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Price tips

4 min read · #masters · #pricing · #products · #catalogue

Which products get a tip

The price of a master product is the same in every shop that sells it, so aiku looks at the days of stock of each organisation and averages them by how much each organisation sold in the last year. An organisation that sells most of the product counts most; one that sells little of it hardly counts.

A product is flagged for one of three reasons:

  • Over 18 months of stock, sales falling: 540 days of stock or more, and sales down 40% or more on last year.
  • Running out, selling faster: under 30 days of stock, sales up 25% or more on last year, and nothing on the way from suppliers or partners.
  • Selling worse than its family: the family holds up (down 10% at most) while this product is 50 points or more behind it, with at least 120 days of stock.

Only products with real sales are flagged: at least 500 in the group currency over twelve months. About 500 of 20,000 master products carry a tip at any time.

Some products never get a tip:

  • products that sold nothing in the last two years;
  • new lines, which have no last year to compare with;
  • products whose price someone changed by hand in the last 30 days;
  • products whose tip was turned down in the last 30 days;
  • too much stock when the website is the problem (pages offline, missing images, or the family's page losing visitors): the column then says what is wrong with the website;
  • the Aroma master shop.

When stock and sales look normal the last column stays empty. When a product is left out for another reason, the column says why in grey, for example No tip: price changed by hand on 7 Oct, no new tip for 30 days after that, No tip yet: new, on sale for 30 days or No tip: the cost on record is above the price, check the cost. The last one means the cost of the product is wrong and should be corrected.

What a tip shows

On the Pricing tab, the last column shows the reason in amber, for example Over 18 months of stock, sales falling. Click it to read the facts, one per line:

  • days of stock, and stock on the way;
  • sales against last year;
  • days the product was out of stock;
  • the margin over cost and the usual price in its family;
  • offers running on it;
  • where it stands in its family (rank, share of family sales, family trend against its own);
  • how the website is doing;
  • the last price change and how sales moved in the three months after it.

There is no percentage and no Apply button. A tip is a pointer, not a price.

Tips are worked out again every night. If the stock or sales change, the tip changes or disappears.

Deciding the price

Prices are usually set for a whole family at once, so look at the family, not only at the flagged product. You can:

  • edit the prices on the same Pricing tab, one product or many at once, as always;
  • or review the family with your AI assistant. Ask it, for example, "review the prices of family ABC in master shop aw". It reads stock, sales, margins and past price changes for the whole family and discusses them with you.

Once you have decided, the assistant can save the prices for you. It shows the old and the new price of every product first and saves only after you confirm. You give prices in the main currencies; the other currencies follow by exchange rate, except those set by hand, which are left alone. Every save is kept in the AI changes log with your name and your exact request, and can be reverted there.

Saving prices through the assistant needs the switch Can change master prices through their AI assistant, which an administrator turns on in the user's edit page, on top of edit access to masters.

Turning a tip down

If a tip is not relevant, click it, then Not relevant, and write why, for example "Christmas stock, sells in December" or "clearing this line". The reason is kept with the product and is shown to whoever reviews the family next, your AI assistant included.

A product whose tip was turned down gets no new tip for 30 days.

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