Searching the inventory
If you have not already done so, you will first need to start RetailDeck and open the search page. First, double click on the RetailDeck icon on your desktop to start RetailDeck
After RetailDeck loads, the welcome screen will display. Click on the "Search the inventory as ... " button to open the search page. Remember, the search page will also open after you manually download a deck.
When the search page first opens, it displays all of the products that are available to you. Products are sorted alphabetically by brand code (AKA manufacturer code) and then by model number (AKA part number) within the brand. For example, if your groups uses AIRT as the manufacturer code for Air Temp, and AMA as the code for Amana, all Air Temp product will display before Amana product because AIRT comes before AMA alphabetically. Within a given brand, say Air Temp, models will display in alphabetical order.
Every group's version of RetailDeck has different columns and search criteria on it. In fact, you can even customize what columns show up on your copy of RetailDeck. This tutorial uses a fake version of RetailDeck. In any case, it should look pretty similar to most versions of RetailDeck. Your search page should look something like this:
Most groups stock, or make available, many items. It is not uncommon for a group to have more than ten thousand models on their deck. Because their are so many models, it is important that we be able to quickly search these models for those we are interested in. RetailDeck provides a number of ways to quickly search models.
Lets say that we were interested only in models whose model number started with "abb". To show only models with part numbers that contain the letters abb, we would first click in the "Model Number" box, and then type abb. Note: your group may refer to model numbers by another name, such as part numbers. Regardless, the model number edit box is always the edit box in the top left. Furthermore, your group may also make use of SKUs. A SKU, or stock keeping unit, is a group specific number/letter designation assigned to each model. This differs from a part number: part numbers will be the same or, at least, very similar from group to group, an SKU is specific to one group. Model numbers come from manufacturers, SKUs come from buying groups. Groups that make extensive use of SKUs have another edit box (always underneath the model number edit box) that allows you to search by SKU.
OK, enough about SKUs: click in the "Model Number" box in the upper left.
Notice that a cursor will appear and begin flashing in the model number box. Type the letters abb. Notice that, as you type, the search results do not change. To actually perform the search we must either click the "Search" button or press the enter key.
After clicking the search button, the contents of the search view change so that only model numbers that contain the letters abb are shown. RetailDeck does not care where in a model number the abb appears. If you specify that only model numbers containing the letters abb are to be shown, a model number like ABB1921DEQ will show, but so will a model number such as JBBABB1921, because both contain the letters ABB somewhere within the model number.
Notice how some model numbers are hi lighted (in green or red) and some are not (the row that the model is on is white). Green, red and yellow hi lighting are used to indicate which model numbers are the subject of rebates. If a model number is hi lighted in green, then the model has a rebate on it. If a model is hi lighted in red, then model recently had a rebate on it that has expired. If a model is hi lighted in yellow, then the model will soon have a rebate on it. It works just like a traffic light: green means go (rebate is on), red means stop (rebate expired) and yellow means caution (rebate coming soon).
If there are more models then can be displayed on one page, there will be a scroll bar visible on the right side of the window. Dragging this scroll bar allows us to look at all of the items that match our search criteria. Go ahead and play around with moving through the search results by dragging the scroll bar.
All of the controls at the top the search window allow us to enter our search criteria. So far, by entering abb in the model number box, we have told RetailDeck to show only products whose model number's contain the letters abb. Lets say that we want to go back to looking at all of the model numbers available from our buying group. There are two ways of achieving this:
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Press the ESC key (its in the upper left of your keyboard)
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Delete the letters abb from the model number edit box and press the search button (or type enter) again
At any time on the search page, you can reset your search criteria (to show all items) by pressing the escape (ESC) key. Try it. After pressing it, you should see all items on the deck, just like we saw when we first opened the search page.
Lets say that we do not have a particular model number in mind, but want to only view products that fall into certain categories. For example, lets say that we want to see only electric ranges. We can do this by modifying our search criteria to only show items in a certain category. Note: different groups call their categories different things. Some groups actually have a field called category, others have major and minor classes, etc. By whatever name, however, categories are just as sweet. Lets go ahead and limit our search to only electric ranges. We select the category code (or major class code) that only contains electric ranges. In our demo version, we do this by clicking the "Major Class" drop down. This may be a bit different in your version of RetailDeck.
A drop down list of all of our group's categories of product will appear. Most groups have a category for electric ranges. Lets pick it, by clicking on it.
As soon as we click on it, our search results will change so that only electric ranges are shown. See below.
See those items that are hi lighted in gray? What does that mean? Some groups add hi lighting to their decks over and above the hi lighting of items with rebates. For XYZ corp (the version used to take these screen shots), gray is used to hi light sticky merchandise. For more information, see the item details tutorial.
To perform more complicated searches, we can combine search criteria. For example, lets say that we want to see only Electric ranges manufactured by General Electric. Since we are already looking at only electric ranges, we can just add the condition that items be both electric ranges and be made by GE. To do so, we simply select General Electric as our manufacturer by clicking on the manufacturer (some groups call it Brand) drop down box.
After clicking on the drop down, you will see a list of all of the brands that your group carries. Select General Electric (or any other brand you are interested in) from the list.
After doing so, the search results will only show electric ranges made by GE.
Lets say, we wanted to limit our results even further so that only electric ranges made by GE with model numbers that contain the letters WW within them are shown. To do so, we would simply type WW in the model number box and hit enter (or press the search button)
Now our search results show only electric ranges, made by GE, with model numbers containing the letters WW.
Remember, at any time, we can remove all of the search criteria we have entered by pressing the escape (ESC) key. Go ahead and do so. Your search view should now return to the way it was when we first opened it (all models should be shown).
Because we never know who will be looking at our screen (customers for example), RetailDeck does not display the columns that pertain to pricing of the items by default. To show columns relating to pricing, we simply click on the MU button (MU is for Mark Up).
Doing so will cause our window to expand and reveal columns that contain price data for the items. Each group has different price columns available, and as a store owner, you can completely customize which columns display. Consequently, what you see after you hit the MU button will vary widely. In our demo version, there is only one column, a "Price" column, as shown below.
We can also show (or hide) the column containing energy star information by clicking on the EnergyStar button.
After you click the EnergyStar button, a new column, ES will appear. If, for a particular model, there is nothing in this column, then the model is not Energy Star compliant. For models that are energy star compliant there will either be a YES in the column, or a number that indicates the kilowatt hours per year of electricity consumed by the appliance. For more energy star information, see the item details page for the item.
