SAP introduces promotion management for Retail 7.0

The promotion management for Retail 7.0 application is an advanced software solution that is planned to provide the tools to help create successful sales promotions for retailers large and small while enabling advertising staff to spend less time on manual tasks such as maintaining spreadsheets, re-keying information and editing hard copies of proofs multiple times.

Successful store promotions are key to a retailer's profitability; businesses are challenged to ensure that event executions are flawless, print media is accurate and merchandise is placed and priced correctly.

Campaign development is often an imprecise science: multiple departments are often involved, much of the effort is manual and error-prone, and frequently events do not align with financial plans and objectives. In addition, the need for multiple roll-outs targeting specific markets or regions adds another layer of complexity for retailers.

''As retailers navigate a volatile economy, they are reviewing their pricing and promotion strategies from their shopper's perspective,'' said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner, RSR Research. ''From this effort, retailers around the world are lifting their companies' overall awareness and understanding of price and promotion planning, management and optimisation.

This effort requires insight into what has worked well in the past, as well as the efficiency to act quickly and accurately, and the flexibility to execute creative campaigns that attract and retain shoppers.''

As modular software, the application will be able to be implemented quickly to address critical business issues that many retailers face today. Not only will it enable development and execution of promotional plans, it will allow for last-minute changes to a promotional schedule in response to changing shopper trends and market conditions.

''Retailers need to achieve bottom-line savings and top-line growth by streamlining their promotion and pricing processes now,'' said Verlin Youd, senior vice president, Global Trading Industries, SAP AG. ''With SAP Promotion Management for Retail, these activities are handled on one integrated platform, helping retailers produce shopper- and market-relevant promotions faster and more profitably.''