Best Merchandise Analytics Software | Manthan

Are you making use of the huge amounts of data available to you today?

This data can tell you what action needs to be taken when, where and by whom. Merchandise Analytics by Manthan is a Prescriptive Analytics product powered by AI that recommends optimal data-driven actions across all key merchandising and in-store functions. And with Manthan's unique conversational UI, every business user can benefit from these recommendations.

Use cases by business process

A quick look at how Merchandise Analytics makes critical processes easier to handle.

OBJECTIVE:
Personalize assortment based on channels preferred by your customers; that can be localized to the stores your customers shop in.

WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
Platform aids assortment planning (both pre-season and inseason), allocation, supports new product introduction, visual merchandise/space planning, defines your private label strategy.

PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
Actions geared towards optimizing key assortment metrics like sales growth, gross margins and inventory turns. It includes products to bundle, markdowns, products to keep or drop.

UNDERLYING DATA ANALYTICS:
Demand forecasting, trend and sentiment analysis, product affinities and substitution modelling or product rationalization.

SMART INVERTORY MANAGEMENT:
The Merchandise Analytics Platform prescribes an appropriate, profitable and localized assortment mix.

Category Managers can continually optimize the product mix by recommending products to be dropped, retained, replaced or substituted.

Category Managers can also identify complementary products that can be bundled based on purchase patterns, linkages and cross sell opportunities.

The platform also suggests products for markdown with the ideal markdown rates, percentage and expected sales uplift.

Additionally, it can recommend appropriate price points for products that are slow movers based on external factors and internal data.

OBJECTIVE:
Maximize availability of inventory and minimize total cost of inventory.

WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
Helps retailers drive higher customer satisfaction and more convenience. Other goals the solution supports include ordering and distribution, customer order fulfilment and markdown planning.

PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
Recommends replenishment actions, omni-channel distribution, fulfilment and inventory optimization – including optimizing key metrics such as GMROI, sell-through and eliminating lost sales opportunities due to inventory exceptions.

UNDERLYING DATA ANALYTICS:
Real-time inventory, continuous anomaly detection, demand-driven inventory forecasting, replenishment modeling, demand forecasting, trend forecasting, sentiment analysis, product affinities etc

OPTIMAL ASSORTMENT MIX FOR CATEGORY MANAGERS:
The Merchandise Analytics Platform helps buyers, category teams, supply chain and store managers tune inventory and avoid inventory exceptions.

The platform provides real-time information of potential out of stock situations and triggers purchase orders for stock, trigger automated intra-store transfers for stock replenishment and arrive at the optimum MBQ based on sales trends and sales forecasts.

Solution also recommends markdowns for excess inventory and streamlines the overall buying process.

OBJECTIVE:
Optimally and consistently price products across channels.

WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
The solution aids retailers price every SKU intelligently by analyzing a variety of factors that impact pricing such as age of stock, lifecycle stage, inventory count, sell through, demand, competitor price analysis, promotions or bundling. Based on these analytical insights, the optimal price is computed for each product. Not only does merchandise analytics recommend the optimal price, it also accelerates execution of pricing changes by automating workflows and integrating with other enterprise systems.

PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
The solution prescribes the optimal price for products in alignment with business objectives such as sales targets, profit goals or to achieve desired business outcomes such as projected margin lift or inventory uptake. This is made possible by using AI and advanced prescriptive algorithms. Pricing can be prescribed for different business contexts such as regular pricing, promotional offers, dynamic pricing for fast-moving consumer goods and markdowns for seasonal products.

UNDERLYING DATA ANALYTICS:
The solution provides pricing recommendations using advanced machine learning algorithms and does not require user intervention or supervision. Pricing is handled within specific business and industry scenarios, making pricing prescriptions more relevant, contextual and accurate. By invoking advanced algorithms, users can analyze all the relevant variables that impact pricing including sales trend, demand, event history, promotion data, inventory and orders data, seasonal data, competitive pricing data, weather data etc. The application self-learns and adapts pricing recommendations using machine learning to improve business outcomes over time for enhanced quality and accuracy of prescriptions.

OPTIMAL PRICING FOR CATEGORY MANAGERS:
The prescriptive pricing capability helps category managers and store managers optimize pricing for products across all channels based on the business context.

Category managers only need to specify business objectives and the solution will then evaluate relevant categories, sub-categories, stores, products, and brands that affect the business outcome, analyze them and recommend optimal pricing for every product. The solution also provides additional flexibility to simulate other possible outcomes easily and make appropriate decisions if required.

Once the appropriate price is determined, it also helps accelerate execution of the price change with automated workflows and price products consistently across all channels for better customer experience.

OBJECTIVE:
The right promotion for the right product at the right price.

WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
The solution helps drive promotion planning, buying (e.g. OTB and markdown buying) etc.

PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
Recommendations on the products to promote, where to promote (channel/store) and the optimal promotional price for each product.

UNDERLYING DATA ANALYTICS:
Enabled by sales and inventory forecast models, price elasticity models, association mining for promotion bundling, competitive price and event modeling.

PROMOTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS:
The Merchandise Analytics platform recommends

  • The most efficient campaigns marketers must run
  • Identifies products for the campaign
  • Identifies the best time to run the campaign
  • Identifies duration of the campaign
  • Identifies pricing for the campaign to ensure high ROIs and margins.

OBJECTIVE:
Driving a superior customer experience.

WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
Merchandise Analytics manages and optimizes all store-specific functions.

PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
Re-order, replenishment, manage inventory, fulfilment, create the right promotions and markdowns/ liquidation etc. These actions are available on-tap through an intuitive mobile application.

STORE OPERATIONS:
Merchandise Analytics improves Ops teams’ efficiency by prescribing tasks like

  • The number of tills to be opened based on expected sales
  • Prescribe products to be replenished based on potential
  • Avoid OOS situations by triggering alerts at the right time
  • Identify regional or local preference for products based on a variety of attributes like color, size and styles
  • recommend higher sell thru for products in relevant stores

The platform recommends products with high product affinity for bundling and uses planogram directors for placing proximity within store. It also provides store Managers with recommendations to move slow moving products to a fast selling area of the store.

  • Customer-centric Assortment

    OBJECTIVE:
    Personalize assortment based on channels preferred by your customers; that can be localized to the stores your customers shop in.

    WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
    Platform aids assortment planning (both pre-season and inseason), allocation, supports new product introduction, visual merchandise/space planning, defines your private label strategy.

    PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
    Actions geared towards optimizing key assortment metrics like sales growth, gross margins and inventory turns. It includes products to bundle, markdowns, products to keep or drop.

    UNDERLYING DATA ANALYTICS:
    Demand forecasting, trend and sentiment analysis, product affinities and substitution modelling or product rationalization.

    SMART INVERTORY MANAGEMENT:
    The Merchandise Analytics Platform prescribes an appropriate, profitable and localized assortment mix.

    Category Managers can continually optimize the product mix by recommending products to be dropped, retained, replaced or substituted.

    Category Managers can also identify complementary products that can be bundled based on purchase patterns, linkages and cross sell opportunities.

    The platform also suggests products for markdown with the ideal markdown rates, percentage and expected sales uplift.

    Additionally, it can recommend appropriate price points for products that are slow movers based on external factors and internal data.

  • Omnichannel Inventory & Fulfilment

    OBJECTIVE:
    Maximize availability of inventory and minimize total cost of inventory.

    WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
    Helps retailers drive higher customer satisfaction and more convenience. Other goals the solution supports include ordering and distribution, customer order fulfilment and markdown planning.

    PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
    Recommends replenishment actions, omni-channel distribution, fulfilment and inventory optimization - including optimizing key metrics such as GMROI, sell-through and eliminating lost sales opportunities due to inventory exceptions.

    UNDERLYING DATA ANALYTICS: Real-time inventory, continuous anomaly detection, demand-driven inventory forecasting, replenishment modeling, demand forecasting, trend forecasting, sentiment analysis, product affinities etc

    OPTIMAL ASSORTMENT MIX FOR CATEGORY MANAGERS:
    The Merchandise Analytics Platform helps buyers, category teams, supply chain and store managers tune inventory and avoid inventory exceptions.

    The platform provides real-time information of potential out of stock situations and triggers purchase orders for stock, trigger automated intra-store transfers for stock replenishment and arrive at the optimum MBQ based on sales trends and sales forecasts.

    Solution also recommends markdowns for excess inventory and streamlines the overall buying process.

  • Pricing

    OBJECTIVE:
    Optimally and consistently price products across channels.

    WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
    The solution aids retailers price every SKU intelligently by analyzing a variety of factors that impact pricing such as age of stock, lifecycle stage, inventory count, sell through, demand, competitor price analysis, promotions or bundling. Based on these analytical insights, the optimal price is computed for each product. Not only does merchandise analytics recommend the optimal price, it also accelerates execution of pricing changes by automating workflows and integrating with other enterprise systems.

    PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
    The solution prescribes the optimal price for products in alignment with business objectives such as sales targets, profit goals or to achieve desired business outcomes such as projected margin lift or inventory uptake. This is made possible by using AI and advanced prescriptive algorithms. Pricing can be prescribed for different business contexts such as regular pricing, promotional offers, dynamic pricing for fast-moving consumer goods and markdowns for seasonal products.

    UNDERLYING DATA ANALYTICS:
    The solution provides pricing recommendations using advanced machine learning algorithms and does not require user intervention or supervision. Pricing is handled within specific business and industry scenarios, making pricing prescriptions more relevant, contextual and accurate. By invoking advanced algorithms, users can analyze all the relevant variables that impact pricing including sales trend, demand, event history, promotion data, inventory and orders data, seasonal data, competitive pricing data, weather data etc. The application self-learns and adapts pricing recommendations using machine learning to improve business outcomes over time for enhanced quality and accuracy of prescriptions.

    OPTIMAL PRICING FOR CATEGORY MANAGERS:
    The prescriptive pricing capability helps category managers and store managers optimize pricing for products across all channels based on the business context.

    Category managers only need to specify business objectives and the solution will then evaluate relevant categories, sub-categories, stores, products, and brands that affect the business outcome, analyze them and recommend optimal pricing for every product. The solution also provides additional flexibility to simulate other possible outcomes easily and make appropriate decisions if required.

    Once the appropriate price is determined, it also helps accelerate execution of the price change with automated workflows and price products consistently across all channels for better customer experience.

  • Promotions and Markdowns

    Objective:
    The right promotion for the right product at the right price.

    WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
    The solution helps drive promotion planning, buying (e.g. OTB and markdown buying) etc.

    PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
    Recommendations on the products to promote, where to promote (channel/store) and the optimal promotional price for each product.

    PROMOTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS:
    The Merchandise Analytics platform recommends

    • The most efficient campaigns marketers must run
    • Identifies products for the campaign
    • Identifies the best time to run the campaign
    • Identifies duration of the campaign
    • Identifies pricing for the campaign to ensure high ROIs and margins.
  • The Dynamic Store

    OBJECTIVE:
    Driving a superior customer experience.

    WHAT MERCHANDISE ANALYTICS DOES:
    Merchandise Analytics manages and optimizes all store-specific functions.

    PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION:
    Re-order, replenishment, manage inventory, fulfilment, create the right promotions and markdowns/ liquidation etc. These actions are available on-tap through an intuitive mobile application.

    UNDERLYING DATA ANALYTICS:

    STORE OPERATIONS:
    Merchandise Analytics improves Ops teams’ efficiency by prescribing tasks like

    • The number of tills to be opened based on expected sales
    • Prescribe products to be replenished based on potential
    • Avoid OOS situations by triggering alerts at the right time
    • Identify regional or local preference for products based on a variety of attributes like color, size and styles
    • recommend higher sell thru for products in relevant stores

    The platform recommends products with high product affinity for bundling and uses planogram directors for placing proximity within store. It also provides store Managers with recommendations to move slow moving products to a fast selling area of the store.

Use cases by role

For the CEO or the CEO’s Executive Assistant, access to business insights is as simple as having a conversation.

With Manthan’s conversational UI, all you need to do is ask. And you get answers to business queries, instantly. From anywhere.

All, just by asking a question in natural language, without dependency on analyst or IT teams. And, all information becomes real-time.

Analysts now have an advanced analytics platform powered by AI, for ad-hoc analysis.

The platform also offers best-of-breed discovery toolset for analysts to explore and discover insights on the data platform. And a self- serviceadvanced analytics workbench to program and score a set of pre-built models for specific business use cases.

Merchandise Analytics is industry’s most comprehensive data platform. It combines retail enterprise with thridparty data sources and with 100s of pre-built metrics and KPIs to track and measure retail business performance.

Business users have personalized, rolebased analytics for daily needs and daily use. You have access to the following::

Guided Analytics – Analytics storyboards with guided flows for structured analysis.

Prescriptive Analytics – Delivered seamlessly in a user-friendly fashion from unsupervised, autonomous analytic models running in the background.

All of this with on-demand, interactive rich data visualizations with comprehensive self-service capabilities.

  • Executives

    For the CEO or the CEO’s Executive Assistant, access to business insights is as simple as having a conversation.

    With Manthan’s conversational UI, all you need to do is ask. And you get answers to business queries, instantly. From anywhere.

  • Analysts

    The platform also offers best-of-breed discovery toolset for analysts to explore and discover insights on the data platform. And a self- serviceadvanced analytics workbench to program and score a set of pre-built models for specific business use cases.

    Merchandise Analytics is industry’s most comprehensive data platform. It combines retail enterprise with thridparty data sources and with 100s of pre-built metrics and KPIs to track and measure retail business performance.

  • Business Users

    Business users have personalized, rolebased analytics for daily needs and daily use. You have access to the following:

    Guided Analytics – Analytics storyboards with guided flows for structured analysis.

    Prescriptive Analytics – Delivered seamlessly in a user-friendly fashion from unsupervised, autonomous analytic models running in the background.

    All of this with on-demand, interactive rich data visualizations with comprehensive self-service capabilities.

    Promotional Effectiveness:
    The Merchandise Analytics platform recommends

    • The most efficient campaigns marketers must run
    • Identifies products for the campaign
    • Identifies the best time to run the campaign
    • Identifies duration of the campaign
    • Identifies pricing for the campaign to ensure high ROIs and margins.

Why Merchandise Analytics?

Here are 6 critical reasons Merchandise Analytics works for you.

Automate Key Merchandising Decisions

Automate decisions across Assortment | Buying | Inventory Pricing | Promos

Understand Outcomes

Optimize decisions based on outcomes understand and validate the impact of recommended actions

AI-powered Analytics Platform

Comprehensive data management capabilities | pre-built machine learning, deep learning algorithms | natural language interface to interact with data

Auto-detect Patterns and Outliers

Auto-detect patterns and outliers from within data (structured and unstructured) and surface them for you to action.

Eliminate Delays

Platform prescribes the right action at the right time, eliminating delays in decision-making | helps you act at the appropriate time

Ease of Implementation

The power of Cloud and AI ensures that your data is delivering insights and recommendations in days. Not months.

How Merchandise Analytics Works?

Continuous insight-driven actions for a continuous competitive edge.

Recommendation

Based on business objectives, your role and by taking into account factors that impact the outcome, get continuous recommendations and prescriptions for data-driven actions.

Validation

Validate and fine-tune the results by verifying factors affecting the outcome, simulating effect of changes on the variables, collaborating results with other stakeholders.

Action

Merchandise Analytics does not stop at insights or even recommendations. It helps automate actions, communicate decisions through automated workflows and write backs to the system.

How soon can you be on?

The power of Cloud and AI can have you benefitting in days!

Switch-on in days

Over 14 years of domain experience, us understand retailer issues and challenges.

This has helped us hone our Merchandise Analytics implementation.

Streamlined integration

Pre-built connectors, APIs, pre-defined processes for data integration

sound ETL to make data available in warehouse for consumption and analysis

For Everyone

The solution is architected primarily for business users, hence ample selfservice and on-demand help is available

this accelerates adoption

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