How do you measure the effectiveness of your merchandise display and layout strategies?

The challenge here is that SPSF is a two dimensional model that struggles on a micro scale, which is where many decisions are made. For example, if you are comparing merchandising stratagems on two different displays that each have the same footprint, but one display is 6ft high while another is 8ft high, your data will skew towards the taller fixture since you can effectively display more product on it, assuming all product is equally sized. So while SPSF may be useful in determining large-scale baseline data, it struggles in comparing successful strategies between similar, but not quite equal, displays. Similar, and potentially better, options would be to measure sales per linear foot of shelving or sales per cubic feet of display space.

The trap: not all conversion rates are equal. Yes, CR can provide excellent data in merchandising strategies, employee/customer engagement, pricing strategy, etc. But, not all facilities are the same. A two-enterance, retail mall location, for example, will have significantly more walk-through traffic compared to a single entrance destination store. So, while CR is a valuable data point, when determining merchandising effectiveness and/or customer satisfaction one needs to consider two things: an overall company baseline, and a per-store baseline. Then, with a per-store baseline, each location can work to determine which merchandising strategies positively impact that individual location, contributing to the company baseline as a whole.

A similar metric to ATV is units per transaction. UPT - the average number of items purchased per customer - can sometimes provide better insight when considering the effectiveness of add-on sales associated with lower priced items or BOGO sales, where the increased ATV might not show the true value of the merchandising strategy. UPT, when categorized, can also provide insight into effective cross merchandising opportunities or product placement and adjacencies, providing data on which types of product are often purchased together. Like ATV, a higher UPT indicates successful merchandising strategies designed to build the customer's basket.

Heat mapping is a type of monopoly like approach to finding where the money map is. Some areas may become more conducive to selling, sometimes floor moves occur in a brick and mortar store because there is new product to add or there is a product that is moving slowly and by placing it in a hot spot, will enhance the customer interaction with this product, essentially giving it more sellability !

Another crucial point is to consider "Employee feedback". This is vital as staff directly interact with customers, solving problems and gaining insights into shopper behaviors. This feedback informs adjustments in store operations, layouts, and customer service, enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency. For instance, if customers struggle to find clothing for 1-2 year old children because items are split between infant and toddler sections, resulting in potential sales loss, employees can relay this issue. This feedback can then inform visual merchandisers to adjust the layout accordingly.