What it is
Compare discounts is Tightly Pro's side-by-side of one product at its current price and at up to six discounts, over dates you pick inside a Commitment's window. It shows what each depth does to demand, revenue, gross profit and the margin floor, on the measured price response. The discount forecast is what a saved comparison becomes when you apply it to the working demand plan. Neither ever changes a price in a store or sales channel. It is part of the pricing engine.
It opens in three places: a variant's Price section, Trade the week's Price tab, and Discount scenarios, the Discounts switch on a Commitment's scenarios.
The pooled price response behind it
One item cannot measure its own price response, so the engine fits it over a pool: the item's family, else category, else the whole book. It reads two years of weekly units against the item's own price after discount, fills weeks with no sale at the last known price, and holds each item and week steady so a slow seller or a bad week is not blamed on price.
The fit counts as measured only when its own error is small enough and its range rules out no effect at all; otherwise it is folded toward a published starting point and the comparison will not answer a depth from it. A depth deeper than the pool actually trades in, with five points of slack, is refused off the item's original ticket (its compare-at price where it stands above the current price, else the current price), never off today's price, so it is judged on total depth from full price. Demand still moves off today's price; only the refusal reads the ticket.
These products do not trade deeper than about {n}% off, so a {n}% cut is outside the range we have measured and the estimate carries no information there.
For a style already on sale:
These products do not trade deeper than about {n}% off, and this style is already {n}% off its ticket, so a further {n}% takes it {n}% off, outside the range we have measured, and the estimate carries no information there.
When a fit is made
A page never makes a fit. Opening a comparison, Work the buy or Trade the week requests one when none is held or the held one is over a day old. The scheduled job Refresh requested pooled price fits runs every two minutes, taking at most two requests a pass, a minute each. A fit is served for seven days; one the book could not make stands for six hours before it is asked again. Until one is held the comparison says Price response not available yet, and Work the buy and Trade the week read:
A measured price response is not available yet. It uses two years of trading; check again later for the result. No elasticity is assumed while it is unavailable.
While a fit the book could not make still stands, they read instead:
The price response could not be measured, so no elasticity is claimed for it. Nothing here is estimated from a default.
What the comparison shows
Pick a Commitment, a product and its channels, a From and a To date (today or later, up to 366 days, inside the window), and type the discounts, for example 5, 25, 50. Rows: Price, Unit gross margin, Expected gross margin, Demand, Extra demand, Forecast sales · stock limited, Forecast revenue, Forecast gross profit, Stock remaining, Expected profit change, Margin floor (Below floor, Within floor or Not assessed) and Stock cover now (Short or Covered). Where no stock outcome can be worked out, Potential revenue and Potential gross profit stand in for the forecast sales rows. Demand starts from the demand forecast at today's catalogue price, in your catalogue's currency; stock is today's, excluding receipts still to land.
Where a depth cannot be measured the line says why, for example Insufficient price history for a measured discount response or Demand forecast incomplete. Under Forecast inputs, type your own baseline units and a demand uplift per discount, or, where a fit exists but is not measured, choose Use model estimate.
From a comparison to a decision
Anyone who can edit Commitments can name a comparison, pick one discount and press Save draft. Request approval turns the draft into a markdown proposal on the Markdowns page, from the comparison's start date. Approve and Reject follow the Markdowns rules; both Request approval and Approve are refused if the figures changed since the draft was saved:
The saved comparison has changed. Save and review a new comparison.
The discount forecast
Apply to demand plan opens Apply discount forecast, which reads:
Updates the working demand plan for this product and these dates. Selling-channel prices are recorded separately.
It writes the discounted daily demand into the Commitment's working demand plan, and the company outlook values it without counting it twice. It is refused if the comparison, the daily forecast or the plan has moved since you reviewed it. Restore previous plan puts back the forecast held just before. Once a markdown is approved, Record applied price and Record restoration log that the change was made in your sales channel or ERP, with its reference; Tightly still writes no price.
Glossary line
Compare discounts: one product at its current price and up to six discounts, on the measured price response.