The average grocery store is 2500-4000 sqm. The average grocery store contains 150-200 sections and 40-50 displays per shop. A 1999 USA study in the Wall Street Journal reports the average shopping trip to be 19 minutes on average down from 28 minutes in 1983. This equates to an average of less than 6 seconds of exposure to the customer for each section and display. Today, shopping trips are much quicker, and each section receives much less time than the average quoted above. In Australia, the Woolworths Supermarket chain claims today's average basket size is less than $20 and the average consumer shops 3-4 times per week. In a recent Progressive Grocer (USA) study it was found that 67 % to 71% of purchase decisions are made in the store. It was also found that 20% to 30% of shoppers leave the store wanting to buy one more item because: - It was out of stock - The store did not have the preferred size - The shopper could not find the item.

What are the types of Purchase Decisions that can be addressed by In-Store Merchandising?

Planned Specific item
Planned Specific Category
Delayed Remembrance
Impulse

Why Do You Need Planograms?

- Communicate your merchandising philosophy to store level
- Organise item selection to match store demographics
- Break down the store into logical pieces or categories
- Lead the consumer from the front door through the entire store (traffic flow)
- Affect consumer buying patterns where possible
- Make the new item ranging process faster
- Adjust to seasonality or trends in the market quickly and efficiently
- Keep stores presentable while keeping inventory under control

Why Do You Need to Change Planograms Often?

- Section performance is trending down
- New items need to be slotted
- Major trends that need to be addressed
- Competition from other channels
- Store plan or fixture modification
- One planogram that needs to be modified to fit other stores
- Seasonal reviews of space and item selection
- Space needs in adjacent categories require condensing of some areas
- Activity by competitors

What is the Planogramming Process?

1. The need is discovered
2. Current performance is examined
3. New ideas are considered
4. Layout developed
5. Products selected
6. Fixtures assigned
7. Adjacencies determined
8. Merchandising ideas and selections are tested
9. New section is developed and final decisions are made
10. Planogram is implemented
11. Planogram performance is monitored
12. Results are tabulated and additional changes may result

What are the Benefits of Space Management?

- Eliminate (or project) costly Out - of - Stocks
- Eliminate overstocks and increase turns
- Improved variety or item selection
- Hard to shop sections - not well segmented or organised - can be eliminated

What are the Benefits to Stores?

- Balance shelf stock to weekly unit movement
- Reduce out of stocks
- Reduce overstocks
- Cut inventory costs
- Increase inventory turns
- Influence shopping behaviour
- Match product mix and display to store area demographics and demand
- Position products by Chain Goals: Pricing, profit, movement, promotion, ROII etc.
- Generate Impulse Sales of Goal Items by giving better exposure
- Fine tune product, brand and subcategory adjacencies for Cross Merchandising Sales
- Improved customer service product organisation - brands and subcategory while still minding the numbers
- Find space for new items, more sizes and greater variety while maintaining low inventory costs
- All items in stock satisfies more consumers and encourages loyalty
- Ensure optimum pack out to ease stocking and still maintain presentation
- Speed reset time with accurate, easy to read planograms
- Ensure proper placement of new items for optimal sales right away
- Quicker, clearer communication of new planograms

What are the Benefits to Head Office

- Improve the category management decision making process through visual views
- Analyse, sample and compare shopping patterns, adjacencies, new item effects and aesthetics before it hits the store
- Easy customisation of sets
- Quicker, more accurate updates to reflect new items, market trends, or competitive activity
- Multiply store-level efficiencies by the number of stores
- Reduced labour costs
- Faster and more accurate orders
- Optimal product mix
- Higher productivity of Buying, Merchandising and Forecasting 
- Multiply store level financial benefits by the total number of stores
- Increased sales and profits
- Inventory savings
- Adopting merchandising to HQ establishes store clusters (demographic, regional)
- Cross store comparisons and results monitoring 
- Data organisation
- Financial monitoring
- Visual analysis of data
- Speed to market through communication of goals and merchandising expectations
- The final communication of what your company is to your customer