What is SAP CAR?

With SAP CAR (SAP Customer Activity Repository), retail companies gain deep insights into the market and their customers' needs.

This significantly enhances customer centricity. In addition, retail strategies can be better planned and more flexibly adapted based on these insights.

SAP Customer Activity Repository (SAP CAR) is a component of the SAP HANA platform. The solution serves as a central data foundation for retail companies that require a consolidated, real-time view of all sales, inventory, and customer transaction data.

SAP CAR enables the analysis and processing of retail data from various channels such as physical stores (POS), online shops, social media, and mobile applications.

The goal of SAP Customer Activity Repository is to break down information silos and provide companies with a unified view of sales processes, inventory, and customer interactions.

SAP CAR offers a range of features specifically tailored to the needs of the retail sector. Its core purpose is to transform customer journey data into actionable business insights. Particularly noteworthy is the following:

Unified data model for a 360-degree customer view

A key feature of SAP CAR is its “unified data model,” which serves as a central platform for all customer-related activities. 

By consolidating POS transactions, e-commerce data, mobile interactions, and social media information into a single repository, retailers gain a comprehensive view of customer behavior and preferences. This unified data foundation enables in-depth customer and market analysis.

Thanks to its underlying high-performance HANA database technology, SAP CAR can efficiently store, process, and deliver large volumes of data from diverse sources.

Real-time data processing for agile action

SAP CAR also enables real-time processing of transaction and inventory data, ensuring that decision-makers always have access to the latest information. Retailers can instantly access current sales figures, inventory levels, and customer interactions. This real-time data availability allows for quick responses to changes. For example, the following actions can be implemented based on real-time data:

• Dynamic adjustment of prices and promotions based on current demand trends
• Real-time inventory management to prevent shortages and automate replenishment processes
• Optimization of sales strategies by immediately identifying spontaneous purchasing trends or regional demand fluctuations

Cross-channel analytics for an optimized omnichannel strategy

Today’s consumers move fluidly between different sales channels and expect a consistent, personalized experience regardless of the platform.

To meet these expectations, SAP CAR provides cross-channel analytics—a feature that gives retailers in-depth insights into customer behavior across all channels.

By integrating online and offline sales, mobile transactions, and in-store POS data, retailers gain a comprehensive view of the customer journey. This enables companies to do the following:

• Analysis of cross-channel shopping habits to identify key touchpoints and fine-tune omnichannel marketing strategies.
• Optimization of inventory management by linking online orders with in-store stock (e.g., Click & Collect or Ship-from-Store).
• Implementation of personalized promotions based on cross-channel behavioral patterns.

Advanced analytics for data-driven decision-making

In addition to cross-channel analytics, SAP CAR offers several advanced analytics features, including:

• Data visualization: clear representation of sales, inventory, and customer data
• Predictive analytics:  identification of buying trends and sales forecasting
• Machine learning: detecting seasonal fluctuations, identifying regional patterns, uncovering revenue opportunities, optimizing pricing strategies, and minimizing risks

Personalization to increase customer loyalty

One of SAP CAR’s key features is its ability to automatically deliver personalized content and shopping experiences.

To achieve this, SAP Customer Activity Repository consolidates purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographic data to create individual customer profiles. Based on these profiles, businesses can:

• Tailor product recommendations and discounts to personal preferences
• Launch targeted marketing campaigns based on customer behavior and interests
• Optimize loyalty programs by offering customized incentives for repeat customers

Inventory optimization to reduce storage costs

SAP CAR enables companies to monitor and optimize their inventory levels in real time.

By analyzing stock levels, sales figures, and replenishment needs, businesses can achieve the following:

• Avoid overstocking by aligning inventory levels with actual demand
• Reduce stockouts by preventing bottlenecks through proactive replenishment planning
• Optimize store-level inventory by intelligently managing product distribution across locations
• Improve coordination with external partners such as suppliers and logistics providers

SAP CAR is modular and consists of various components, each offering specific functions for retail management. The key building blocks include:

• POS Data Transfer & Audit (POSDTA)
• Unified Demand Forecast (UDF)
• Demand Data Foundation (DDF)
• Merchandise Planning (MP)
• Omnichannel Article Availability and Sourcing (OAA)

The following sections describe these components and their characteristics in more detail.

POS Data Transfer & Audit (POSDTA) is a core component of SAP CAR, responsible for capturing, cleansing, and validating POS transaction data from various sales channels.

The module processes sales data from in-store registers, online shops, and mobile channels in real time, checks for inconsistencies, and ensures that all transactions are correctly transferred to the central repository. POSDTA reduces manual errors and improves data quality.

It also provides a reliable data foundation for analytics, inventory management, and other retail processes.

Unified Demand Forecast (UDF) uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to generate accurate sales forecasts.

By analyzing historical sales data, seasonal trends, and external factors such as weather or holidays, UDF enables proactive inventory planning.

With UDF, retailers can better predict demand fluctuations, avoid overstocking, and reduce stockouts.

This function block also improves product availability and supports data-driven decisions in purchasing, inventory management, and category management.

Demand Data Foundation (DDF) forms the data backbone for all demand analysis within SAP CAR.

This component structures and manages sales and inventory data from various sales channels, enabling a consolidated view of product movements.

DDF serves as the foundation for demand forecasting, inventory management, and sales analysis in SAP CAR. By centrally providing relevant data, it improves coordination between procurement, logistics, and sales.

Its flexible data structure also allows the integration of external data sources, enhancing the accuracy of forecasts.

Merchandise Planning (MP) supports retail companies in strategic assortment and merchandise planning. Using sales forecasts, sales analyses, and inventory data, the module enables data-driven planning of product categories, lines, and regional assortments.

Retailers can optimize their purchasing strategies, better leverage demand and revenue potential, and manage inventory more efficiently.

Additionally, MP enhances planning reliability, reduces poor investments, and helps ensure the right product is available at the right time and location.

Omnichannel Article Availability and Sourcing (OAA) enables real-time inventory and delivery checks across all sales channels.

The module displays where an item is available—whether in-store, in a warehouse, or from an external supplier—and supports options like Click & Collect, Ship-from-Store, or Endless Aisle (access to inventory at all company locations).

Retailers benefit from better stock distribution, optimized delivery logistics, and increased customer satisfaction, as customers always have access to current product availability. OAA is therefore a key component of modern omnichannel strategies.

The term "omnichannel" refers to the seamless integration of various sales channels into a unified shopping experience. Customers can switch effortlessly between physical stores, online shops, and mobile apps without discrepancies in pricing, inventory, or services.

SAP CAR plays a crucial role in enabling this strategy by providing a centralized data structure for cross-channel coordination. For instance, it ensures that a customer placing an order online can pick it up in-store without logistical issues.

With SAP CAR’s omnichannel capabilities, businesses can better serve customers, increase sales, and improve inventory efficiency.

SAP CAR includes a variety of SAP Fiori apps that allow different aspects of the customer journey to be monitored and analyzed. Some interesting examples include:

• Net Sales: Real-time monitoring of net sales across various sales channels, analysis of revenue trends
• Sales Analysis – Gross Margin: Insights into product gross margins for profitability evaluation
• Sales Analysis – Average Transaction Value: Average revenue per sales transaction
• Number of Transactions: Number of transactions within a specific period to identify sales patterns and improve resource planning
• Sales Analysis – Items per Transaction: Average number of items per transaction to identify cross-selling opportunities
• Sales Management Overview: Graphical overview of various sales data on analytical cards
• Customer Overview: Overview of customer sales data, including open sales offers and customer contacts
• Customer Returns – Flexible Analysis: Trends in customer returns, with the ability to combine multiple dimensions (e.g., product categories, customer regions, and return reasons)
• Sales Performance – Plan/Actual: Comparison of planned and actual sales figures across various dimensions (e.g., sales organization, customer, and material)
• Stock Overview: Comprehensive view of current inventory levels across different locations

SAP CAR plays a strategically important role for retail companies, as it creates a unified data foundation that enables the optimization of business processes and the implementation of customer-oriented strategies.

The real-time analysis of sales, inventory, and customer data allows for faster and more well-founded decisions. In addition, the system helps reduce operational costs, as it enables more precise planning of inventory and purchasing strategies.

SAP CAR also plays an important role in the personalization of offers. Based on historical purchases, companies can provide individually tailored recommendations, thereby increasing customer loyalty.

Last but not least, SAP CAR provides an essential foundation for digitalization in the retail sector. Through integration with other SAP systems, end-to-end processes can be mapped, ranging from the first customer contact to final delivery.

SAP CAR offers companies numerous advantages, particularly in the areas of inventory management, customer analysis, and omnichannel integration.

The platform helps reduce storage costs by enabling more accurate demand forecasting. Retailers also benefit from improved sales forecasting, as purchasing behavior and seasonal trends can be analyzed in real time.

Customer satisfaction also increases through the use of SAP CAR, as product availability is optimized and customers receive a consistent shopping experience both online and offline.

Thanks to its close integration with other SAP solutions, SAP CAR can also be seamlessly incorporated into existing IT infrastructures, allowing companies to benefit from greater efficiency and automation in their processes.

With its extensive analytics capabilities and real-time data processing, SAP CAR is also an ideal solution for retail companies that aim to operate in a customer-centric manner and prioritize data-driven decision-making.