Planogram – Effective tool for Visual Merchandising

Recent trends shows tremendous growth in the organize retail in India. Don’t want to blindly believe in me? The statistics also prove the tremendous rise - Organized retail is expected to grow from 5-6 per cent to 14-18 per cent of the total retail market by 2015.

Did you also realize that our shopping practice has also changed? Instead of asking for goods, we “Choose” what we want to buy and then “Pay” for the goods. This requires “Planned efforts” by store owners to arrange the goods in such a way that goods can be “Pushed” to customers resulting in “intuitive” shopping.

Planogram is one such tool which helps in the same.

What is Planogram?

A planogram is a diagram that shows how and where specific retail products should be placed on retail shelves or displays in order to increase customer purchases

It is believed that customers is in some mental “Thought” while buying goods and if we Push proper good at “That” time, this can result in “ Sale”. The chances of sales of Tetra pack of Milk increases when it is displayed immediately next to/ close to Cornflake shelf. Vegetables and fruits are not stored immediately at the entrance as customer tendency is to spend more time buying the same. “Easy Picks” SKU’s are displayed / placed at the counter to “Push” sales.

IT tools for Planograms:

Planograms is not an as easy as it sounds. It requires lots of experience and Logic in “Planning” Visual merchandising. The importance and “need” of planograms have resulted in various Planogram soft wares that assists store manager to create Planograms.

Few tools are with basic feature having drag and drop features that allows store manager to Draw/ Create Planogram. While certain advance tools accept Store Parameters, allows users to select item details and generates “Suggested” Planogram based on predefined algorithm/ Logic The Basic tools can be used by stores equipped with expert resources in store management/Planogram while certain stores which lacks expertise in Planogram can use the advanced ones.

And if you have capacity to send some more money then we also have tools that convert any file to a planogram in your required format.

Advantages:

• Selling Potentials is created for every square foot of space available in the stores

• Tool optimizing the Visual Merchandising concept.

• Easier to know what products should be on the shelf and their location.

• Able to place more profitable items in leading position

• Provide wide variety to meet consumer demands.

• Makes it easier for consumers to choose by giving shelves a neat orderly look and makes it easier to find items.

• Build “Specific” Brand awareness by maintaining consistency. (Why all big bazzar looks same?)

• Much better marketing through targeted displays 

Planograms are a precise way of presenting new ideas for product placement, testing merchandising principles and understanding optimal inventory. 

About Author:

Saurabh Kane is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at: saurabh.k@spluspl.com