Sap Ag

Sap Aktiengeselleschaft

Ines Wannemacher

Thomas Veit

Susanne Ziehl

Thomas Roth

Ruediger Zuerl

Harald Fees

A method, program product and system for automated control of pricing of a product or service. The method includes determining an initial price of the product, monitoring actual sales of the product at retail outlets, and adjusting the initial price during a selling season of the product based on the actual sales of the product. The method can further include accepting input from a historical price database, and determining the initial price using historical prices of the product or a similar product. The method can further include repeatedly adjusting a price of the product during a selling season based on the actual sales of the product. The method can further include applying a markdown to the price of the product and using a markdown profile to determine the markdown. The method can further include performing slow seller analysis to determine the markdown. The determination that a product is a slow seller can be made by applying a predetermined rule set to the product.

Method and system for automated control of pricing

The present invention discloses a method, program product and system for controlling pricing of a product or service using a markdown profile. The method includes: selecting a markdown profile to be used for the product or service, selecting a retail price for the product or service, acquiring updated sales data regarding the product or service, determining a markdown to be applied to the price from the markdown profile using updated sales data, and reconciling a markdown budget with the determined markdown to be applied to said price to determine whether the markdown will be applied. The method can further include the step of adjusting a retail price of the product or service by the markdown.

Automated system for generating proposed markdown strategy and tracking results of proposed markdown

The present invention discloses a method, program, product and system for managing the sale of a product. The system can determine if the product is a slow seller, determining a markdown to be applied to a price of the product, reconciling a markdown budget with the determined markdown to be applied to the price to determine whether the markdown will be applied, and adjusting the price of the product by the markdown. The system can also apply manual pricing data and promotion pricing data. The system integrates several tasks required for selling articles and services.

Price planning system and method including automated price adjustment, manual price adjustment, and promotion management

The present invention discloses a method, program product and system for controlling pricing using a markdown profile, where the method of the present invention includes: selecting a markdown profile based on an attribute of a product to be used for the sale of that product; selecting a retail price for the product; acquiring updated sales data regarding the product; and determining a markdown to be applied to the retail price from the markdown profile using the updated sales data. The method can further include the step of adjusting a retail price of the product by the markdown. The present invention also provides a data structure implementing a markdown profile for determining retail price adjustments for a product, where the data structure includes: an actual sales quota parameter; a posting period parameter arranged perpendicular to the actual sales quota parameter; a plurality of data fields containing markdowns, each data field corresponding to a specific posting period and actual sales quota range and each markdown relating to an amount of adjustment of a retail price for the product; and an attribute field containing product attribute data used to determine the relevance of the markdown profile to the product.

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Saarbrucken, Germany

Ines Wannemacher