A practical guide to the metrics that separate profitable products from shelf-space squatters — from margin mix and SKU velocity to pricing elasticity and promotional lift. Learn to calculate each metric, interpret it in retail context, and avoid the margin-share trap.
Topics and managerial frameworks covered in Product & Retail Analytics: Measuring What Sells:
Students manipulate these interactive visual simulations directly inside the chapter reading before answering gated check-in questions:
Lets users set a base price, base quantity, and elasticity value, then see how demand, revenue, and profit change with a price adjustment. Draws a simple demand-revenue chart using canvas.
Users enter baseline units, promo-period units, post-promo dip, promo cost, unit margin, regular price and discount — then see gross lift, net lift, cannibalization-adjusted lift, promo ROI, and breakeven lift.
Users enter data for 3-5 stores (sqft, traffic, transactions, average transaction value); revenue follows as transactions x ATV (traffic x conversion x ATV). Calculates Rev/Sqft, Conversion %, ATV, and a composite score.
Users enter 3-6 products with revenue and COGS. Calculates margin %, revenue share vs.
This chapter connects directly to these full MktPraxis analytical apps (with pre-loaded business case scenarios, CSV upload, and reproducible Python export):
Find which products are bought together, and tell a real pattern from a coincidence, before you plan a bundle or a cross-sell. Confidence flatters popular items and lift flatters rare ones.
Estimate demand curves, find revenue- and profit-maximizing prices, and compare pricing strategies side-by-side. Upload your own data or explore built-in scenarios.
Pre-loaded Business Scenarios: Bean & Brew: Premium Coffee Subscription Box · TaskFlow Pro: B2B Project Management SaaS · SkyWest Regional: LAX–SFO Route Optimization · Urban Threads: Seasonal Discount Strategy · IronCore Fitness: Monthly Membership Pricing · StreamWave: Premium Streaming Service Launch · Alder & Vine Spa: Pricing Experiments via Daily Deals · HarvestTable: Premium Condiment Shelf-Price Test · Marlowe Riptide: What's the Right Single-Game Ticket Price? · AdArchy: A Card Game Born of Spite
Merchandise a 2D retail shelf or cooler with physical facings, stacking, and depth capacity, diagnose stockout censoring and zone endogeneity in 52 weeks of POS history, and test your plan against four benchmark plans in a 13-week quarter simulation.
Pre-loaded Business Scenarios: Cooler Wars — Quad Mart at Halbrook State University · Aisle 9 — Copperpaw Pet Supply (6-Ft Dry Dog Food Gondola)