Technology to help retailers alleviate profit-killing discounts

In the world of retail, it's no secret that the key to success is the ability to offer the right product to the right customer at the right price and at the right time.

But until now, few retailers have been able to consistently achieve this.

To remedy this, SAS, the leader in business intelligence has launched SAS Revenue Optimization - the first truly integrated revenue optimization product that helps retailers manage revenue and margin through the entire merchandise life cycle.

"The ability to make optimal pricing and promotion decisions in the pre-season planning process and continue to adjust and optimise in-season is a significant step in improving retail profitability," said Lori Schafer, president of Marketmax, a division of SAS.

"SAS allows retailers to continually analyse the data, leveraging forecasting and optimization technologies and provides the retailer with profit opportunities not available before."

SAS Revenue Optimization helps retailers maximize revenue and margins by precisely setting and managing regular prices, planning optimal promotions and executing the most successful markdown strategies, all within the context of total product life-cycle management. With the advanced data management, forecasting and analytic capabilities of SAS Revenue Optimization, retailers will no longer have to rely solely on gut instinct or historical analysis.

"SAS Revenue Optimization Suite allows retailers - for the first time - to analyse and optimise pricing in all areas simultaneously," said Schafer.

"In the past retailers were offered solutions that dealt with individual issues (e.g. promotional pricing or markdown optimization) and were not able to understand the dynamics among all the elements of pricing. It is virtually impossible to optimise one element of pricing unless all elements studied, forecast and optimised at the same time; this new solution provides retailers with this unique ability."