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Retail & design

Unifying four sales channels into one monthly report

A controlled pilot evaluated a traceable reporting workflow across online, in-store, distributor and wholesale exports.

OnlineIn-storeDistributorsWholesaleMonthly report4 channels, one view
Background

The brand designs and sells its own products across four very different channels: an online store with a third-party warehouse, its own in-store retail, distributors who mostly take stock on consignment, and wholesale buyers. Every month, someone rebuilt the numbers by hand, retailer by retailer.

The reports did not line up. Each retailer used a different format, some had no barcodes at all, and consignment and buyout revenue followed different rules. Totals rarely matched, and the work left no time for the analysis that actually drives buying and store decisions.

Business challenges

Four channels, four formats

Each retailer's monthly export looked different, so consolidation was manual every time.

No reliable way to match products

Some retailers had no barcodes and used their own SKUs, so the same product appeared under many names.

Consignment and buyout differ

Revenue rules changed by channel, so a single formula gave the wrong number.

Days of manual work, fragile totals

Reporting took days and small mistakes broke the totals that leadership relied on.

Solution

We built a reporting engine that takes each retailer's raw file, cleans it into a consistent sheet, and produces category, store and channel summaries plus one management report. A separate safety sheet shows every assumption and edge case, so the numbers are checkable rather than trusted blindly.

A product master and retailer crosswalk match each retailer SKU to a canonical product. Low-confidence matches go to a review sheet for a person to confirm; nothing is silently auto-filled, and consignment rules stay configurable per channel.

Scope
Rapid design & deployment

One expensive problem, proven before it scales. The A1 to POC method, run in weeks not quarters.

A1 · Confirm the goal
Cut reporting time and make totals trustworthy, agreed with the owner.
A2 · Audit the data
Inspect real files from each channel and find the matching gaps.
A3 · Design the report
Agree the master, the summaries and the safety sheet layout.
POC · Build per retailer
Ship one cleanest channel first, then add the harder ones.
Handoff · Review flow
Hand over the engine, the crosswalk and the monthly review flow.
Governance & standards

Our delivery practices define human decision ownership, source and output traceability, data boundaries, change control and review evidence.

Personal credential
Vincent Lin · PECB Certified ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Implementer

The credential is held personally by Vincent Lin.

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