Planograms (also called Plan-O-Grams, POGs, or Schematics) are the visual representations of a store’s services or products, which are on display to attract the customers. The traditional tool for visual marketing and merchandising indicates the placement or locations of the different retail products on the shelves. The aim is to ensure that the customer’s journey takes less time and is comfortable, improving its satisfaction and providing maximum revenues and sales. With the introduction of new technologies, many different business activities and processes have been automated, and retail planogram automation is also one of the most fruitful ways retailers can achieve efficiency and even higher profit.
Ditching the Traditional Planograms for The Automated Models Is A Business Necessity
The concept of the Best retail planogram Automation emerged within KMart Corporation (and American departmental store). Nowadays, a planogram for a retail store is created, designed, and implemented using advanced planogramming software, with inputs being provided by a planogram specialist and a space planning manager/specialist.
The future is sustainable only for the industries that use their scarce resources most efficiently and modernize along with the trend. Planogram automation will provide all the benefits of traditional planograms and even more. Planogram use and implementation are known to provide benefits in areas including:
• Better internal and external communication and communication for brand identity.
• Setting of the merchandise and showing sufficient inventory levels at all times on the display or shelf.
• Most effective use of the space, including shelves, floors, and pages facilitating communication.
• Enhancing consumer satisfaction by providing instant know-how of the location of their favorite products.
• Presenting the customer’s products in a more visually appealing and organized way.
While a planogram for a retail store provides all these benefits, its automation adds benefits like customer profiling, demand assessment (including localized demand assessment), improvement in the efficiency of the supply chain, and providence of centralized control, etc. For instance, the hard-good (goods that do not wear out easily and quickly) and the fast-moving consumer goods can be scheduled according to the measurements of a single store with the use of a planogram software. Planogram automation may thus provide for customization and solve the specific needs of retail stores accurately and to their best interests and benefits.
Ethics are core to business sustainability, and planogram automation is also a great way to describe and teach best practices, rules, and constraints that may improve the reputation and the management practices of corporate level businesses. Planogram automation may help in pricing, messaging, language-specific messaging, responding for location, and the placement of products following business rules. Automation’s planned approaches can also carry the attributes for fixtures and campaigns for creating more localized assortment.
Why Ditching The Planogram Automation Trend Can Be Detrimental For Seller/Retailer Interest
In an era when retaining customers maybe five times less costly than acquiring a new one, all businesses should aim to satisfy their customers in the best way. The E-Commerce stores and online buying options have already provided consumers with a world of opportunities and discounts towards making their long-term and short-term purchases. Retail, physical, and brick-and-mortar stores have limited opportunities to improve themselves.
In these competitive and digital times, planogram automation is one of them. Stores can improve the consumers’ journey and experiences through the use of planogram software. Automation can improve the convenience of consumers, thereby matching the comfort benefits associated with e-commerce. Better supply chain management has always been crucial in gaining competitiveness.
The retail planogram software automates the inventory control procedures and ensures that the store shelves always have an optimum number of products on display. Automation of planograms also provides for improved localization, the practice of ethics, and spares lots of time for the employees that can be utilized for more productive purposes. No wonder, leading companies use planograms automation and have shifted and modernized from the use of Excel and PowerPoint for visually representing their products and controlling their shelves. Planogram automation has much wider boundaries and capabilities compared to traditional planograms to reduce operating costs by around 80% and manual inputs by about 90%.
Planogram automation may be a single solution that may provide for better efficiency, visual attractiveness, customer experience, and agility, among many other benefits. Retailers should make the best use of the opportunity to ensure their sustainability and competitiveness.
Also Read: The Benefits of Online Shopping
