Distribution System sits on top of the All Points Fulfillment Solution. You should verify that some areas of that system have been set up before the Store Profile system is functional.

Before you can set up and run a distribution, it's assumed that:
Your All Points Fulfillment Solution is installed and functional.
System users have been defined.
Your Warehouse Management System (WMS) has been set up with warehouse locations, printers, pre-process lots, and warehouse waves.
Your Order Management System (OMS) has been set up for the client, including basic system parameters, price classes if needed, inventory owners, products and offers, product spoilage, shipping options, a default view, and a billing template.
Your Store Profile and Distribution System has been licensed.
The Distribution Process

Store promotional marketing is a continual process

Ongoing

Create and Maintain Database

There are several ways to establish or update a database of store information.

You can add stores and store characteristics directly by going into Create/Edit Store Characteristics and Create/Edit Stores.

But it's more likely that the database will be imported from a spreadsheet. Clients usually have such a spreadsheet available. If one does not exist, and importing is the preferred method to build the database, then your client must create one.

Once the database is created, you may need to make changes to stores and offers from time to time. Stores move, new ones are added, some are closed. Stores may also add new equipment, make improvements, or get remodeled.

You can make changes to stores and characteristics using the Create/Edit Store Characteristics and Create/Edit Stores screens or by making changes to the spreadsheet and reloading it into the Store Profile and Distribution System with new information as needed.

You can edit products and offers in the Define Products screen, Define Offers screen, or via product/offer upload.

every distribution

Define the Distribution

Once the database has been defined, you can define your first distribution.

When you define a distribution, you create a list of products and the rules for distributing these products to stores.

This step includes entering offers and offer rules to determine what stores get what products and in what quantities. It can include other elements such as how products will ship and pricing options.

every distribution

Analyze the Distribution (Pre-Process)

Once the campaign is defined, the third step is to preview the outcome. This includes getting a count of orders that will generate, reviewing material requirements, and analyzing the total cost of the distribution, including material cost, freight cost, and handling cost. 

Often the products are produced on demand and are expensive, so knowing how much to produce is important. Also, producing products requires lead time. Orders cannot be picked and shipped until the products are produced. This data is critical in alerting production managers as to what is needed so they can get a jump on production or adjust scheduling. 

Pre-processing provides you with cost analysis information viewable in clear charts and graphs, and the data can be exported to a spreadsheet.

Likewise, you can view the materials requirements broken down by unit price and quantity which can also be exported to a spreadsheet. 

If you don't like the results of the pre-process, you can edit the distribution and run the pre-process again and again until you like the results. 

every distribution

Generate Orders

When the distribution is correct, all orders can be processed with the click of a single button.

The system automatically generates a fulfillment order for each store that is qualified to receive PoP materials, whether it receives the same or different items and quantities. 

Store managers sometimes place orders for additional material. They now have easy access to materials they need to reorder, but the corporate office retains control over which products each store manager has access to and how much they can order. 

Once the orders are in the system, you can perform product analysis via several reports, including the Product Backordered Report, the Understock Report, and the Product Transaction Summary Report.

You can perform order tracking via the Order Status report (both Summary and Detailed) and the Order Activity Report.

every distribution

Production Management

Orders are commonly batched strategically, grouped by like orders (orders that have matching bill of materials) for efficient picking and packing. You can also use strategic processing based on factors such as destination, where the farthest destinations process first because they take longer to ship, thus ensuring that those stores receive their material on time.

Batch sizing allows production managers to work with a reasonable number of orders at one time.
Periodically

Billing

For most businesses, billing is critical.

By combining the Store Profile & Distribution Add-On with VeraCore's fulfillment billing capabilities, you can easily generate month-end reporting necessary to bill. 
Things to Remember

Key Terms

Products

Point of Purchase (PoP) products are signs or displays that are sent to stores for the purpose of promoting merchandise and services.

Store Characteristic Types

There are two primary types of store characteristics. These are Numeric and Non-Numeric. Numeric characteristics of a store can be used in computations or to determine if a store qualifies for a product. For example, the number of gas pumps may drive the number of products sent for a gas promotion. Non-numeric may hold Yes/No or multiple choice values and are used to determine if a store qualified for a product. For example, "Does the gas station sell Diesel (Y/N)" could be used to determine what store would qualify for the diesel promotion sign.

Distribution Rules

Distribution Rules determine which stores qualify to receive a product and, for each store, the quantity to ship.

Spoilage

Spoilage quantity is calculated based on a percent which is used to compute an excess quantity needed to accommodate damages during print or fulfillment production.The Spoilage Rounding Factor is a quantity to round up to when calculating a spoilage quantity. Spoilage data is pre-defined by product when defining a product in Veracore.

Stores

Stores are the physical location where products will be sent to promote merchandise and services, Examples include retail stores, banks, gas stations, cellular phone stores, and more. For the purpose of this article, the physical place where goods and services are sold directly to the consumer will be called "store".

Store Characteristic

Store Characteristics are unique attributes of a store used to determine whether or not a store qualifies to receive a product and may be used to determine the quantity a store will receive.

Distribution

A Distribution represents a product or group of products that are sent to stores based on rules. These rules result in the generation of orders for stores that qualify to receive the products. The rules ensure that each order contains the correct quantity of products, determined by the rules based on store characteristics.

Qualifiers

A qualifier is what determines if a store is to receive a product. Store Characteristics are used as qualifiers.Example: "Sells Cappuccino (Y/N)" is a qualifier for which stores receive a product and what products they receive.

Safety Stock

Safety Stock is the amount of overage necessary to print and is intended to accommodate cases where stores reorder products.

Offers

An offer may represent one product, multiple products, or a kit. For example, a table sign may represent multiple products including the sign, the sign stand, and an adhesive strip. In simple cases, an offer may represent a single item such as a posted with no additional pieces.Pricing for products sent is defined in the Offer.

Campaigns

Campaigns are marketing or corporate processes where it's decided what product or products to promote and how to promote them. A single campaign can contain multiple distributions.The Campaign ID is the identifier that is assigned to orders generated from the distribution and can later be used for sorting or selecting data in reports.

Rule Group

The "total quantity to ship to a store" for an offer is sometimes the result of more than one store characteristic. A Rule Group needs to be defined when there are multiple characteristics.For example, "Send one for every cash register, and send one when a store has gas pumps, send one for every gas pump"

Rule Set

A rule set is a complete list of rules that apply to an offer within a distribution. It may be made up of one or more rule groups.

Products

Point of Purchase (PoP) products are signs or displays that are sent to stores for the purpose of promoting merchandise and services.

Stores

Stores are the physical location where products will be sent to promote merchandise and services, Examples include retail stores, banks, gas stations, cellular phone stores, and more. For the purpose of this article, the physical place where goods and services are sold directly to the consumer will be called "store".

Store Characteristic

Store Characteristics are unique attributes of a store used to determine whether or not a store qualifies to receive a product and may be used to determine the quantity a store will receive.

Store Characteristic Types

There are two primary types of store characteristics. These are Numeric and Non-Numeric. Numeric characteristics of a store can be used in computations or to determine if a store qualifies for a product. For example, the number of gas pumps may drive the number of products sent for a gas promotion. Non-numeric may hold Yes/No or multiple choice values and are used to determine if a store qualified for a product. For example, "Does the gas station sell Diesel (Y/N)" could be used to determine what store would qualify for the diesel promotion sign.

Offers

An offer may represent one product, multiple products, or a kit. For example, a table sign may represent multiple products including the sign, the sign stand, and an adhesive strip. In simple cases, an offer may represent a single item such as a posted with no additional pieces.Pricing for products sent is defined in the Offer.

Distribution

A Distribution represents a product or group of products that are sent to stores based on rules. These rules result in the generation of orders for stores that qualify to receive the products. The rules ensure that each order contains the correct quantity of products, determined by the rules based on store characteristics.

Distribution Rules

Distribution Rules determine which stores qualify to receive a product and, for each store, the quantity to ship.

Campaigns

Campaigns are marketing or corporate processes where it's decided what product or products to promote and how to promote them. A single campaign can contain multiple distributions.The Campaign ID is the identifier that is assigned to orders generated from the distribution and can later be used for sorting or selecting data in reports.

Rule Group

The "total quantity to ship to a store" for an offer is sometimes the result of more than one store characteristic. A Rule Group needs to be defined when there are multiple characteristics.For example, "Send one for every cash register, and send one when a store has gas pumps, send one for every gas pump"

Rule Set

A rule set is a complete list of rules that apply to an offer within a distribution. It may be made up of one or more rule groups.

Safety Stock

Safety Stock is the amount of overage necessary to print and is intended to accommodate cases where stores reorder products.

Qualifiers

A qualifier is what determines if a store is to receive a product. Store Characteristics are used as qualifiers.Example: "Sells Cappuccino (Y/N)" is a qualifier for which stores receive a product and what products they receive.

Spoilage

Spoilage quantity is calculated based on a percent which is used to compute an excess quantity needed to accommodate damages during print or fulfillment production.The Spoilage Rounding Factor is a quantity to round up to when calculating a spoilage quantity. Spoilage data is pre-defined by product when defining a product in Veracore.

Store Characteristic

Store Characteristics are unique attributes of a store used to determine whether or not a store qualifies to receive a product and may be used to determine the quantity a store will receive.

Products

Point of Purchase (PoP) products are signs or displays that are sent to stores for the purpose of promoting merchandise and services.

Store Characteristic Types

There are two primary types of store characteristics. These are Numeric and Non-Numeric. Numeric characteristics of a store can be used in computations or to determine if a store qualifies for a product. For example, the number of gas pumps may drive the number of products sent for a gas promotion. Non-numeric may hold Yes/No or multiple choice values and are used to determine if a store qualified for a product. For example, "Does the gas station sell Diesel (Y/N)" could be used to determine what store would qualify for the diesel promotion sign.

Distribution Rules

Distribution Rules determine which stores qualify to receive a product and, for each store, the quantity to ship.

Campaigns

Campaigns are marketing or corporate processes where it's decided what product or products to promote and how to promote them. A single campaign can contain multiple distributions.The Campaign ID is the identifier that is assigned to orders generated from the distribution and can later be used for sorting or selecting data in reports.

Spoilage

Spoilage quantity is calculated based on a percent which is used to compute an excess quantity needed to accommodate damages during print or fulfillment production.The Spoilage Rounding Factor is a quantity to round up to when calculating a spoilage quantity. Spoilage data is pre-defined by product when defining a product in Veracore.

Stores

Stores are the physical location where products will be sent to promote merchandise and services, Examples include retail stores, banks, gas stations, cellular phone stores, and more. For the purpose of this article, the physical place where goods and services are sold directly to the consumer will be called "store".

Qualifiers

A qualifier is what determines if a store is to receive a product. Store Characteristics are used as qualifiers.Example: "Sells Cappuccino (Y/N)" is a qualifier for which stores receive a product and what products they receive.

Offers

An offer may represent one product, multiple products, or a kit. For example, a table sign may represent multiple products including the sign, the sign stand, and an adhesive strip. In simple cases, an offer may represent a single item such as a posted with no additional pieces.Pricing for products sent is defined in the Offer.

Distribution

A Distribution represents a product or group of products that are sent to stores based on rules. These rules result in the generation of orders for stores that qualify to receive the products. The rules ensure that each order contains the correct quantity of products, determined by the rules based on store characteristics.

Rule Group

The "total quantity to ship to a store" for an offer is sometimes the result of more than one store characteristic. A Rule Group needs to be defined when there are multiple characteristics.For example, "Send one for every cash register, and send one when a store has gas pumps, send one for every gas pump"

Rule Set

A rule set is a complete list of rules that apply to an offer within a distribution. It may be made up of one or more rule groups.

Safety Stock

Safety Stock is the amount of overage necessary to print and is intended to accommodate cases where stores reorder products.

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