Imagine, for example, that your shoppers are enjoying a new variety of tomato soup. The demand for this soup suddenly picks up and the demand triples over a two month period. However, due to a lack of analysis, the tomato soups are kept right at the bottom of the shelf with a limited number of product facings.
Even though the buyer for the store has placed bigger orders for the soup, the store itself may not take full advantage of the sales potential of this product as the space allocation and positioning of that product haven’t been adapted to the new demand.
This makes it more difficult for other potential customers to find the product, resulting in lost sales, and it also makes the shelf replenishment more complicated as the shelf space allocated to that product will empty out faster.
Taking advantage of these opportunities can be seen as a challenge, however, this is one area that planogram software helps retailers to exploit the full potential of their data to improve shelf space efficiency. So how exactly does planogram software do this? One of the ways planogram software brings data to life in the context of shelf space efficiency is custom highlight spectrums.
A highlight spectrum, simply put is like a visual report that reveals and compares the performance of products on a shelf by attributing a colour code to each product (see graphic below). For example, a retailer can highlight the products that are selling well versus products that are not performing so well, or even products that need to be repositioned or replaced.
An Unlimited Number of Custom Data-Driven Highlights Can be Created in DotActiv Lite and CatMan Enterprise
Here are three examples of custom highlight spectrums in planogram software:
1. Lowest Sales to Highest Sales
Highlight products which generate the highest turnover by analysing the product sales performance of the planogram. As can be seen, DotActiv software will attribute a colour code to each product type based on its sales performance, in this example, from light red to dark red. This way, you can view which products have the highest sales and where they are placed to make sure they are well positioned and receive the correct amount of product facings.
Products with highest sales are highlighted with the darkest shades of red.
2. Lowest Units Sold to Highest Units Sold
Create a colour spectrum to highlight the products which have the most units sold. Products with high units don’t necessarily yield the most profit, but they are standard products which shoppers expect to see in a category. They are essential for traffic building, in other words getting the customer to the store and into the category, therefore, will in most cases be displayed at eye-level. In the example above, the retailer might want to consider placing these products at eye-level.
Products with highest units sold are highlighted with the darkest shades of red.
3. Lowest Profit to Highest Profit
Create a colour spectrum to highlight the products which yield the most profit. For example, accessories that complement a product are often profit generating categories. Retailers can increase the consumer’s exposure to higher margin items by merchandising these categories in high traffic areas for example. The use of the spectrum will make sure that profit-generating products are well represented on the planogram, ensuring correct positioning and space allocation on the shelf.
Products that generated the most profit are highlighted with the darkest shades of red.
Conclusion:
By analysing sales patterns and the performance of products, a space planner can develop planograms that reflect data-driven tactics to improve the performance and efficiency of your shelf space. Highlight spectrums are one great way for retailers to analyse shelf space efficiency and will help put into place category tactics that take advantage of growth opportunities.
