Merchandise Performance Analysis and Response Training

Learning Outcomes

• Analyse merchandise performance using relevant sales, inventory, and margin data.
• Evaluate product performance against key performance indicators such as sell-through rate, gross margin return on investment, and stock turn.
• Identify underperforming and overperforming merchandise categories and propose corrective actions.
• Implement response strategies including price adjustments, promotions, markdowns, and stock redistribution.
• Monitor the impact of response actions and adjust plans based on ongoing performance analysis.
• Document merchandise performance analysis and response actions for reporting and continuous improvement.

Target Audience

Retail managers, merchandise planners, buyers, and inventory controllers who are responsible for monitoring and improving product performance in a retail environment.

Prerequisites

None — open enrollment

Course Outline

Practicals

Overview

Practical sessions provide hands-on experience in analysing real-world merchandise data using Excel and retail analytics tools. Learners will work through structured exercises to calculate KPIs, create visualisations, and develop improvement strategies, reinforcing theoretical concepts.

Practical Activities

• Excel Data Manipulation and KPI Calculation — Learners use sample sales and inventory data to calculate key KPIs such as sell-through rate, GMROI, and stock-to-sales ratio using Excel functions. (4h)
• Data Visualisation and Trend Analysis — Using Excel charts and dashboards, learners visualise sales trends, seasonality, and outliers to identify performance patterns. (4h)
• Category Review and ABC Analysis — Learners perform an ABC analysis on a product category and evaluate lifecycle stages to recommend assortment adjustments. (4h)
• Strategy Development and Action Planning — Based on analysis results, learners develop a markdown optimisation plan and an inventory rebalancing strategy for an underperforming category. (4h)

Summatives

Each delegate is assessed continuously throughout the course via daily exercises, scored practical assignments, and a final summative test at the end.

Practical Assignments — 30%

Practical assignments are observed and scored against a rubric during the practical sessions. Each delegate's practical mark is averaged into a single 100% score and contributes 30% to the final total.

Daily Exercises — 20%

Every training day ends with a multiple-choice exercise scored out of 100%. The scores from each daily exercise are averaged across the duration of the course to produce a Daily Average mark, which contributes 20% to the final total.

Final Test — 50%

On the last day a final summative test is written. It is a multiple-choice paper with multiple-answer questions: each question may have more than one correct option, and a single wrong selection on a question marks the entire question wrong — no partial credit. The final test is scored out of 100% and contributes 50% to the overall mark.

Final Total

Component	Out of	Weight
Practical Assignments (rubric-scored)	100%	30%
Daily Average (multiple choice)	100%	20%
Final Test (multi-answer multiple choice)	100%	50%
Final Total	—	100%

All marks are recorded on the AATICD LMS and visible to each learner under their account.

Certificate

How it works

• Certificates are auto-generated on the AATICD LMS as soon as the marks pass the 50% threshold.
• Each certificate is a branded PDF with the delegate's name, the course title, the unit standard ID, NQF level, credits, and the date of issue.
• You can download or print your certificate from your LMS dashboard at any time after issue — there's no reissue fee and no expiry date.
• If you scored under 50% you can sit the final test again at the next scheduled session at no extra cost.

Where to find it

Sign in to the LMS, open your dashboard, and your certificates appear under My Certificates. Each entry has a View / Download button and a print option.

Training Discounts

Group discounts apply automatically — the more delegates you enrol, the greater the saving. Discounts are calculated at 3% per 5 delegates, scaling up to 40% off for 100+ delegates.

Delegates	Discount
5	3% off
10	6% off
15	9% off
20	12% off
25	15% off
30	18% off
50	30% off
75	35% off
100	40% off

3% discount per 5 delegates, up to 40% off for 100+ delegates. Contact us for a custom group quote.