What are some of the tools and techniques that you use to design and implement merchandising plans?

1 Merchandising objectives

Before you start designing your merchandising plan, you need to define your merchandising objectives. These are the specific goals that you want to achieve with your merchandising strategy, such as increasing traffic, conversion, basket size, or loyalty. Your merchandising objectives should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, you might set an objective to increase the average basket size by 10% in the next quarter by cross-selling and upselling complementary products.

3 Merchandising plan

Developing a merchandising plan based on your objectives and analysis is a great way to outline your strategy, tactics, and actions for a specific period of time. This plan should include the merchandising mix, which is the combination of products, prices, promotions, and placements you will use to reach your goals. You can optimize this mix with techniques such as product segmentation, pricing strategies, promotional campaigns, and visual merchandising. Additionally, you should create a merchandising calendar to show when and where you will implement your mix. This calendar can help you plan ahead for seasonal, thematic, or event-based merchandising opportunities. Lastly, you should set a merchandising budget to estimate costs and revenues and monitor your return on investment.

4 Merchandising execution

Once you have your merchandising plan, you need to effectively and efficiently execute it. To do this, you can use various tools and techniques, such as merchandising software, a merchandising team, and merchandising standards. Merchandising software can help manage and automate the process, while a merchandising team can delegate tasks and coordinate actions. Additionally, using merchandising standards will ensure consistency, quality, and compliance across your store network. These standards should cover product placement, display design, signage, lighting, and cleanliness. Utilizing these tools and techniques can save time, reduce errors, and improve accuracy.

5 Merchandising evaluation

The final step in your merchandising process is to evaluate the results and outcomes of your merchandising plan. To measure and analyze your performance, you can use key performance indicators (KPIs) like sales per square foot, conversion rate, average basket size, or customer satisfaction score. Additionally, you can use mystery shopping to assess your store's appearance, service, product quality, and overall experience. Moreover, customer surveys are a great way to collect feedback from customers directly. You can ask them about their opinions, preferences, expectations, and satisfaction levels regarding your store and products. By using these tools and techniques and aligning your merchandising plans with your overall retail strategy and brand identity, you can design and implement effective merchandising plans that will help you to attract customers, increase sales, and grow your business. Furthermore, it is important to be mindful of changing market conditions and customer needs so that you can adapt your plans accordingly.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?