Attribute

Analysis

A product attribute is a product characteristic or feature relevant to the customer’s reaction and/or
decision to purchase an item which is not already captured in your product hierarchy structure.
Attributes often describe or define:
• Brand
• Collection (name)
• Color
• Silhouette or style
• Material or composition (e.g., leather, nylon, pvc)
• Price Tier (e.g., Good/Better/Best)
• Fashionability or Lifestyle (e.g., Trend, Classic, Contemporary)

The structure of your product hierarchy will influence what

attributes you need to define as you usually don’t need to
duplicate this information.
For instance, if Brand is a level in your Product Hierarchy,
there is no reason to have a separate attribute to identify
Brand. However, if Brand is NOT part of your product
hierarchy, it is likely a critical feature of the product, and
you need to have a way to track performance and make
decisions based on items that share a Brand attribute.
Product attributes are defined and assigned to enable you to gather performance information based on
the dimensions you need to analyze your business and make future decisions.
Once you have attributes defined and assigned to each item, you can run attribute analyses to help you
understand business performance and create insights to apply to future assortment plan and purchase
decisions.

Creating Attribute Analysis

Attribute analysis is essential and will show you the mix by attribute in your assortment for different
measurements and KPIs.

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Some of the measures you are going to want to see for each attribute will include:
During Assortment Planning/Purchasing During In-Season Management and Post-Season
Review
• Number of styles or items • Number of styles or items
• Mix of styles or items (vs. total assortment) • Mix of styles or items (vs. total
• Purchase value and/or units assortment)
• Mix of purchase value and/or units • Purchase value and/or units
• Average selling price • Mix of purchase value and or units
• Initial Mark-Up % • On Hand inventory value and/or units
• Mix of On Hand inventory value and/or
units
• Total sales
• Mix of total sales
• Sell-Thru %
• Average Selling Price
• Initial Mark-Up %
• Realized GM% (after markdowns)
• On Order value or units
• Mix of On Order

As these elements indicate, the heart of attribute analysis is mix analysis. You want to have visibility into
how you intended to represent each attribute in your assortment, as well as the relative performance,
or how each attribute contributed to your overall business performance.

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How to Interpret and Use Attribute Analysis
Attribute mix analysis helps you spot imbalances
and gives you insights into how you can shift your
assortment targets and purchase investment in the
future to increase the availability of high-demand
attributes and/or fill any gaps in your current
assortment.
For example, during Assortment Planning, set mix
targets for at least a few critical attributes based on
your strategic vision and assessment of opportunity.
Let’s say you’ve determined you want your
assortment in a particular subgroup to be no more
than 30% in core colors (black, white, navy), or that
you want your handbag business to approach 40%
tote, 30% hobo and the remainder split among the
other silhouettes.
As you select your product and make your purchase
decisions, periodically run attribute analysis and
compare with your initial targets to ensure you are
creating an assortment mix aligned with your vision and best assessment of what will drive sales.
Once the product has arrived and is selling, continue to use attribute analysis to better understand what
is driving your sales and where you have opportunities to chase in-season or to incorporate into future
assortment plans and buys.
For example: It is mid-season, and you run attribute analysis based on your price tier attribute
(good/better/best). Based on your sell-thru and current on-hand inventory, your sales mix in the
“better” tier is far outperforming your original purchase mix. Further, the average selling price and
delivered gross margin indicate that this is not being driven by discounted sales.
You can use this information in at least two ways. First, look for ways to
chase business at this price level. Can you re-order into product at these
price points? Can you delay or cancel any promotions or markdowns that
are coming up for these items?
Second, you may want to increase the target mix of this price tier in future
assortment plans to ensure you make a sufficient investment in goods at
these price points.

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