Month: August 2009

CP SQL 8.3.9 – Purchasing Advice – Forecast-driven replenishment.
 
With CP SQL 8.3.9, you can now create seasonal forecasts for your items. You to use proven forecasting methods more accurately to estimate future demand based on historical sales, . Once you have created a forecast, CounterPoint can use the forecast data to calculate and set the ideal minimum and maximum quantities for your items.

Some key New features are:

• You can generate a  purchasing advice based on the updated minimum and maximum values to ensure that you have the forecast quantities on hand for each period or season.

• You can easily evaluate your inventory needs, by dynamically adjusting minimum and maximum quantities to automatically replenishing your stock to constantly changing item demands.

• It relies on the aggregated historical data that is generated by the scheduled CounterPoint Data Mart Update task. If you are not already aggregating data for the Dashboard, you must schedule this task to aggregate forecast data.

• You can use the new Forecast window to define a forecast for a specific time period.

• With a defined forecast, you can calculate the Forecast qty for each item during each season you specified. If desired, you can increase or decrease each Forecast qty by a percentage or a specific amount to account for upcoming promotions or other factors affecting demand. You can also view a graph of the forecast for each item.

• You can use the new Purchasing Advice with Dynamic Min/Max window to calculate minimum and maximum quantities and generate purchase requests from a particular forecast. CounterPoint calculates new minimum and maximum quantities for the items in the selected forecast, based on the Safety stock, Reorder point, and EOQ (i.e., economic order quantity) for each item. When these calculations are complete, you can select the items you want to update, save their new minimum and maximum quantities, and then generate the Purchasing Advice report and the corresponding purchase requests for those items).

• The Safety stock, Reorder point, and EOQ values for each item are determined by the  Annual Holding Cost and Annual Ordering Cost you specify along with the Lead time defined for item’s primary vendor  window. If these values are not specified, they are calculated automatically.

If you would like help getting your Purchasing Advice Details setup correctly – contact us at CCS Retail Support.
 

CPSQL 8.3.9 – BOGO and 2fer Pricing

CounterPoint SQL now allows you to define "BOGO" price rules for individual items or groups of items. For example "buy one, get one free" or "buy one, get one for 50% off" and "2fer" (e.g., "2 for $1.00" or "3 for $5.00") .

You can also use BOGO/twofer price rules to define "stepped" or "copy shop" pricing (e.g., buy the first 10 for $1.00, the next 10 for  $.90, or buy the first 5 for $10.00 dollars and the next 5 for $8.00, etc.). As well as a variety of similar pricing schemes that allow items sold in specific quantities to be given different per-unit prices.This feature provides much greater pricing flexibility than was available in previous versions, allowing you to easily offer your customers a broad range of common pricing scenarios. Some examples of these are:

• Specify whether the customer must purchase an entire group of items to qualify for the BOGO/2fer price, or whether any quantity will qualify.

• Control how CounterPoint will apportion each BOGO/2fer price across the items in the group. In other words, you can define a .34/.33/.33 split or a .49/.49/.02 split for a "3 for $1" price rule.

• Define filtering criteria to determine when each BOGO/2fer price rule is in effect and whether the price rule only applies to particular stores, customers, and so forth.

• Combine BOGO/2fer pricing with mix-and-match codes to allow customers to purchase items from a particular category, sub-category, or vendor to qualify for the BOGO/2fer price.  This would be instead of requiring them to buy a specific item (e.g., "buy ANY three candy bars for $1" versus "buy three Snickers bars for $1"). Essentially,this extends the capabilities of the existing "Mix-and-Match" option.

Some caveats are:You must use the Promotional Prices, Special Prices, or Contract Prices windows to define BOGO/2fer price rules.You cannot define BOGO/2fer pricing using Item Prices or Planned Promotions.

If you would like to implement some of these pricing schemes contact CCS Retail Support at 800-672-4806 or email us.

CPSQL 8.3.9 – Scrapping Items During POS Returns

Previously, when a customer returned an item that was broken, defective, or otherwise could not be resold, you were required to enter and post an inventory adjustment to "scrap" the item.
 
In this version, you do not have to manually process inventory adjustments to remove scrapped items from inventory. Instead, you can scrap an item while you are entering a Return in Ticket Entry or Touchscreen Ticket Entry. You specify a valid Scrap reason code for a return line. When you post a ticket with a Scrap reason code, CounterPoint automatically creates and posts the necessary inventory adjustment transaction to remove the scrapped item from inventory and makes the appropriate accounting distributions.

This new feature is ideally used in situations were you know for a fact that you will be unable  to expect any recourse from your vendor (i.e in an RTV cannot be used).  Examples of this could be special purchases that you made  that are non-returnable,  an Item that is out of warranty (but you took it back to satiate the customer), the vendor or manufacturer is no longer in business.

If you have more questions about this feature, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.

CPSQL 8.3.9 Gift Registries

Gift registries will be supported in this version of CounterPoint SQL (Enterprise only). You can create and manage gift registries for your customers, allowing them to request and purchase gifts for occasions such
as weddings, baby showers, and so forth. This feature enables you to offer a valuable and commonly-used service to your customers while driving traffic to your store.

Use the "Manage Gift Registries" window to define and maintain gift registries. In the registries you can:
 

• Specify up to two registrants for each gift registry, one of whom must have a customer record on file. Each registry must also be associated with a specific, user-defined Occasion Code (e.g., WEDDING, BABY, BIRTHDAY, and so forth).

• Specify the date of the occasion, the city and state in which the occasion will take place, and the shipping address to which gifts purchased from the registry can be sent.

• You can make each gift  registry available to online customers in your CPOnline store. Online store gift registry support is currently scheduled for a future release of CPOnline.You can add items to a gift registry by entering them manually or by importing them from a handheld scanner. The latter method allows registrants to scan the items they are requesting, as opposed to filling out a printed form.

• Print a copy of the registry for the registrant(s) to take home when it is complete.  When a customer comes into your store to purchase a gift from a registry, you can print a copy of the registry for the customer to reference while shopping. This report indicates how many of each item were requested, how many have been purchased, and each item’s unit price. A customer can purchase items from different gift registries on the same ticket, along with items that are not from a gift registry. If an item the customer is purchasing isn’t on the registry, you can even add it to the registry as a "surprise" gift.

   

When you complete a ticket that includes one or more gift registry items, the corresponding registry is updated automatically. This ensures that subsequent gift registry reports are up-to-date and reduces the likelihood of duplicate purchases.

Note: You must purchase and register the Gift Registry Option in order to use this feature.  Please contact the CCS Retail Systems Sales Department for pricing on this options.