The number and type of products carried by retailers for purchase by consumers is defined as an Assortment of products. In sales promotions, assortment is a collection of different items collectively sold out in a Promotional Offer.

Assortment can be created by collating specific items on the basis of their barcode numbers or on the basis of certain criteria which is reusable.

Although product assortments can be used for various purposes, the concept finds clearer application in sales promotions. Promotions are generally not run on single items. So, to provide any promotional benefit on any item, the intended promotional item needs to be part of an assortment which will be tagged to the promotion definition.

Important

Note: An item (barcode) may be part of more than one assortment. In that case, it will work according to the priority of the promotion and its allocation.

Types of Assortments

Assortments can be assigned four distinct types with different functionalities for Promotion-

Buy - This is the assortment from which the customer must make a purchase for the promotion to be applicable. For example when the customer purchases 2 T-shirts from a particular assortment, he may get a 50% discount on a pair of jeans from another assortment. Then the Assortment of T-shirts becomes a Buy assortment.

Get - This is the assortment from which the customer will get the benefit when the promotion is applicable. For example when the customer purchases a bed sheet worth INR 500 or above from a particular assortment, he may get a set of pillow covers free from another assortment. Then the Assortment of pillow covers becomes a Get assortment.

Both - This assortment can be considered for both buy and get functions. For example when the customer buys 2 T-shirts from assortment (A1), he may get a 50% discount on a pair of jeans which is part of another assortment (A2). Again when he buys 2 pairs of the jeans from the same assortment (A2) he may get a third pair of jeans at a 20% discount. So the assortment A2 is considered as a get assortment in the first promotion and buy in the second promotion. Hence it can be considered as Both assortment.

Benefit Value- This is the assortment from which the customer will get the benefit when the memo level promotion is applicable, for example when the customer makes total purchases worth ₹500 to ₹ 799, he may get either a crystal mug or a decorative item or a door-mat free. But if he buys ₹800 to ₹ 1199; then he gets a set of crystal bowls or a diffuser or an exclusive flower-vase and artificial foliage free. Hence, it is defined slab wise and is available with the assortment include tab. Then the Assortment of predefined set of items becomes a Benefit Value assortment.

Important

Creation of ‘Benefit Value’ type assortment would only happen through scan mode. All other assortment definition criteria would be disabled.
A new column “Benefit Value” would be available where barcode wise item benefit values have to be specified. This allows users to define a single benefit value assortment with items having multiple benefit values to cater to slab based promotions. Eg. Users can define a benefit value assortment of 10 items (BVA 1), in which 3 items are having benefit value of 100, 3 items having benefit value 300 and rest 4 having benefit value 500. When this assortment BVA 1 is tagged to a slab based promotion (SBP1), the various benefit values can be offered against various promotional slabs.
For buying Rs. 1000-1999 - Benefit value of 100 can be offered,
For buying Rs. 2000-2999 - Benefit value of 300 can be offered and
For buying Rs. 3000 onwards - Benefit value of 500 can be offered.

Add Assortments

Prerequisites

The users' role must have access to the Assortment feature by enabling Add app operation for the feature in Admin - Security - User - Role through POS Manager- Promotion - Manage.
The items must be present in the Item master.

Step-by-step guide

The steps are as follows:

Go to POS Manager > Promotions > Assortment. The Assortments module opens.
Click on the Add button. The Assortments window opens.
Fill in the details especially those marked as Mandatory like Assortment Name etc.
For the In promotion consider this assortment for field, select the necessary option from the drop down.

There are 4 options in the In promotion consider this assortment for field. The Buy option is used only for coupons.
In some cases, you might need to use the same assortments that are already part of some promotion or coupon. You can do so using the Copy Assortment button.
To copy Assortment, follow the steps below:
1. Click on the Copy Assortment button. The Advanced Search window appears.
2. Select the assortment you want to copy from the list.
3. Select the copy criteria from the Copy criteria from option.
  If you want to copy only the list of items included in the assortment, then select Include list option.
  If you want to copy only the list of items excluded from the assortment, then select Exclude list option.
  If you want to copy both the lists, then select Both option.
4. Once done, click on OK.
5. A dialog box appears asking you how you want to proceed with the copying.
  If you want to copy the list after the items that are already added, then click on the Append button.
  If you want to delete the items that are already added and add new items, then click on the Overwrite button.
  Copy Assortment will also copy below information from the selected source, if provided.
  - Batch/Serial No
  - Batch Valid Upto

In case you are manually selecting the items, under the Assortment to Include tab, click on the Add Row button.

While Assortment to Include tab contains items that will be part of the promotion, Assortment to Exclude tab contains items that will not be part of the promotion.

Impact of Batch Serial functionality on both Assortment to include and Assortment to exclude

Three new columns have been added in the grid- Batch/Serial No., Batch Valid From, Batch Valid Upto

Column Details:
- Batch/Serial No. - It is a disabled display field placed after barcode.
  - It is hidden by default. On selection, column will be retained in grid state.
  - Value is populated if provided in batch/serial window from various item selection modes.
- Batch Valid from - It is a date field and has been placed after the creation date. It will take any valid date, provided ‘Valid from’ < = ‘Valid to’
- Batch Valid to - It is a date field and has been placed at last after the Batch Valid From. It will take any valid date, provided ‘Valid to’ = > ‘Valid from’
  
  Note: Either both Valid from and Valid to is required or both could be NULL

Important error messages and alerts

Item and batch/serial combination must be valid, if invalid the following error message is shown - ”Combination of item and batch/serial is invalid.”

If duplicate items are found in grid along with Batch number - ”Duplicate record found.”

Same item is allowed in multiple rows only if batch/serial details exists against respective item rows. Otherwise the following alert is displayed - ”Multi rows exist for same item, batch/serial is mandatory.”

Items can be chosen by the following modes:

Function Name	Explanation
Scan Item	It allows the assortment creation by scanning items Batch/Serial impact in Scan Item Behaviour of this section would be similar to Scan item → Automatic mode with the following exceptions - Manual mode has been disabled. No checking of negative stock. No validation of Expiry Date. Set Scanning is not allowed. Behaviour based on options selected If item barcode is scanned: Two new windows (Batch selection window & Serial selection window) will open for batch or serial applicable items respectively with following exceptions to current workflow - Always a blank pop up window will open. Window will not have qty column because qty is irrelevant in this master form. Batch/Serial selection is not mandatory, if user clicks on Accept in such case only "icode" will get populated in the main grid. If Icode/OEM barcode + batch/serial information is scanned, and if invalid combination is scanned, the following error message will be shown, after clicking on OK button - “Item-Batch/Serial combination does not exist”. If batch/serial is scanned, and if batch/serial is scanned and only single product is available in it for delivery then populate the same and keep cursor on the last position. Otherwise if multiple products are available a new Item selection window will open. However the following exceptions apply: Always a blank pop up window will open. Window will not have quantity column because quantity is irrelevant in this master form. Batch/Serial selection is not mandatory, if user clicks on Accept in such case only "icode" will get populated in the main grid. Item selection is mandatory in this window.
Select Item	User can populate items from all pending orders by clicking on Select Items. Batch/Serial impact in Select Item After introduction of batch/serial functionality, a new window (Batch & Serial Selection window) will open for selection of batch/serial with items. Following exceptions are applicable Always a blank pop up window will open. Window will not have quantity column because quantity is irrelevant in this master form. Batch/serial information grid will always remain blank. Adhoc batch/serial input is required. Batch/Serial selection is not mandatory, if user clicks on Accept in such case only icode will get populated in the main grid. No validation of Expiry Date. Item and Batch_Serial Details
Show Item	User can view the selected item. In Item Information block, three columns are added - Batch/Serial No., MFG Date and Valid Upto. Above columns are in display mode, i.e. modification is not allowed. The column remains hidden by default. On selection, columns will retained in grid state.
Import Barcode	It allows the assortment creation by importing barcodes from text files or comma separated values (csv) files
Copy Record	It allows the assortment creation by copying records existing in the grid itself and will copy all attributes of the item other than the item code. This allows faster population of the items with similar attributes. Note: Only the selected record will be duplicated As per existing functionality, copy record will copy the selected row (including newly introduced batch valid upto) except for item barcode and batch/serial number.
Delete All	Using this button a user can clear all the assortments at a time. By clicking on the button you will get a message - "All the row(s) will be deleted, row(s) once deleted cannot be retrieved. Are you sure to delete?". If you click on Yes, all the assortment will be deleted.

Add items by selecting the Division, Section, Department etc. from the drop-down list.
Add more items in the similar process.
Important Alert

Note: Minimum one item must be added in an assortment.
If you want to exclude certain items from the promotion, then add those items in the Assortment to Exclude tab in the same process.
Important

This tab will not be available in case of Benefit Value assortment.
Once done, click on the Save button followed by the Close button.
Refresh the Assortments module. The newly added Assortment will be visible in the list.

Edit Assortment

Prerequisites

The users' role must have access to the Assortment feature by enabling Edit app operation for the feature in Admin - Security - User - Role through POS Manager- Promotion - Manage.
The assortment must be present in the Item master.

Step-by-step guide

The steps are as follows:

Go to POS Manager > Promotions > Assortment. The Assortments module opens.
Select an Assortment.
Click on the Action button. Select Edit from the menu.
We have two mandatory fields Assortment Name and In promotion consider this assortment for . But In promotion consider this assortment for is a non-editable field.
There are two tabs - Assortment to Include and Assortment to Exclude.
There are some buttons like Select Item, Scan Item, Import Barcode and Delete All. Through these buttons items can be selected by various methods.
At the right side we have a Description Box and a tab named Show Items.
The record can be made extinct by clicking the check box This record is extinct.
Click the Save button to save the changes.

Important

The following common attributes are used to define assortments -

Item ID
Barcode
Division
Section
Department
Article Code - Article
Category 1 to 6
Price Range Basis
Creation Date Range (Item Creation Date)

Item grid level Sort and Filter options are now available in Include and Exclude tabs of Assortment window from version 12.6.6 onwards

To go back to the main page click on the link :Managing Promotions through Ginesys POS Management

Types of Assortments

Prerequisites

Step-by-step guide

Function Name

Prerequisites

Step-by-step guide

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