
Cross merchandise should be performed for better shopping experience of customers at a time to gain customer loyalty, attract more foot traffic and increase sales.The store clusters support assortment planning and allocation as well as maintaining a customer-centric merchandise approach Use clustering for store grouping based on both performance (e.g.Include the understanding of the customer purchase decisions through product hierarchy in the assortment planning process.Historical data to be examined well to judge the rational goals and products that need to be added in the bin.Setting goals to keep track of the team and progress made over time.Setting up Growth goals (Should start assortment planning process from this.)Īssortment planning is necessary for large retailers with merchandising teams and bigger budgets, though the principles apply to any retail environment.The depth is the amount of product and brand variation within an individual category. Width and depth: The width is the number or variety of different product categories.

Assortment planning does not only mean inventory purchasing and seasonality. Hence, for financial improvements of a store assortment planning should be performed. In fact, 40% of in-store customers spend more than they had planned compared to just a quarter of online shoppers. On average, in-store shoppers spend more than online shoppers. This is why assortment planning in retail is of paramount importance. If it is exceeding too much beyond the optimal amount, then the excess inventory is put up for offers and income is lost. If the stock is less than the optimal amount, there are chances that potential customer and sales are lost. The challenge is to estimate the right amount of stock for the shelves. The assortment plan mentions the products that come under your categories, sub-categories, segments, and sub-segments.

to comprehend the preferences of the customers. The selection process of products in assortment planning is done through a thorough evaluation of the product attributes like brand, functionality, price, size, stock keeping units (SKU) etc. Making the right product picks and bringing in the right quantities of supplies to match market demand are decisions that collectively make an assortment plan. It considers the financial objectives and seasonality of the product selection in a way so that both you and your customers gain from the outcome. Assortment planning in retail involves selecting the collection of products which will be on offer in particular locations and during a specified season.
