The first step is to make clear that a manager who is in charge of merchandise operations has a lot of responsibility to carry as he will be in the amount of the sales area of the business.
To be able to operate an effective retail store (or any other space for sales), the Manager should have a thorough understanding of:
The industry in which the store or company is involved
The business plan
The Strengths, the weaknesses threads, opportunities, threads of the business (SWOT)
Standardization for branding and the objectives
The changes and developments occurring on the market
The competition
Sales budget, sales objectives, and/or sales budget
Marketing budget
The habits of the client:
What time do they purchase?
Which are their preferred places to buy?
What drives them to spend more?
After that, let’s begin the merchandise Implementation. These are the steps to be put into place:
I. The Products Mix.
This is the first step that should be done because you could have an excellent selling space that is well-organized and categorize, but without the appropriate merchandise, you aren’t able to make sales.
To ensure that you have the correct Products Mix, you need to understand all the details I have mentioned previously, and you should especially be aware of your clients and customers. You must study your customers and observe their actions. It is essential to determine the length and depth of the categories of products that should be within your store and also the quantity you should keep on hand in each of your units of stock (SKU).
The ability to keep track of these details is crucial because if you’ve got lots of things you sell less of what you are selling (to make it appear in black and white), then you could encounter issues with your customers or even losing them, and you may result in a decrease in the overall financial viability of your company.
What’s the problem? Consider this:
Imagine you own a t-shirt A that sells six units per day.
You own a shirt that sells ten units per day.
Shirt A provides you with a 30 percent profit margin.
Shirt B provides you with a 15% profit margin.
Both are substitutes for identical products with different brands.
What is the best product to sell? more? ?…Product A!
You must therefore be careful to avoid losing customers purchasing “shirt B” by keeping it in your inventory; however, you might want to offer “shirt A” more exposure to allow it to increase the sales of it in comparison to the others. This means you’re likely to require more “shirt A” to ensure that your profit is maintained at the highest level.
Another essential aspect in the selection of the products includes the price strategy. Pricing strategy is an aspect of the overall picture of the company and maybe an indicator of the cost and the returns on investments that the owners are expecting at the close of the year.
II. The Distribution of the Store or Setting.
This is the location of the display shelves, fixtures, shelves, and other parts that are going to be within the space of the store. The setting of the store is crucial as it will guide your customers around the store and must be done in a rational, efficient, and effective way. Customers should be comfortable and should be able to feel that they’re not trying to search for what they want. It is also an efficient tool when used to generate sales impulsively by setting up displays, islands for products, and other shelf displays. The setting of the store is all about making sure you get the maximum profits from every square inch of the retail store. The tool is a Merchandising Tool is a kind of store ghost-seller, showing the items, providing suggestions, and presenting your customer with information. It also contributes to the image of your business that will be seen when you walk into the store. Customers can be heard saying, “I will never visit this location anymore. I’m not able to find what I’m seeking!” that is because of a lousy store distribution/setting.
If you are planning to set up the distribution or setting of your store, you must answer these questions:
Where should the entry point and exit locations be? So that both can be completed.
How are the sections that the retail store will feature? Based on the type of store and the business goals.
In what order do these sections should be placed? In order to make it easier for customers to move around the store.
What size should these sections be? Based on the type of customer and the market’s target.
What number of check-out lanes should a store have? Based on the area of sales space as well as the number of customers the store will handle.
What is the best way to have furniture put in its place?
What should the lighting look like?
What are the hot and zones of cold? In order to balance them.
How can you increase visibility?
What should the sound system’s specifications be, and what kind of music and sound should be played?
What temperature should the store’s inside?
Where and how should the signs be placed?
How long are the corridors?
What is the parking area like Is it big enough?
And so on.
The distribution and setting of the store must always be an example to meet the customer’s demands and to continually improve the ROI.
III. Shelving.
When you are shelving, you’ll utilize the principles of the store’s setting but used in a smaller portion of the store. These are called Gondolas. If done properly, they will:
Get the attention of customers
Sell your products
Make it easier to select the right products
Sell on impulse
Gondolas are the location where the final fight for marketing is waged between rivals of the same product category or family. The customers make the final purchasing decision. You don’t have to be an expert in science to realize that the more room that a particular brand has on the shelves, the more significant opportunities to sell it to offer. I’ll discuss this in a different article.
Usually, three factors are that are taken into consideration when determining the space needed or the number of faces each item (SKU) is required to have in store. Sometimes, these three factors are considered separately, and other times they are combined. These include:
Margin of profit
The number of sales or product rotation
Market share
There are additional factors that are taken into consideration of store owners:
Private labeling
Commercial and trade agreements
There are two basic ways of establishing shelves for products: either vertically or horizontally.
The most well-known and one I personally believe is most efficient would be the display that is vertical of items. I think this is because it gives your product a chance to participate on every level of the gondola, and thus improving sales.
IV. Store Animation.
This refers to the many ways that the store can take to provide a better shopping experience for customers. Most of the time, this will be accomplished with the help of producers of the items involved in these activities. Most of the time, the initiative will be carried out by the shop, which will then search for the endorsement of the manufacturers. This will usually be in relation to the store’s anniversary or special promotions, seasons or holidays, and also other events. Other times, this initiative is taken up by the company that will attempt to find a sort of differentiated approach from the competition.
There are many methods to create this animation. Some of them:
Decorations for the outside and inside
Demonstrations
Showcase
Fairs
Sampling
Awards
Coupons
Exhibits on gondolas
Special displays
Offers for promotions, such as 2×1 3×1 1-free…
Sound announcements with exceptional sound
POP materials for point of purchase POP, point of purchase materials
Expositions
As well as other
There’s no limit for these store-generated animations. Every day, there are new ideas. In the end, it will be dependent only on the imaginations of those in the process.
This is all for the moment. Enjoy your sales. Goodbye.
