Above the Treeline Adds New Features

From Aspiring Retail, July 2005

There's still time to stop by Above the Treeline’s booth (12083) or make an appointment with CBA Training and Consulting Manager Mike Hockett or a Member Service rep at CBA Show Central (booth 9079) for a demonstration of the Web-based program.

Stores using Above the Treeline are attesting to successful inventory-management results.

New features include:

• Pub Xpress—with 18 core inventory and best-seller lists from suppliers including Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. Benefit: This feature gives a store the ability to—with a click—compare the core lists against its own inventory.

• Quick View—gives rank order of the top 300 titles from all stores using Above the Treeline. Benefit: Retailers can see how other stores are selling a specific title, catching possible problems early such as whether a title is out at many stores so you can check the status of distribution stock. Music buyers can now see nearly real-time top-selling lists.

• Treeline Top Unpublished feature allows you to see frontlist orders across stores. Retailers can view lists by publishers, pub date, or see how many stores have already ordered quantities of a new release. Benefit: Gives buyers a heads-up of what’s coming. Newer buyers can make decisions based on what more experienced stores have ordered. Gives retailers awareness of new titles they may

not have known were releasing.

• Other features include viewing printable lists by departments and categories.

Hockett likes to call this feature the scorecard.

“A report can be run in an Excel spreadsheet easily to measure results, allowing you to put a plan together, implement it, and then track progress being made on your category-management strategy,”  Hockett said. Another planning tool is the budgeting feature that gives you information to budget inventory needed and project sales.  With this data, the program will then forecast turns.

Of special note is what some stores are doing with their gift inventory, allowing comparisons between inventory and sales percentages and making informed decisions on whether to reduce specific categories like wall décor or tabletop items.

Visit www.abovethetreeline.com for more or to see a demo in video format.