SAS® Intelligent Clustering for Retail Maximizes Sales, Margins and Inventory Productivity

Software Enables Customer-Centric Merchandising Through Tailored Local
Assortments
EXPO, N.Y.--(Business Wire)--
Now more than ever, retailers hoping to thrive must become more customer-centric
by delivering an assortment of merchandise that reflects local customer demand.
The most efficient way to achieve that goal is to plan unique assortments for
store clusters. Clusters are groups of stores that share similar characteristics
like store format, customer demographics, and store performance rankings.
Accurately and efficiently identifying significant store clusters that could
benefit from unique assortments requires sophisticated analytics like those
found in SAS® Intelligent Clustering for Retail, a new product from SAS, the
leader in business analytics.

Integrated with SAS® Merchandise Assortment Planning, the new software automates
the identification and profiling of store clusters that warrant tailored
assortments. This makes it easier for retailers to migrate from traditional
store segmentation practices that rely on sales volume and climate similarities,
to the use of advanced, demand-based store clustering that is required for
tailored local-market assortments. SAS Intelligent Clustering for Retail also
improves assortment accuracy by allowing retailers to move from a single set of
store clusters to the use of unique cluster sets for each product category.

The benefits from improved tailored local market assortments include:

* Increased revenue and margin from assortments that better meet local customer
demand.
* Improved inventory productivity from reduced distributions of low-demand
products.
* Heightened merchandising team awareness of previously hidden strategic
business drivers such as customer demographics and product preferences.
* Enhanced planning efficiency from the use of predefined and automated software
routines combined with seamless integration with SAS Merchandise Assortment
Planning software.

Designed for bricks-and-mortar store buyers and planners that sell any type of
merchandise -- from apparel to groceries -- SAS Intelligent Clustering for
Retail is available now in conjunction with SAS Merchandise Assortment Planning.
For more information, contact Sandy DeFelice at 1-617-513-3710 or
Sandy.DeFelice@sas.com.

SAS retail customers include AutoZone, Bakers Footwear, Brooks Brothers, Burger
King, Cabela`s, Carrefour, Casino, Casual Male, The Children`s Place, Eddie
Bauer, Hallmark, Hudson`s Bay Company, JCPenney, Kohl`s, Luxottica Retail,
Macy`s, Mark`s Work Wearhouse, Marks & Spencer, Northern Tool & Equipment,
Office Depot, Sainsbury`s, ShopKo, Spiegel Brands, Sport Chalet, Staples, Tesco,
Tween Brands, Williams-Sonoma and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.

For more information about SAS® Retail Intelligence Solutions, visit
http://www.sas.com/industry/retail. SAS is demonstrating its retail intelligence
solutions at the NRF 98th Annual Show and EXPO in Booth 1337.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest
independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative
solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more
than 45,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better
decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE
POWER TO KNOW®.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered
trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries.
indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of
their respective companies.Copyright © 2009 SAS Institute Inc. All rights
reserved.

SAS
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Office: 214-349-6296
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Copyright Business Wire 2009