As more and more consumers move to online platforms, it is critical that the in-store experience is as optimal as can be. Here, category management can facilitate the shopping experience by optimising the store format and increasing the appeal of product display by making use of planograms and other tools.
Customer shopping behaviour across geographies is also extremely diverse, so knowing how your customers differ store by store will be beneficial to creating the most satisfying experience for your customer no matter where they shop. We turn to our vast network of trusted vendor and supplier partners to identify behaviour and market trends outside the city, region, or community the current store is in to help increase category sales & profit.
The rise in personalization has increased the amount of products available to a consumer, which has made forecasting for the amount of stock each product needs even more difficult.
We work with your inventory, marketing and merchandising personnel to create a category management process that optimizes product sales and satisfies your customers from store-to-store. We will then provide training and standard operating procedures (SOP) to keep your category and planogram management operating at an optimal level. The SOP is a document that will enable merchandising services to plan for and implement assortments, enable vendors to effectively plan and initiate programs to support assortments, and enable supply chain to secure ongoing product replenishment. Overall, complying with this standardized process will increase efficiency at the store level and the generation of optimal sales.
No matter the circumstances, as retailers, you need to ensure you have enough product available on shelves and online so that you meet customer needs, yet not too much that inventory is sitting in storage for long periods of time. We use extensive simulation, statistical modeling, analytics and predictive tools to help your company hone their forecasting accuracy to ensure the right amount of stock is on your shelves and in your back room.
Your dedicated team from The Poirier Group will utilize existing data to analyze historical data and predict future events, and more specifically, customer behaviour. Forecasting helps retailers understand when they need to order new merchandise, and how much they’ll need to get.
Without proper demand forecasting processes in place, it can be very difficult to have the right amount of inventory on hand at any given time. Too much merchandise in the warehouse means more capital tied up in inventory, and not enough could lead to out-of-stocks. This could lead to increased storage costs, wasted product and loss of customers
The last year has created a greater need to embrace dynamic forecasting and scenario planning. Organizations need to embrace agile decision-making and be prepared to pivot to multiple different scenarios at any given time. One thing that is for sure, the rate of change for retail and supply chain is not slowing down, and supply chain and retail leaders need to adopt a mindset that embraces continuous and fast change:
