Introduction
This document outlines how Style Arcade captures launch/published dates across
different channels in order to facilitate accurate sell-through analysis.
Supported Activation Date Sources
Date of First Sale
Style Arcade will automatically use the Date of First Sale as an launch/published date source
For channels with pre-orders or advance wholesale orders, providing a reliable alternative is available, this behaviour can be disabled
Online Published Date
Style Arcade can use the Published Date from an e-commerce platform
Shopify natively supports this, and Style Arcade will capture the earliest value (as some products are taken down and re-published)
Magento2 must be customised to support this
For BigCommerce this can be inferred by capturing the earliest date that the product was set to "available"
Impressions (Google Analytics)
Date of first impression can be used as the activation date
This requires that GA is set up correctly (most retailers have problems with this)
Date of Stock Arrival
This is typically used to track activation across a retail store network
The obvious downside is that there may be a delay between when the stock is delivered and when it is put on the floor, but providing this happens within the same week it will be sufficiently accurate
This is not advisable to use for online activation unless the online store has a dedicated warehouse set up in the ERP
Flat File
A flat file that can identify both the product and launch date can be used as a source of activation date
This is typical in push-style integrations with ERPs providing that the launch date is tracked in the ERP
It's also possible to provide a manual file (CSV, Excel or Gsheet)
Rules
Option 1: Default
For each channel, Style Arcade will take the earliest of the following:
- Activation Date supplied by eCommerce or flat file
- Date of first sale
- Date of first impression (if GA is connected)
- Date of first stock arrival (if enabled)If none of the above is present, it will mark the product as Not Yet Launched
Option 2: Prioritise supplied activation date
For each channel, Style Arcade will use the following if present:
- Activation Date supplied by eCommerce or flat fileIf the above is NOT present, Style Arcade will take the earliest of the following:
- Date of first sale
- Date of first impression (if GA is connected)
- Date of first stock arrival (if enabled)If none of the above is present, it will mark the product as Not Yet Launched
Option 3: Strict activation
For each channel, Style Arcade will use the following if present:
- Activation Date supplied by e-commerce or flat fileIf none of the above is present, it will mark the product as Not Yet Launched
Other notes
Style Arcade can take an activation date from a flat file or eCommerce platform and apply it to any channel - for example, some retailers may wish to see their online launch date when analysing wholesale sales
Style Arcade typically cannot take a date of first sale, impression or stock arrival in one channel and apply it to another (however there are exceptions)