Why would suppliers want to help retailers plan and optimise their shelf space? It turns out suppliers and retailers both have a lot to gain from this collaboration.
Generally speaking, suppliers want to build strong relationships with their retail customers. What better way is there to build strong relationships with your customers than to invest in an initiative that adds strategic value to your business as well as theirs?
Suppliers who get involved in the category management process are doing just that, adding strategic value to their retail customers as well as their own business.
There are many practical and financial benefits of being a supplier who gets involved in creating planograms for retailers but these benefits are often blurred behind confusion and uncertainty.
1. They help suppliers ensure that their brands receive fair or better space allocations
They're often used to reflect not what is going on in the retailer or a particular store but rather what's going on in the broader marketplace. Suppliers buy market data and flush this data into their planograms in order to spot genuine market opportunities which are then conveyed to retailers in a compelling and data-driven way.
Taking advantage of opportunity gaps often comes in the form of allocating additional space to a particular brand, new line introductions and ordering additional stock based on the additional plano capacity.
2. A “foolproof” way of ensuring their category vision gets implemented by merchandisers
How can store staff or merchandisers position your brands in a way that is consistent with your vision if they don't have an actual plan in their hands? A planogram is just that, a diagram that tells merchandisers exactly how your brands should be positioned.
Generally speaking, shelf space allocations have a real impact on product sales which is why suppliers need to ensure that their products are receiving the intended shelf space allocations at stores. Suppliers use planograms to help merchandisers or merchandise firms to implement their strategies at stores.
3. They help suppliers optimise product development
Having the ability to adjust your products dimensions, in real-time, before producing it enables suppliers to achieve optimal product dimensions for the best stock holding ability on the shelf.
By being able to adjust products dimensions on a plano, it allows the supplier to be able to see what impact this change will have on the products capacity, stock value, and profit. A supplier can also change their pack shots on a planogram which will allow them to see what impact the new packshot will have on the shelf and on the planogram, creating a better-looking category that will draw and attract the consumer.
Conclusion
This form of collaboration enables suppliers to have end-to-end control of their products. This display will attract customers, minimise out of stocks and operating costs, enable product productivity, and increase the financial performance of both the supplier and retailer.
