Retail
Store, ecommerce, inventory, and margin in one hierarchy
Merchandising and finance finally share one product story — sales, stock, and margin together.
- Operating since 2012
- Microsoft Power BI specialists
- NDA-ready data handling
- Fixed-scope first releases
- Independent — not affiliated with Microsoft
Table of contents
01 · Context
The situation
Specialty retail chain · Retail
A specialty retailer sold in stores and online. Inventory sat in the warehouse system. Margin lived in finance.
Each team had a report. None of them used the same product hierarchy or the same “day.” Trading meetings started with translation, not decisions.
They needed sell-through, markdown exposure, stockouts, and realized margin on one shared product tree.
02 · Solution
What we built
A retail trading BI layer: one hierarchy, channel facts, and pages for merchants and leadership.
Product hierarchy spine
One tree owned by merchandising. Store, web, warehouse, and finance all hang off it.
Trading dashboard
Sell-through, stockouts, and markdown risk in the weekly review — not three exports taped together.
Margin bridge
Realized margin from finance sits next to sales so “good sales, bad profit” is visible early.
Category trading
- Sell-through by style
- Stockout and ageing
- Markdown exposure
Channel & margin
- Store vs ecommerce
- Margin by hierarchy node
- Exception list for buyers
Data sources
- POS sales
- Shopify ecommerce orders
- Warehouse inventory
- Finance margin extracts
Connectors
- SQL Server
- Shopify connector / extracts
- Power Query
Model design
Merchandising-owned product hierarchy; channel dimension; measures for sell-through, markdown exposure, stockouts, and margin. Import for trading packs.
03 · Process
How we delivered
From the real meeting to a live report — with checkpoints, not a big reveal at the end.
- 01
Hierarchy workshop
Froze the product tree merchandising will own — and who can change it.
- 02
Connect channels
Brought POS, Shopify, warehouse, and finance onto shared keys.
- 03
Phase release
Category pilot first, then roll to more teams once definitions stuck.
- 04
Adoption check
Measured whether buyers opened the board in the real trading meeting.
04 · Technologies
Stack and why we chose it
Tools that serve the report — not a shopping list of buzzwords.
Power BI
Trading and margin pages for merchants and leadership.
Why: Handles multi-channel filters without another Excel cube.
Shopify + POS extracts
Ecommerce and store sales into the same model.
Why: Channel truth has to meet in one place for assortment decisions.
SQL Server
Inventory and history at scale for daily Import.
Why: Trading packs need speed; warehouse systems need protection.
05 · Challenges
What got hard — and how we fixed it
Real delivery friction, not a polished success-only story.
Challenge
Web SKUs and store SKUs did not share IDs.
Resolution
Built a product bridge with merchandising as owner. Unmapped SKUs surface as a data-quality list, not silent gaps.
Challenge
Direct queries to POS during peak weekends timed out.
Resolution
Daily Import for trading packs. Peak sales stay in the POS; reporting reads the staged day.
06 · Results
What changed
- One product hierarchy across store, web, inventory, and finance.
- Trading meetings open on sell-through and stock risk together.
- Margin sits next to sales — not in a separate Friday file.
Continue exploring this topic
Related pages that deepen the same subject—services, industries, integrations, and proof.
Why teams trust Power BI Analytics
Enterprise delivery with clear ownership
Power BI Analytics combines Power BI craft with business process discipline—so leaders get numbers they can act on.
14
Years building software & automation
What to expect in an engagement
- Named business sponsor and delivery ownership
- KPI definitions validated against source totals
- Security-aware workspace and refresh design
- Documented handover, not a black-box model
- First release scoped to prove value quickly
- Response within one business day on qualified enquiries
Have a similar reporting mess?
Book a free scoping call — we will tell you honestly whether Power BI is the right fix.