September's Milan Fashion Week (MFW) was where all the classic Italian designers came out to parade their collections for Spring/Summer 2015 (SS2015). This was a week where big brand names like Armani, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana came to the fore – internationally-known premier fashion labels that have huge resonance both online and offline.

We dug into the social chatter around MFW and found insights which could make a real difference to brands and retailers looking to decide what kind of clothing lines they should present to consumers next year.

Milan Fashion Week: Insiders VS Influencers

As usual for the Italian show, the powerful fashion label Armani was dominant. In terms of general social media chatter and the fashion critics, Armani came out first and second respectively. This was to be expected – after all Giorgio Armani is Italy's most famous fashion designer – and his SS15 collection was generally well received.

However, there are brands which are either talked about on social media or by fashion critics, but not both. One of these labels was Marni – critics could not stop talking about its flower-power dominated SS15 collection, but the clothes didn't receive much attention on social media generally.

This could possibly be due to the nature of Marni's clothing which is very much ready to wear – The Guardian described Marni as "less red carpet, more art gallery opening, and all the more loved for it."

Fendi is a brand on the luxury end of the scale, which is why it wasn't a favourite of the critics but second top designer in terms of social media. This was helped by famous models that attended Fendi's show, of which internationally famous and sometime controversial fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld is creative director.

Kendall Jenner of ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ fame walked down the catwalk, while the most famous active model in the world right now Cara Delevingne appeared, important because she has been quite selective in the international fashion shows she appeared in this year.

Fashion in Color

For colours, social media chatter was driven by black and white, as well as blue. According to critics top-to-toe blue is a big trend for Autumn/Winter 2014, and Armani's SS15 collection indicated that this trend was likely to continue with its 'sea' collection showcasing a number of clothes that sported varying shades of blue.

The 'black' conversation was driven by Dolce and Gabbana, which presented a Spanish themed collection that that had the brand's signature black quite prominent. In the past D&G has been known for creating items like black-lace dresses, as well as black bras worn by celebrities as famous as Kylie Minogue and Madonna.

Another interesting brand to look at was Moschino, the third top social media designer behind Armani and Fendi, and which drove a lot of chatter around the colour pink. This was because of its 'Barbie Girl' themed collection, which caused quite a bit of stir – not all of which was positive!

Moschino's Creative Director Jeremy Scott sent his models down the Milan runway in Barbie doll inspired dresses to the sounds of Aqua's 'Barbie Girl' song. The show was even opened by a model dressed exactly like a doll that had been gifted to audience members.

Fashion Week Movers and Mentions

As well as social media attention, labels like Armani, Fendi and Dolce and Gabbana inspired love. As well as carrying lots of blue, Armani's sea inspired collection drew a lot of praise over its clothes where "everything was in muted tones and in the best of taste."

Hello Experts,

could you please tell me the way to create a new article by copying from an existing article such that the Reference Material number (and other consumption data) is also copied to the new article?

I created a new article from an existing one using the report RWRFMATCOPY but when I check the newly created article in MARC, the field VRBMT is empty.

Appreciate your help.

Regards,

Shakul.

P.S. Points will be awarded for helpful answers as well.

Hi,

Thank you for you reply.

Can anyone help me with transaction code of inventory in SAP IS-Retail which will be helpful to me to create data validation.

Thank you in advance.

Thanks & Regards

Gopi Krishna Potteti

Mobile:+91 9741042296

Hi Experts

Here comes a technical requirement in POSDM due to POS functionality constraint.

Client wants to perform transaction receipt number gap check and duplicate check. My understanding is that POSDM would perform these checking for only one POS transaction type (in this case, say for example, all sales transactions) and will not perform this gap check together with other transactions. (say if i only assign the tasks for checking to the sales POS transaction)

However, client's POS will transfer all types of transactions (including sales, z-read, login, logoff, etc) using THE SAME sequence, meaning the transactions can be like below:

#001: sales

#002: customer return
#003: login

#004: product enquiry

#005: sales

Are there any way / configuration that I can use to fulfill this requirement?

Many thanks in advance!

Best Regards

Dom

Hi,

Thank you in advance.

Can anyone please give me merchandise hierarchy table name in SAP IS-Retail which will be helpful to me in creation of data validation report.

Thanks & Regards

Gopi Krishna Potteti

Mobile:+91 9741042296

HI Experts

This is my 1st job here and i have no idea as to where to start

it would be great if any one forwarded some documentation for how to generate test scenarios in SAP retail project

I have come across views such as these

we are using HP QC as of now .

please provide any information as to how to go about this. we are also doing QA for Advanced Analytics

Thanks

Hi Gurus,

How to check application log contents for idocs failure for more than one idoc. I understand that we can check the log content in MM90,but i have to check for more than 1000 idocs, kindly suggest a solution.

Regards

Palani Paramasivan

Would you be surprised if I told you that the percentage of high school students reporting computer literacy has been declining since 1999? According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology, 17% of surveyed high school students reported no computer science school work at all, and 60% of these students were girls.

In spite of these distressing numbers, recent data gives some reason for optimism – female representation among students with programming experience has increased  from 42% in 1999 to 60% in 2013.

Why are these statistics mentioned? Well it just so happens that my own company’s future depends on women leaders to develop STEM based skills.

During the SAP Retail Forum on October 7^th, I had the chance to observe several key sessions that relate to developing the next generation of technology workers and leaders.

BTECH Design Thinking Workshop

Have you heard of BTECH yet? Well you will, as an increasing amount of schools are popping up around the country that focus entirely on STEM education. BTECH just so happens to be supported by SAP, as a move to help the U.S. and Canada to develop next gen talent. We sat down with SAP employees, customers, and partners in a design thinking workshop to figure out ways to improve the school’s facilities, amenities, and curriculum.

GenYouth Business Ideas

GenYouth is an amazing organization that combines child health with entrepreneurial development. How does that work, you ask? The genius in the mission of the organization is that the children are the ones that come up with ideas for future programs.

On the afternoon of October 7^th, there were 4 groups that were paired with a young person from GenYouth. The groups collaborated and refined their business ideas, and ultimately the young go-getters had to present in front of Alexis Glick, CEO of GenYouth.

After all 4 team leaders (aka youth from GenYouth) presented their ideas, Alexis and a team of judges contemplated and ultimately awarded the winner with a plaque and bragging rights.

Women Account for a $20 Trillion Worldwide Market

Now we come full circle to a panel of women, who, with the right education, ambition, and networking, have risen to the top of their fields to be leaders. They are essentially what students at BTECH and participants in GenYouth aspire to be, so it’s rewarding to see what the potential is for 2 extraordinary programs.

We were graced by the presence of 4 extraordinary women leaders from PepsiCo, Gilt Group, Brooks Brothers, and SAP. All had unique stories to tell, but this bullet list sums up the key statements:

• With the rise of digital, mobile, and social, all departments in a company need to work together. Silos will destroy your business, but women have an advantage in being highly collaborative.
• Expressing your ideas and being confident about them makes your gender irrelevant
• Companies who have at least 3 females on their board produce 80% more revenue than companies that do not. This would back up the hypothesis that diversity is good for business.
• When driving cultural change at your company, evaluate your leaders not only on their ability to generate business results, but an equal amount of weight on developing their people. It’s a 50-50 split.

Whether you’re a young person looking to develop your skills for the future, or you’re a leader hoping to empower the next generation of talent, it’s pretty clear that the epicenter of everything starts in the education systems. If we get education right, we will build resilience into our business models.

Click on the respective links to learn more about SAP’s involvement with BTECH and GenYouth.

I leave you with some very compelling stats in this infographic from the National Environmental Education Foundation on the future impact of STEM related jobs:

Hi

In Migo, our users scrap articles using movements 551/552 together with a specific reason code.  The GL account differs depending on what reason code is selected.  I need to change the GL account for one of these reason for movements, but cannot see exactly how to do this.  I can see the account modifiers in OMJJ and GL assignment in OBYC and have run a simulation in OMWB, but it looks to me to relate to the movement type and not the specific reason code.

I am quite new to this area and would really appreciate some guidance on how to change a GL account for a specific reason for movement.

Many Thanks

Simon

Fashion and Technology Go hand in Hand at London Fashion Week

How is technology in the form of digital and social analytics reinventing fashion designing? Peter Akbar provides a compelling view

The Power of Positive Expectations - A Taxi Driver's Lesson for Retailers

What can retailers learn from a taxi driver about delivering an amazing customer experience? find out from Lori Mitchell-Keller

Meeting the Demands of the Omnipresent Omnicustomer

Joerg Koesters gives us the customer's view and her expectations of retailers and how only 1 in 10 retailers are ready to serve the omnicustomer

Hello Expert,

we are listing  materials by wsm3.if we are adding new site to assortment, again do listing on a site by wsm3, the article is listed (records found in Table WLK1) but MARC entry is not getting updated. system version :SAP ECC 6.0 EHP6.

Best Regards,

ziqi

Hi

I am trying to upload Merchandise category and hierarcy using LSMW (BAPI/IDOC method only).

For merhcandise category

I used message type W_WGRP and it is helping me in changing or reclassification of articles. But I am not able to create new merchandise category with this. I used structure E1BPE1WGR01  with "function" field with value "005, LSMW is working fine idocs are created successfully but no new Merc Cat is created.

When I used same structure with "function" field with value "009" I get error message "Class XXX does not exist or or is not valid on this date".

For Merchandise Catrgory Hierarchy

I used idoc CLSMAS but getting error message "Keyword missing for class XXX"

has anybody uploded entire hierarchy structure using LSMW ?

Hello Experts,

could you please tell me the way to create a new article by copying from an existing article such that the Reference Material number (and other consumption data) is also copied to the new article?

I created a new article from an existing one using the report RWRFMATCOPY but when I check the newly created article in MARC, the field VRBMT is empty.

Appreciate your help.

Regards,

Shakul.

P.S. Points will be awarded for helpful answers as well.

Paris Fashion Week (PFW) has an iconic place in the international clothing trade show calendar, with catwalk shows held in historic venues such as the Louvre and Grand Palais. PFW brings the curtain down on the big four international fashion weeks (the others being New York, London and Milan) showcasing the clothes that we could see in stores for Spring/Summer 2015 (SS15).

Social media can give us a great insight of what is hot and not at a modern day fashion show, in real-time. We analysed social data that came out of PFW to find out which looks, trends and indeed celebrity stardust drove conversation. And with this information, retailers looking to fill their clothing racks next year are armed with the data they need to stay ahead of the competition.

Insiders VS Influencers

At a show such as PFW, the conversations critics such as fashion bloggers are having can be very different to the chatter being driven widely on social media. But it's important to understand both, as they will provide insights for retailers and brands valuable in drawing up their clothing lines for SS 2015.

For critics, the top designer was Chanel, a brand with a huge amount of history and a larger-than-life creative director in Karl Lagerfeld. He came up with a headline-grabbing 'feminist protest' show at the Grand Palais, led by model-in-demand Cara Delevingne and complete with placards carrying feminist slogans. Other models at the show included Gisele Bundchen, Georgia May Jagger and Kendall Jenner.

Chanel was also in the top five when it came to general social media chatter, but number one was Givenchy, which had a show that wasn't on the radar of critics. Talk around Givenchy was largely due to a celebrity couple which came to dominate much of the social chatter at PFW this year – Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

As well as the celebrity couple gracing their presence on the Givenchy front row, they also brought along their one-year old daughter North West, wearing a custom-made Givenchy outfit. Kimye and daughter also came along to fashion whiz kid Alexander Wang's Balenciaga show, hence its position as fourth top designer on social media, and @Balenciaga number three position in the top PFW Twitter handles.

Fashion in Colour

For a retailer looking to prepare clothing lines for SS15 next year, an appreciation of what colours will be in fashion next year is very important. From analytics we saw at PFW, black and white were popular, followed by metallic silver and grey. An example of black’s popularity was with Givenchy's collection, with Riccardo Tisci going for a 'gothic' and 'new romantic' styling for some pieces, which included leather, lace, grommets and corsetry. On the other hand, Christian Dior's show was heavy on white fabric.

Fashion Week Movers and Mentions

Although some would dismiss Chanel's feminist 'protest' as a publicity stunt, many viewed the message as a strong positive. The actual Chanel SS15 clothing collection drew positive feedback, with its combination of classic Chanel looks and street fashion drawing a lot of praise. And although Givenchy's show was dominated by Kardashian-West headlines, it was described as a 'powerful' collection of clothing.  

Although missing the spark of celebrity that only the Kimye circus can bring, Christian Dior's collection also drew a combination of high critical praise, large amounts of social media conversation and positive sentiment. People loved Dior's collection (including shoes and bags), while a catwalk show at the Louvre showcased a spectacular 'invisible runway' thanks to clever use of mirror reflection.

The strong showing by Chanel and Christian Dior was reflected by the popularity of their Twitter account handles and hashtags – @Chanel and @Dior scored the top two Twitter handles, while #diorlive and #chanel were both in the top ten hashtags.

Fashion Week Show-Stoppers

Celebrity power on social media was also illustrated by the spikes Kim Kardashian caused in social chatter during PFW. She appeared at the Lanvin show near the beginning of the week, driving high conversation and negative sentiment, possibly due to a particularly revealing open blazer she was wearing. A similar spike occurred during her appearance with husband and baby at Givenchy's show.

Although designer Alexander McQueen didn't show up particularly highly in overall mentions and sentiment overall, it did receive a big spike of editorial and social conversation near the end of the week thanks to a 'breathtakingly complex' number of pieces, as well as the presence of a twin pair of Marc Quinn orchid sculptures which dominated the catwalk.

Another designer of note was Jean Paul Gaultier, known for his couture fashion style and unconventional pieces such as Madonna’s infamous cone bra. He had his last ‘ready to wear’ fashion show during the middle of PFW – this was one of the most talked about and liked shows of the day, with 2,240 mentions and 100% sentiment.

Who and what will you be wearing?

The long-running link between celebrity and fashion was illustrated through Kim Kardashian and Kanye West – at whatever show they appeared at, they dominated social conversation. But good fashion designers understand the power of celebrity. Many of the bigger fashion shows sit big stars on the front row – you can almost guarantee their presence will be highlighted on social media and in news outlets

.

But social analytics driven by fashion and celebrity is still highly valuable to retailers as it really captures what's hot and what's not in real-time – many articles in magazines and websites now urge readers to ‘copy the looks’ of the famous. And with this data they can hopefully pick the right clothing lines to grace our favourite shopping stores in 2015.

Find out more by visiting our fashion week infographic page.

On October 7^th and 8^th the 2014 SAP Retail Forum was held at the historic Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Over the two days, SAP and its partners offered attendees informative design thinking workshops, thought leadership sessions, and retailer panels and presentations.

Here is a recap of the event.

DAY 1

Day 1 of the Retail Forum kicked off with a morning design thinking workshop on Investing in Consumer Insights. Participants discussed customer case studies and viewed product demos showing how the SAP HANA Customer Activity Repository (CAR) rapid-deployment solution can cut costs, increase inventory visibility, and reduce software complexity.

During the afternoon, two corporate social activities brought business leaders and bright young students together for some thought provoking design thinking workshops.

During the first session, retailers and students from BTECH, a new technology focused early college business high school based in Queens, New York brainstormed on how to build the Technology Workforce of the Future.

Up next, students from GENYOUth, a non-profit arm of the NFL and partner of SAP, pitched ideas to the group about what the Retail Store of the Future should look like. Participants gave students feedback on their ideas and coached them on how to turn their visions into reality.

The last session on Tuesday was the Women’s Leadership Panel. SAP’s Lori Mitchell-Keller opened the session with remarks about the Network for Executive Women in Retail and Consumer Goods and the launch of the Business Women’s Network. Lisa Walsh, SVP of Sales, PepsiCo then discussed the future of women’s leadership in retail. Debbie Hauss, editor-in-chief at Retail TouchPoints concluded the session with a panel discussion on the progress women have made in the retail business, challenges ahead, and what women executives do to achieve their goals.

DAY 2

Pat Bakey, EVP and Global GM Retail, SAP opened day two of the Retail Forum with a keynote session on the New Reality of Retail. Bakey said disruption is the new reality in retail and consumers are the source of change. Retailers are challenged to keep up with the rapid pace of disruption, but the risk of not jumping on the opportunities that exist is too high to ignore. By focusing on customers, retailers can knock down barriers to success and overcome complexity.

Matt Laukaitis, SVP and GM, U.S. Retail, SAP spoke next about Innovation for Retailers. Lukaitis said to thrive in an omnichannel environment, retailers need to focus on the why and the how instead of the what. When customers engage they expect companies to walk the walk. Retailers need to innovate and iterate quickly to thrive and extend the brand experience.

Stephen Dubner, Author of the international best-sellers Freakonomics, Superfreakonomics, and Think Like a Freak had everyone getting their freak-on with a thought provoking keynote on A Different Approach to Managing Data and People. Dubner said retailers shouldn’t use data to find declared preferences of consumers. To get ahead retailers need to use data to find out their undeclared preferences. In other words, retailers need to figure out what customers want before they do. Dubner also said new data and analysis can upset the applecart internally. Organizations need to adapt quickly, redefine the problems they are trying to solve, and ignore conventional or accepted barriers of the past. He also said to soak your buns in warm water - but if you weren’t there you won’t get it.

After Dubner’s keynote, Laukaitis and Katie Meyer, SAP Retail, Pre Sales demonstrated how some of SAP’s new solutions can be applied to the retail industry. Meyer demonstrated a concept application that could be used by an in-store sales associate at a fashion brand. The mobile concept app puts a 360 degree view of real-time customer information and preferences, sales history, client appointments, social media feeds, and more in palm of the associate’s hand.

After lunch, forum participants enjoyed a customer panel on Optimizing the Consumer Experience Across Channels and Devices, moderated by Brian Kilcourse, Analyst, Retail Systems Research. Panelist included: Mark Simmons, VP of Marketing and e-Commerce, Design Within Reach; Charles Nicholls, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, SeeWhy; Steve Fournier, Sr., Chief Customer Officer, Discount Tire Company; Andrea Weiss, CEO and Founder, Retail Consulting Inc.; Pat Bakey, EVP, Global Retail, SAP.

Weiss said people always talk about improving the supply chain in retail but the last mile in the store is between the associate and the customer. Some retailers are planning to have fewer stores but make them more entertaining to improve the customer experience. Simmons said Design Within Reach has reduced its store count by more than 50% and sales are higher. He also plans to improve the connection between store associates and customers with advanced digital tools. Fournier said his customers expect Discount Tire to know them well and that his sales team needs to be viewed as a trusted adviser. Weiss noted that the changes coming in retail will cause significant transformation of organizational structures and increase interaction at the C-level. Bakey said retailers need to proactively assess their organizational readiness and prepare to act.

Lori Mitchell-Keller, SVP and Head of Global Retail IBU laid out the Retail Solution Roadmap for participants. An overview of recently released innovations and enhancements in the SAP for Retail solutions was provided, as well as insight into what’s planned for the future.  Mitchell-Keller said the shopping journey of every customer is unique, complex, and cuts across channels. The SAP for Retail solution portfolio aims to make everything available via the cloud, enable a mobile first experience, integrate real-time processes, and run everything on SAP HANA. Customer Activity Repository, Fashion Management Solution, and Merchandise Assortment Planning with a Fiori user interface were hot solution topics.

During the afternoon three breakout tracks were offered to participants:

• Fashion and Department Stores
• Food, Drug, and Convenience Stores
• General Merchandise and Hardlines

I attended the Fashion and Department Stores track.

Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief, Retail TouchPoints and Sahal Laher, EVP and CIO, Brooks Brothers Group, Inc. led a session called, Keeping up with the Speed of Fashion in an Omnichannel Marketplace. Laher said customers just want their stuff - so why do retailers still think in channels? To get ahead, retailers need to understand and react to customers faster than their competition. Laher also said speed is critical in retail now more than ever and companies need to look closely at business process not just IT for improvements. One of the ways Brooks Brothers is using SAP to simplify its processes is by standardizing its master data globally and making it accessible across all stores.

Sebastian DePreneuf, VP of IT and CIO, Glasses.com at Luxottica Group talked about Fulfilling the Promise of Optimized Omnichannel Inventory. DePreneuf’s battle cry is “simplify to reduce complexity”. Over the years, rapid growth through acquisition created a complicated business and IT landscape across the company and made omnichannel impossible. By implementing SAP, Luxottica gained a platform of rationalization said DePreneuf. A single global view of master data was obtained and a common repository of business intelligence simplified reporting worldwide. DePreneuf said the added flexibility of SAP supported growth, improved manufacturing management, and enabled the company to react quickly to post-recession sales patterns. Next, Luxottica plans to implement the new SAP Fashion Management Solution, which will simplify the crossover between its retail and wholesale operations and improve its Omnichannel strategy.

Jim Fields, VP, Customer Experience Marketing, SAP and Bob Many, VP, Platform Solutions Group, SAP led an interesting session on Retail in the Big Leagues. Sports leagues such as the NFL and NBA and teams such as the San Francisco 49ers and the German National Football team are using SAP software to improve operations and the fan experience. Big Data insights and mobility are powering a new class of personalized fan experiences on-line and in the stadium, improving player performance on the field, and optimizing sports management. Fields and Many revealed the similarities between the sports and retail industries. They demonstrated new technology SAP has developed for sports and how a few forward thinking retailers are experimenting with it to get closer to their “fans” and improve sales.

Overall, SAP Retail Forum 2014 was an informative and entertaining experience that brought together leading retailers, thought leaders, and IT vendors. Hope to see you there next year!

Other SAP Retail Forum content you might like:

Check out this cool collection of Tweets from the SAP Retail Forum curated by Mohamed Amer

STEM Workers Earn 26% More - Women Leaders Should Take Notice by Nick Robinson

i have a query and hope could find an answer for that here.

let us assume that big bazaar is implemented SAP and now there are thousands of customers around the India everyday everyday walking into big bazaar outlets and buy the needs in cash sale process. so now my question is how they create invoices for all those thousands of transactions in to SAP....?  And if they they create all those invoices how long does it takes? and how many end users they need to do so? and how about the data base space? how about servers performance?

is it really possible to create invoice to all those transactions if so is there any short cuts?

thanking you in advance.

Hi,

I want to disable sending delete status if article is delete listing. During assortment change, some of the stores are not existed in new assortment. But the items still available to sell in these stores. If I activate the change pointer, the delete status will send to POS. Pls advice. 

Hi guys.

I'm actually working with new UI bonus buy.

The big difference I find with the old transaction is to define bonus buy with scales.

I want to define a promotion named 30-60

If the customer buy 2 articles from an article group, he gets on the second product 30 percent off but if he buys one more article, he gets 60 percent off over the third article.

How can I define this promotion in the new transaction??

Regards and thank you

Hans

Hello Experts,

I have a requirement to maintain Site Master Hours of Operation specifically for Holiday Hours has any one configured this functionality?

I have reviewed the calendar functionality using transaction SCAL and am able to assign public holidays to the logistical calendar and assign the calendar to the site. I now have the need to specific opening hours to each of these holidays for example Memorial day will have hours of operation for a site that is normally open 8:00am to 8:00pm but for this given day it will be open from 9:00am to 6:00pm. Does this functionality exist?

The table WRF1 contains the opening hours so I do not see an entry being maintained here unless multiple entries can be made for single site.Please know that we are currently leveraging the time key to populate the hours of operation based on the store's regular Opening Hours.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thank you,

Joseph DeMoya

hi,

I am in need of report in bi which reflects pay in, pay out, safe drop, safe withdrawal etc.

from pi -> posdm , standard create_ext proxy is used.There are nearly 4 data sources like 0RT_PA_TRAN_MOV_FIN, 0RT_PA_TRAN_CONTROL,0RT_PA_TRAN_TOTALS,0RT_PA_TRAN_GDS_MOV have been used in current system.

Transaction types are already created and mapped from pi.

I just want to create new cube on top of any datasource to build report on it.Can anyone suggest which datasource has to be used for this type of report and what basis the proxy splits data to these datasources?

I am not sure whether anyone among these two can be used( 0RT_PA_TRAN_CONTROL,0RT_PA_TRAN_MOV_FIN) or it s purely random choice