The disclosure relates in general to a revenue forecasting method, a revenue forecasting system and a graphical user interface.
The environmental factors that need to be considered during the pricing process of product in the pursuit of maximum profit are very complicated. Under several different circumstances, one forecasting model alone could not provide reasonable sufficient information from which the user could form various information required for making decisions.
Traditional sales forecasting needs to consider various factors such as marketing, finance, inventory and logistics. These factors are variable and it is difficult to obtain and analyze data in a real time manner. Unlike weather simulation, business analysis still lacks strong support in terms of expert knowledge and theories and could only use some representative characteristic facts obtained using data driven approach as a basis for simulation. With the development of AIoT, the acquisition of the retailing data of various platforms has been made relatively easier. Therefore, a virtual transaction environment could be established to simulate and test various scenarios, such that the planned marketing strategies could have active forecast function and the strategy failure rate could be reduced.
Based on historical records, the researchers could simulate the sales and prices of one single brand using traditional data simulation technology. However, it the data volume is too small, the simulation result may have a low reliability or simulation may fail. Additionally, since traditional data simulation technology does not consider a competition relationship between commodities/brands/channels, the forecasting of the total revenue has a low accuracy.
The disclosure is directed to a revenue forecasting method, a revenue forecasting system and a graphical user interface.
According to one embodiment of the disclosure, a revenue forecasting method is provided. The revenue forecasting method includes the following steps. A pricing tree, comprising several feature hierarchies, a pricing hierarchy and an order hierarchy, is built by a processing device according to a target product, wherein the pricing hierarchy includes several pricing node, the order hierarchy includes several target historical orders, and each of the target historical orders records a purchaser, a purchase quantity and a discount Several pricing nodes are generalize by the processing device according to several target historical orders in the order hierarchy. A number of pricing paths are generated by the processing device according to several approximate products, wherein each of the pricing paths includes the feature hierarchies, the pricing hierarchy and the order hierarchy. Several simulated historical orders are obtained by the processing device at least according to a correlation between each of the pricing paths and the pricing tree. A total revenue with respect to a reservation price is analyzed by the processing device using a probability model according to target historical orders and the simulated historical orders.
According to another embodiment of the disclosure, a revenue forecasting system is provided. The revenue forecasting system includes a storage device and a processing device. The processing device includes a pricing tree establishing unit, a generalizing unit, a path establishing unit, a simulation data establishing unit and an estimating unit. The pricing tree establishing unit is used to build a pricing tree comprising several feature hierarchies, a pricing hierarchy and an order hierarchy according to a target product. The generalizing unit is used to generalize several pricing nodes according to several target historical orders in the order hierarchy. The path establishing unit generates a number of pricing paths according to several approximate products. The simulation data establishing unit is used to obtain several simulated historical orders according to a correlation between each of the pricing paths and the pricing tree. The estimating unit analyzes a total revenue with respect to a reservation price using a probability model.
According to an alternative embodiment of the disclosure, a graphical user interface is provided. The graphical user interface includes a pricing tree display window, a generalization button, a simulated historical order increase button, a reservation price input window and a total revenue display window. The pricing tree display window is used to display a pricing tree. The pricing tree, comprising several feature hierarchies, a pricing hierarchy and an order hierarchy, is obtained according to a target product, wherein the pricing hierarchy includes several pricing node, the order hierarchy includes several target historical orders, and each of the target historical orders records a purchaser, a purchase quantity and a discount. The generalization button is used for a user to click and input a generalization command to generalize several pricing nodes according to several target historical orders in the order hierarchy. The simulated historical order increase button is used for the user to click to generalize a number of pricing paths according to several approximate products and to obtain several simulated historical orders at least according to a correlation between each of the pricing paths and the pricing tree, wherein each of the pricing paths includes the feature hierarchies, the pricing hierarchy and the order hierarchy. The reservation price input window is used for the user to input a reservation price. The total revenue display window is used to display a total revenue with respect to the reservation price, wherein the total revenue is analyzed using a probability model according to the target historical orders and the simulated historical orders.
The above and other aspects of the invention will become better understood with regard to the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiment(s). The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.
Referring to
Referring to
As indicated in the pricing tree TR10 of
Then, the method proceeds to step S120, the pricing nodes are generalized by the generalizing unit 120 according to the target historical orders in the order hierarchy OD. As indicated in
If each of the pricing nodes P21 to P23 has a sufficient quantity of orders, data could be partially inserted through the following steps S120 to S130.
Then, the method proceeds to step S130, a number of pricing paths (such as the pricing paths T31 to T37, etc. of
The brand node B31, the function node F31 and the positioning node L32 of the pricing paths T34 are “AA”, “moisturizing”, and “counter” respectively. The brand node B31, the function node F31 and the positioning node L32 of the pricing paths T35 are “AA”, “moisturizing” and “counter” respectively. The brand node B32, the function node F31 and the positioning node L31 of the pricing paths T36 are “BB”, “moisturizing” and “open shelf” respectively. The brand node B32, the function node F32 and the positioning node L31 of the pricing paths T37 are “BB”, “whitening” and “open shelf” respectively. The content of the pricing paths T34 to T37, etc. of the feature hierarchy is different from the content of the feature hierarchy of the pricing paths T21 to T23 of the pricing tree TR20 of
Various pricing paths could be established according to different arrangement orders of the brand hierarchy BN, the function hierarchy FN and the positioning hierarchy LC. Referring to
Among the several pricing paths T34 to T39, etc. generated in step S130, the arrangement of the feature hierarchies of the pricing paths T34 to T39, etc. are note identical. Moreover, the content of the feature hierarchy of each of the pricing paths T34 to T39, etc. is not identical to that of the feature hierarchy of the pricing tree for the target product. For example, the content of the feature hierarchy of the pricing path T34 is: “‘AA’, ‘moisturizing’ and ‘counter’”; the content of the feature hierarchy of the pricing path T36: “‘BB’, ‘moisturizing’ and ‘open shelf’”; the content of the feature hierarchy of the target product is: “‘AA’, ‘moisturizing’ and ‘open shelf’”. The content of the feature hierarchy of the pricing path T34 is not identical to that of the feature hierarchy of the pricing tree for the target product; the content of the feature hierarchy of the pricing path T36 is not identical to that of the feature hierarchy of the pricing tree for the target product.
The pricing paths approximate to the pricing paths T21 to T23 could be located from the pricing paths T34 to T37, etc. according to the content of the order hierarchy OD. The data of the approximate pricing paths are valuable, and could be added to the pricing tree TR20 to increase the forecasting accuracy of the total revenue.
Then, the method proceeds to step S140, several simulated historical orders are obtained by the simulation data establishing unit 140 according to a correlation between each of the pricing paths and the pricing tree (for example, the simulated historical orders O41 to O45 of
The correlation between two pricing paths could be represented by the Pearson correlation coefficient, which is calculated according to the frequency at which the commodity on the two pricing paths is purchased. The calculation of correlation is expressed as formula (1).
Wherein, ρX,Y represents the correlation between two pricing paths “X” and “Y”; Cov(X,Y) represents the variance between the pricing path “X” and the pricing path “Y”; Var(X) represents the variance of the pricing path “X”; Var(Y) represents the variance of the pricing path “Y”; SX∪Y represents the frequency at which the commodity on the pricing path “X” and the commodity on the pricing path “Y” are purchased together; SX represents the frequency at which the commodity on the pricing path “X” is purchased; SY represents the frequency at which the commodity on the pricing path “Y” is purchased.
In an embodiment, the commodity on the pricing path T22 is purchased for 30 times, the commodity on the pricing path T37 is purchased for 50 times, the two commodities are purchased together for 25 times, and in the database, the total purchase times of commodities is 100 times. Therefore, the correlation between the pricing path T22 and the pricing path 37 is calculated as:
In another embodiment, suppose the commodity on the pricing path T22 is purchased for 40 times, the commodity on the pricing path T39 is purchased for 50 times, the two commodities are purchased together for 30 times, and in the database, the total purchase times of commodities is 150 times. Therefore, the correlation between the pricing path T22 and the pricing path T39 is calculated as:
The correlation between the pricing path T22 and the pricing path T39 is higher than the correlation between the pricing path T22 and the pricing path 37.
As indicated in
After the pricing tree TR20 is partially inserted in steps S130 and S140, the data volume of the pricing tree TR20 could be greatly increased to increase the forecasting accuracy of the total revenue.
Then, the method proceeds to step S150, a total revenue with respect to a reservation price is analyzed by the estimating unit 150 using a probability model according to the target historical orders and the simulated historical orders. For example, the total revenue RV with respect to the reservation price PP is analyzed using the probability model ML of
For example, when the reservation price PP is 130 dollars, the probability model ML is illustrated in Table 1. When the reservation price PP is much higher than the original pricing node, the purchaser has a lower transfer probability; when the reservation price PP is slightly higher than the original pricing node or the reservation price PP is less than the original pricing node, the purchaser has a higher transfer probability. Under the circumstance of the price difference being the same, different purchasers have different transfer probabilities. The transfer probability could be calculated according to the market ratio of the product or could be determined according to the purchaser's preference of commodities shown in previous purchase records.
Based on the probability model ML of Table 1, the total revenue RV with respect to the reservation price of 130 dollars is calculated as: “(3*90%*20%*$130+3*90%*80%*$110)+(5*85%*10%*$130+5*85%*90%*$110)+(8*110%*50%*$130+8*110%*50%*$110)+(5*110%*30%*$130+5*110%*70%*$110)+(4*95%*40%*$130+4*95%*60%*$110)+(2*95%*20%*$130+2*95%*80%*$110)+(1*90%*10%*$130+1*90%*90%*$110)+(2*110%*50%*$130+2*110%*50%*$110)+(4*90%*30%*$130+4*90%*70%*$110)+(5*110%*40%*$130+5*110%*60%*$110)=3967.5”
Thus, respective total revenues could be estimated with respect to various reservation prices PP for the decision maker to decide a best reservation price PP. The total revenue is estimated with respect to the reservation price PP. Since the transfer probability is different for each purchaser, the estimated total revenue is different in each time of estimation. After all total revenues are obtained, a mean value could be obtained from the highest and the lowest total revenues.
Referring to
The pricing tree display window 910 is used to display the pricing tree TR10 disclosed above. The generalization button 920 is used for a user to click and input a generalization command to generalize data. After the data are generalized, the pricing tree TR20 will be displayed on the pricing tree display window 910.
The simulated historical order increase button 930 is used for the user to click and to obtain several simulated historical orders (such as the simulated historical orders O41 to O45 of
The reservation price input window 940 is used for the user to input the reservation price (such as 130 dollars). The total revenue display window 950 is used to display the total revenue RV (such as 3967.5 dollars) with respect to the reservation price PP.
According to the above embodiments, the revenue forecasting system 1000 could generalize historical data using data generalization technology and could partially insert the data according to a competition relationship between approximate commodities/brands/channels to increase the forecasting accuracy of the total revenue RV.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations could be made to the disclosed embodiments. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents.