Florham Park, NJ- March 18, 2002 - KSS, a leading supplier of revenue management systems for the grocery, drug store and convenience retail industries, today announces a major extension of its PriceStrat retail optimisation system to include promotions management functionality. Collaborative research with the grocery, drug store and convenience retail communities has illustrated the need to be able to evaluate the impact of promotional activity upon margin, profit, unit sales and price image. KSS are now actively testing the new promotions module with retailers in the UK and US in preparation for launch in Q3 of 2002.
The addition of promotions functionality to PriceStrat will allow retailers to plan, execute and measure promotions more effectively, with improved accuracy and therefore greater confidence by understanding their impact on consumer demand. Promotional events can be scheduled year-round and the impact of key variables on the forecasted sales lift of the promoted item(s), along with the cannibalisation/halo effects upon non-promoted items, can be analysed, for example, by promotion type, price, duration or advertising support. Forecasts of sales uplifts can then be used to enhance supply chain and inventory planning.
Multi-dimensional reporting enables retailers to evaluate proposed promotions against category goals and to track budget versus actual performance once implemented. Comprehensive "what-if" analysis empowers retailers to evaluate several alternative promotional scenarios, identifying the levers that deliver the most attractive payback, while also managing the everyday pricing of non-promoted items.
"Our grocery customers have been telling us that their ideal pricing solution should consist of both revenue and promotions management capabilities. We have acted on their advice by delivering the first phase of a comprehensive suite of promotions functionality within our PriceStrat solution," stated David Mushin, Chief Executive of KSS.
Greg Girard of AMR Research, in the Report on Retail October 2001, cites the following as areas of focus for retailers in 2002 - "They realize that increasing competitive advantage over the next 18 to 36 months requires the improvement of IT capabilities in how they manage promotions, price, assortments and space at the level of individual stores or clusters of fewer stores".
