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NextGen-Liberty HELP

Introduction

This Online Guide centers on the steps involved in adding and pricing items bought outright or taken on consignment from customers using the NextGen Pricing Application within the Liberty System.

Items are added in the Liberty Add Items/Add Inventory screen.

This Guide does not cover the many substantive issues involved in pricing; these are covered in  the complementary Buying Guide .  Nor does it cover the far larger number of features and functions involved in operating Liberty,, e.g. item lookup, reward plans,  new item purchase, product lookup, pay advance, … The more common features and functions are covered in NextGen’s Training; all are covered in Liberty’s on-line help volumes and are accessed by selecting [Help]  in the Inventory Module or POS Module menus.  

Item Entry

The [Add items] Screen is used to enter items being bought outright or taken on consignment.  The key fields into which item information is entered for pricing purposes are: Category, Brand (One of a number of “Attribute”fields) , Price, and Cost.

The Attribute fields (e.g. Brand, Size, Color, ..) will not appear until a Category has been entered.  Use the [Tab] key to Navigate between fields and the down arrows [\/] to move down the list the selction of Brands and Categories.    When the cursor lands in the Price Field, a message box will appear with price suggestions based on The 1) Category and 2) Brand.

Category

A List of the Clothing, Footwear, Jewelry and Accessory Categories may be viewed online by entering “Categories Women” in the Category field and pressing  [Checkit] .  To save or print the list, Press the PDF or Printer Icons on the Help page respectively.

Start keying in the Category name and choose from the dropdown list. As you enter each letter, the items matching the spelling will appear.  Once the category comes into view, Click it or press the [enter] key.

Brand

[Tab] to OR move the cursor to the next field, Brand.  Start keying in the Brand name and choose from the drop down list.  A small number of brands price their tops, footwear and accessories (most commonly purses and bags) categories at different levels than their other clothing categories. Where this is the case, the brand name is modified to parenthetically reflect category or set of categories to which it is to be applied–e.g., (tops), (ftwr) or (bags).

There are thirteen (13) brand levels (price levels) for each category, from the highest valued (1) to the lowest valued (13).  As a rule, levels 10-13 include lesser brands found in discount superstores online and off, local shopping centers & strip malls, levels  7-9 include brands found in department stores and shopping malls, levels 4-6, include high-end brands found in top department stores and boutique shops.  Levels 1-3 include designer brands and in a few cases, other bands with widespread pricing making the prices suggested unreliable and requiring on-line price checks.

Brands (labels) that are out of production are identified with the suffix (-x).  With the exception of vintage brands, which are best sold only online, labels that are out-of-production sell poorly and their presence on the sales floor can tarnish a store’s reputation.

Other Attributes

Other Attribute fields include Size, Color, and more.   However, the time required to enter other attributes such as pattern, fabric, material, … is  justified only when seen as pivotal to a sale.  Color can be helpful in identifying items when applying printed tags.  A brand entry  is needed to generate suggested prices, but as buyers come to know the prices to apply for commonly seen items, suggested prices aren’t always necessary.

To Arrive at a price in the absence of a label (i.e. brand name), the buyer may:

  • Assume that the brand is a deeply discounted “off-brand” or effectively so as the label has been removed.
    OR
  • Enter the numeric level (1-13) which is thought to represent  an item of like quality in the brand field to generate the suggested prices, once a price has been entered, delete the number from the Brand field and [Add Brand name];
  • Identify a brand likely to offer an item of similar quality, enter that brand in the brand field to generate the suggested prices, once the price has been entered, delete the brand name from the Brand field and [Add Item]; OR
  • Enter the name of a store likely to carry such an item into the keywords field (e.g. Bloomingdales) and use  [CHECKIT], NextGen’s item-specific on-line price utility [later explained], to help identify the “right” price for an item.

Adding & Editing Categories, Brands & Suggested Prices

NextGen updates prices and brands periodically via Teamviewer, or on request (as explained in the next paragraph).  Note: Soon, with NextGen’s coming PriceIt cloud application, updates will be done continually and remotely with no assistance is required from the Store.

To have NextGen add, change, or delete Categories, Subcategories Brands and prices suggested, enter “Category Action”in the Category field of the Add items screen, and complete the online Category Brand/Action form that appears according to the instructions.  NextGen will quickly respond.

NextGen may:

  • assign a corrected rating to the brand so that the next time it appears it will generate prices more in line with the Brand’s value, OR

if the Brand rating is found to be correct, but the brand often sells at a lower or higher average price than suggested, NextGen may:

  • append a minus (-) sign to the brand name indicating that the brand tends to carry prices lower than the suggested mid-price but closer to the suggested mid-price than to the suggested min-price, OR
  • append an asterisk (*)to the brand name indicating that the brand tends to carry prices higher than the suggested mid-price but closer to the suggested mid-price than to the suggested max-price OR
  • append a double minus ( –) sign to the brand name indicating that the brand tends to carry prices lower than the suggested mid-price and closer to the suggested min-price than to the suggested mid-price, OR
  • append two asterisks (**) to the brand name indicating that the brand tends to carry prices higher than the suggested mid-price and closer to the suggested max-price than to the suggested mid-price.

Important:  Currently any change in a brand rating is universally applied to all NextGen stores.  In the near future, Stores will have the ability to add or change categories, brands and suggested prices themselves w/o NextGen’s involvement

Brand Naming Convention

The Brand Naming Convention utilized by NextGen is outlined below:
NextGen supports the use of the following syntax when entering Brand Names.  It is designed to keep the # of characters under the 25-characters that can be printed on tags, to reduce the number of keystrokes required to find and select brand names, and to minimize the number of duplicate brands in the system with name variations.

Use initial caps unless the literal Brand Name is comprised of all Caps or lowercase

  • Use actual numbers, not their spelled out equivalents (e.g., 1, 2, …9, 1st, 2nd, 9th, specifically, 7 For All Mankind)
  • No spaces or periods between individual capital letters (e.g., LL Bean, JJ Crew)
  • Abbreviate but not the 1st word
  • Use symbols, with or w/o spaces before and after (e.g. &,/,’,#,…)

Note: The brand name will appear in the brand list once a rating has been added by nextGen.Brands

Suggested Prices

NextGen suggested prices appear in the Price field of the Add Items Screen, once the price determinants: Category and Brand have been entered.

A “max”, “mid” and “min” price is suggested in the “Price Field” for most items.   A “max” price is commonly used for new (never-used) items or for items, the properties (embellishments, composition, …) of which add value.  Conversely, the  “min” price may be used for items with inferior properties, e.g polyester.  The “mid” price is the suggested average price at which the item should sell, though it may be increased or decreased  (overwritten) by the buyer considering item properties and features mentioned above and a great many other factors discussed in the companion Buying Guide.

However, for some items  the prices suggested are labeled in capital letters “MAX”, “MID”, and “MIN”.  This is telling the user that the prices suggested prices may be off-base.  This is often the case for high end brands and for other brands where the prices range too widely for a reliable price to be suggested on a category basis.   A reliable price is best assured by utilizing NextGen’s item-specific online price utility [later explained] to better assure the “right” price for an item.

As a rule, Category prices for a particular brand are at the same relative level, occasionally Brands are found to carry prices at one level for some categories and at another level for other categories.  Where this is found to be the case, there are multiple ratings and corresponding prices for particular sets of categories or for individual categories with the category, the applicable category names appearing parenthetically as part of the brand name.  Where this is the case, select the brand name that includes the category name being entered in order to obtain the right suggested price.

In the final analysis, the Max, Mid and Min prices suggested are averages derived from resale and retail sales data.  While they are generally reliable bench marks, some may be reported as too high or low by participating stores  using the Brand Action Report later discussed.  This generally owes to market differences in the appeal of some categories and brands, or to the fact that the brand’s prices, while at the correct level, are consistently above or below the benchmark averages at that level.  Where the suggested price changes are consistent and not conflicting, they are indicated as a -, –, +, or ++ appended to the brand name indicating: the alternative price being suggested by some stores is lower but closer to the mid price than min price, lower and closer to the min price than mid price,  higher but closer to the mid price than max price, or higher and closer to the max price than mid price respectively.  Users may or may not decide to “right-price” accordingly.

Description   

Used only if necessary to inform the customer.  For instance, if a general category is selected, e.g. Clothing,  i.e., there is no fitting category, a description must be entered.  Descriptions may also be used to highlight properties of a garment, footwear, piece of jewelry or accessory  that may add or detract from its value.

Keywords

Key words may be entered in the Keywords field if prices are being checked online as later explained in the Online Checks section.  Note: At present, entries in the Keywords field do not save.

On-Line Checks

Time is money.  The Suggested prices save both by allowing buyers to quickly identify and enter the right price without having to guesstimate or troll the internet.

However, there is a place for on-line checks, not only for Pricing, but for Sizing, and foreign price conversion and categories list.  All are accessed using the [Checkit] button as described below.

Retail/Resale Price Checks

As indicated above, while NextGen’s suggested prices can be trusted for Mall and lesser brands, they are best checked for many of the higher-end boutique and all designer brands as the retail and resale price  ranges at which these items sell is quite wide–hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

To address this challenge, NextGen developed a more exacting online price checking utility that works within Liberty.  Rather than simply pricing by category, the [CheckIt] utility identifies retail and resale prices for item(s) with characteristics matching those of the specific item being priced.  While [Checkit] may be used to check prices for any brand, in the case of designer brands, the wide-suggested price ranges make it imperative.

To view retail and resale prices on a Google  shopping page, enter the Categoryin the Category field, Brand in the Brand field, and any Keywords  in the Keyword field that may help find price(s) of like item(s) to that being entered, and press [Checkit].  Keywords might include:

– Style variations, e.g. Jacket Outdoor category: parka, windbreaker, activewear…
– Composition, e.g. Jacket Outdoor category:  fleece, leather, …
– Line, e.g. Women, Juniors, Men, Plus size …
– Item name, e.g. where there may be no definitive Category, e.g. hair clasp, compact, luggage, nightgown, scrubs, …
– In the case of a ‘fine or fashion’ jewelry category, Vintage, Artisan, Gemstones, Sterling, gold, …

 Note: When retail prices for the brand are not shown in the Google Shopping page, Select [All] in the Google menu to explore a wider range of potential pricing sites on the Web.  Select [Images]
to search pictorially.  If retail prices for the brand cannot be found, try the Resale Pricing method described below.

Retail Price Checks

As a rule, women’s resale prices average between 25 & 35% of current retail prices found online for like items, higher for more popular items, lower for less popular (slow selling) items.  Resale prices for items that are new (never worn with tags) may be priced between 35 & 45% of current retail prices.  Resale prices for items no longer being offered at retail, e.g. non-current brands, may be priced at levels comparable to the resale prices at which they are being offered on-line, typically 10-25 of original retail prices..,. or better yet, refused.

Resale Price Checks

Sometimes current retail prices cannot be found for a particular category and brand.  This generally happens when a brand is no longer current, or when a brand is sold exclusively through boutique retailers whose prices are not posted online. NOTE: Brand names that are no longer in production are generally identified by a trailing -x In this case, NextGen advises against accepting the item as it can tarnish a store’s image.

But if the decision is to accept it,  resale prices may be used as online pricing referents.  Enter the Category in the Category field, Brand in the Brand field, and along with any other relevant descriptor(s), the name of the online store of interest, e.g. RealReal, Ebay, Thredup, … .  Avoid such sies as Poshmark where there is no consistent retail-based metric for setting prices. It dosn’t take long to learn which have the best selections of the items of interest.  These websites contain filters (brand, price, style, material) relating to the category of interest, allowing you to narrow your search to the most fitting item(s) and price(s).  In addition, to the prices of individual items, Ebay’s CheckAFlip tool https://www.checkaflip.com  and some others display the price range of the items found.  In the case of Ebay, be sure to filter in: 1) only the prices of items that are ‘used (pre-owned)’, and 2) only items that ‘have sold’.

Size Check

Enter “SzWmn” in the Category field, press [Checkit] and tables will appear allowing you to quickly convert apparel and shoe sizes to U.S.  For Women and Juniors.

Currency Check

In the case of items priced in other than U.S. or Canadian dollars, enter “Dollars” in the Category field, press [Checkit] and a page will appear allowing you to quickly convert a foreign currency to U.S. or Canadian dollars respectively.