Styles are the building-blocks of a successful retail operation. Knowing which styles are fashionable and buying accordingly is the beginning of any retail system that will deliver robust sales.

Every Style you carry will be one entry in the Styles Catalog. This chapter will explain every field in the Styles Catalog. Before you begin, make sure you have read the Catalogs topic for an explanation on how catalogs work.

Photo: Use the XpertImage™ tool to add a photo to the Styles Catalog. Adding a photo allows you to print out sales & stock reports with photos, making it easier to quickly identify best-sellers. The photo you add here will appear in the Items Catalog next to every item belonging to this style. You cannot add photos via the Items Catalog so be sure you do so here. Also, the photos you add to the Style Catalog are used by the XpertMart™ Web-Store application.

Name: Enter the name of the style in this field. There is no limit to the number of characters you enter. Because XpertMart™ runs on a relational database, there is no need to include further information in this field (such as a vendor or size run). You only need to enter the name of the style. 

Purchase Description: This is an optional field where you can enter an alternate name for the style, such as the name used by the vendor which may not be as exciting. For example, the vendor may refer to this sandal as the "SM562-9910" sandal which is not very attractive, so you rename the sandal the "Serena". You can configure the printer drivers so that the Style Name is printed on everything the customer sees (Bar code label, Invoice, List of Styles, etc.) and the Purchase Description is printed on everything the vendor sees (Purchase Order, Receipt, Return Receipt, etc.)

Order Cost: Enter the cost to order the style. The order cost is only used as a reference which may or may not be used by the individual items belonging to the style. The actual cost of an item (the Inventory Cost) is determined by the cost entered in the Receipt. To learn more, refer to the Costs topic.

Price and Cost to Item: If you select this checkbox, XpertMart™ will automatically use the List Price and Order Cost of the style for every item belonging to the style. If you do not select the checkbox then you will have to enter a List Price and Order Cost for every item individually. Unless your prices and cost are different for particular sizes or colors, using this checkbox will save you a lot of data-entry time in the Items Catalog.

Margin: This is a read-only field. XpertMart™ automatically calculates the Margin (by subtracting the Order Cost from the List Price) and displays it in this field.

Percent Margin: Another read-only field which displays the margin as a percent of the List Price. If you have a particular traget margin in mind, such as 55%, it can be useful to enter different values in the Order Cost and List Price fields and watch the Percent Margin field change with every entry until you've calibrated the cost and price to fit your target margin.

List Price: Enter the List Price for the style into this field. The List Price is not the final price of a style, it is merely used as a reference that each item belonging to the style may or may not use. The final price appearing at the point of sale may change depending on the price list you are using, and whether you are using quantity prices or dated prices. Think of the List Price as the starting point from which you can derive other price variations. To learn more, refer to the Prices topic.

Non-Inventory: Select this checkbox if they style is not an inventory or physical item. Use this checkbox for such services as repairs and cleanings that have no impact on the inventory when you sell them.

Discontinued: Select this checkbox if the style has been discontinued. You can filter out discontinued items when you run certain automated restocking processes or when you run reports showing current styles for sale.

Liquidation: Select this checkbox if the style is being liquidated. You can filter liquidation styles to apply a special price list to them and to exclude them from automated reordering processes.

Sales Statistics: XpertMart™ can be configured to automatically display sales statistics for the previous week and four-week period. For more information, refer to the Sales Statistics topic.

Tax Type: This subform is a Lookup By Example menu whose contents are entries of the Tax Type catalog. Select the appropriate tax type for the style. The final tax appearing at the point of sale is combination of the tax type of the style and the tax zone of the store. To learn more, refer to the Taxes topic.

Size Matrix: You use this subform or drop-down menu to select the Size Matrix you will use to build the XpertMatrix™ for this style using the XpertMatrixAdd™ tool.

Department: Use this subform to assign the style to a department. Refer to the Departments topic to learn more about the importance of categorizing styles into departments.

Second Size Matrix: Use this subfrom to select the Second Size Matrix you will used to build the XpertMatrix™ for this style using the XpertMatrixAdd™ tool.

 
Vendor: Use this subform to select the Vendor of the style.

Season: Use this subform to assign the Style to a Season. This field is optional but it is often useful to define discreet seasons that styles belong to. For more information, refer to the Seasons topic.

Brand: Use this subform to select the Brand of the style. While this field is optional, tracking your sales by brand is a very important part of understanding which styles are popular.

Material: Use this subform to select the Material(s) the style is made of. This field is optional but can prove useful when making future purchases. While some styles may be discontinued by their vendor, you can predict which styles might be popular in the coming season by tracking which materials and brands have proven to be recent best-sellers.

Collection: Use this subform to assign the style to a collection. This field is definitely optional and provides a way to group styles that belong to different departments. For example, you can group a pair of sandals, a skirt, a blouse and a purse all in the same collection. When the customer buys an item from the collection, you can quickly make recommendations of other items she might be interested in.

Notes: This is a text area with no limit to the amount of Notes you can enter. The notes area can be used by salespeople in your store who are asked about a style to get more information to the customer. The text appearing in the Notes area is used by the XpertMart™ Web Store application as a description appearing next to the style photo online.

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