Method and apparatus for distribution of fashion and seasonal goods - US Patent 7155402

Method and apparatus for distribution of fashion and seasonal goods - US Patent 7155402

1. A computer-implemented method for adjusting a retail location-product specific selling profile for a product, the computer-implemented method including: collecting on machine-readable memory a multitude of retail location-product specific selling profiles that record daily or more frequent historical data for sales, the historical data reflecting at least random variations in sales, systematic variations in sales due to day of the week and day of the year, and systematic variations in sales due to any promotions benefiting the retail location; maintaining on machine-readable memory a retail location promotions calendar that includes historical data that tracks promotion of the product at the retail location by effective dates and by type of promotion and a corresponding estimated systematic variation in sales caused by the type of promotion; repeatedly for a plurality of products across a plurality of retail locations, retrieving the retail location-product specific selling profile for a selected historical period; accessing the retail location promotions calendar data and identifying any promotions that benefited the retail location during the selected historical period; and automatically adjusting the historical data in the retail location-product specific selling profile to reflect the estimated systematic variation in sales caused by the promotions of the product at the retail location using at least the identified promotions from the retail location promotions calendar; and storing to machine-readable memory the automatically adjusted historical data.