Patent ID: 7092896

Claim:
A method for providing an interface to an apparatus for optimizing a promotion plan for merchandising products, comprising: utilizing a computer-based scenario/results processor within an optimization server to present a sequence of data entry templates to a user, whereby the user specifies an optimization scenario, the optimization server optimizing the promotion plan according to modeled market demand for the products and calculated demand chain costs for the products, wherein said calculated demand chain costs include fixed and variable costs for the products, and wherein said utilizing comprises: first providing a promotion event configuration template, for prescribing potential promotion event; second providing a supplier offer configuration template, for prescribing potential supplier offers; and third providing a promotion scenario configuration template, for associating the potential promotion events to the products, wherein said third providing comprises: specifying a forward buy method; enabling/disabling certain ones of the potential supplier offers; adding rules and constraints to the optimization scenario; and indicating store merchandising capacities; and generating a plurality of optimization results templates and providing these templates to the user, wherein optimum promotion events and optimum supplier offers are presented.