Category: Assortment

Is Listing Mandatory in SAP Retail?

Listing in SAP Retail and Fashion is a pain point. After coming to grips with the art and effort of assortment management, you’ll find that execution of Listing is performance intensive. Maybe problematically performance intensive. Sooner or later, it begs the question: Is all of this really necessary?

Of course, the simplistic answer is: Yes, you have to. But this answer isn’t only unsatisfying. In some cases, it’s simply wrong.

If you’ve been given an explanation of Listing that more-or-less begins and ends with “it’s mandatory,” then press on. I’d begin with: What business purpose does this serve in SAP ERP?  Here’s a tip: Reject any generic or technical answer. You need to ask, very specifically: What business purpose does this serve for me, right now, in the context of my particular business processes? Why? Why? Why?

What is Listing in SAP Retail?

Is this Product authorized for business processes at this Location on this date?

In SAP Retail, Listing Conditions answer this simple question, but the complexity of producing the answer is massively underappreciated.

There are three main parts to the story: Data Management (business process), Execution (system process), and Listing Conditions (one result).  And then there are common exception scenarios to be handled.