What are some opportunities for you to move to a more strategic approach in your seasonal categories? Seasonal merchandising represents a huge incremental sales and profit opportunity for Retailers and Manufacturers. What are seasonal categories? “Seasonal events” have evolved and expanded with changes in the Shopper, weather patterns, and new events to include everything from annual holidays, to multicultural holidays, to celebration and annual events, to special community events, and even weather-related events. Some major seasonal events are starting much earlier than in the past. Retailers who want to stand out in the marketplace now run “hot” priced features well in advance of the seasonal event to establish their stores as the best destination for the season. There is also a stronger concentration of sales during the few days before seasonal events. To realize and maximize the full potential of seasonal sales, you should apply the principles of category management to your seasonal categories. I've put together 4 best practices for managing seasonal categories that incorporate category management strategies, including a rigorous analysis post season to continuously improve your seasonal category plans.

What is the strategic level of your team or organization when it comes to Space Planning and Efficient Assortment? Space planning and efficient assortment are BOTH very important for Retailers and Manufacturers — so why are they treated so tactically? Why don’t teams and organization consider more advanced shelving solutions and take full advantage of opportunities to reach the Shopper? Read on to find out some common mistakes on both sides.

Last week I talked about how to build Private Label strategy through the category management foundations, with focus on topline category assessment results through market share, demographics and interaction data. As you might remember, Retailers need to ensure these profitable private label brands offer competitive differentiation by using the same strategic category management and fact-based approach for national brands and total category. This post, we are going to dive into private label pricing.

Better collaboration starts inside each organization. A shared shopper problem gives retailers and suppliers a reason to work together.

Selling is a requirement in any business. In the retail industry, selling takes place both internally and externally for Retailers and Vendors across departments and teams. There are multiple “Seller” to “Buyer” relationships, including: EXTERNAL SELLING RELATIONSHIPS the account manager or sales director (Seller); calling on the category manager or business unit lead at the Retailer (Buyer). the category analyst or vendor advisor (Seller); calling on the category manager, or someone else in the retail organization responsible for different components of the category review process (Buyer). the Retailer’s category manager with a new promotion or plan (Seller); calling on an account manager or sales director (Buyer). INTERNAL SELLING RELATIONSHIPS the category manager at the Retailer promoting an idea or concept (Seller); to their business unit lead or manager (Buyer). the Vendor’s category analyst or category management director promoting in an idea or concept (Seller); to the marketing director or sales director within their organization (Buyer). So when you think about developing selling skills, expand your concept of Sellers and Buyers beyond the Vendor’s sales team. The graphic below summarizes: Two critical components of any selling approach include your ability to create engaging and informative presentations that focus on your Buyer (either internal or external). These components include the ability to use software tools like PPT and to tell a compelling story with relevant, fact-based details to your audience. Both components are critical, and must be developed BEFORE you can focus on strategic selling skills.

When you hear “product supply chain,” what comes to mind? Trucks? Warehouses? Products moving from a manufacturer to a store? That’s usually where the conversation starts. But there’s a lot more happening behind every product that reaches a shopper. Information needs to move. Payments need to happen. Teams need to make decisions about demand, inventory, availability, and service—and those decisions need to work together. So if we think supply chain is only about moving products, we’re missing connections that affect the whole business. Supply chain belongs in more conversations It’s easy to think, “Our logistics team takes care of that.” But consider a promotion. Marketing builds the campaign. Sales agrees on the offer. The category team forecasts an increase in demand. Someone needs to buy the inventory, move it, receive it, and make it available where shoppers expect to find it. What happens if the promotion changes but the forecast doesn’t? Or the product arrives at the distribution center, but never reaches the shelf? The shopper sees an empty space. The retailer misses a sale. The supplier may have inventory sitting in the wrong place. That’s why supply chain understanding matters beyond operations. Decisions made by sales, marketing, finance, category management, IT, and store teams all influence how well it works. Follow the product—and the relationships One useful way to understand a supply chain is to follow a product from its starting point to the shopper. A raw material producer supplies a manufacturer. The manufacturer may supply a distributor or retailer. The retailer then sells the finished product to the shopper. At each step, an organization can be someone’s customer and someone else’s supplier. Each relationship brings expectations about quantities, timing, quality, information, and payment. The route can vary too. Products may move through a distribution center, go directly to a store, ship to someone’s home, or be picked from store inventory for an online order. Those differences matter. They affect who holds inventory, who prepares the order, what information teams need, and who is responsible when something goes wrong. Three flows need to work together When I explain supply chain, I come back to three connected flows: products, information, and money. Let’s look at what each one means—and why moving the product is only part of the job. 1. Product flow: where does it need to go? This is the physical movement of raw materials and finished goods. It includes transportation, storage, replenishment, order fulfilment, and returns. But “delivered” doesn’t always mean “available to the shopper.” A product might be in the retailer’s building and still be sitting in the back room. It might be available in one store while an online order is being fulfilled from another location. Teams need to think about the full route: Where is the inventory now? Where will demand occur? How will the product reach the shelf, pickup point, or customer’s door? What happens if it is damaged, unsold, or returned? Following that route helps teams spot where availability can break down. 2. Information flow: does everyone have what they need? Products can’t move reliably if the information supporting them is missing, late, or inaccurate. Think forecasts, orders, product details, inventory records, shipment updates, and delivery confirmations. Information needs to move between teams and organizations—and back again. Here’s a simple example. A website shows that an item is available, so a shopper places a pickup order. But the store’s inventory record is wrong. The product hasn’t moved, but a promise has already been made. Someone now needs to find an alternative, contact the shopper, or cancel the item. That’s an information problem with a very real service impact. Before blaming execution, ask: Were people working from accurate information, and did they receive it in time to act? 3. Financial flow: what happens to the money? Then there’s the financial side: invoices, payments, credit terms, discounts, charges, and refunds. These connect to decisions about how much inventory to carry, how quickly it sells, and what it costs to get the product to the shopper. For example, buying a larger quantity might reduce the purchase price per unit. But what if that inventory takes much longer to sell than expected? The business has committed money to stock that still needs to be stored and managed. Some of it may eventually require a markdown or write-off. That doesn’t mean buying more is always wrong. It means the purchase price is only one part of the decision. Teams also need to consider demand, service, handling costs, profitability, and cash tied up in inventory. A promotion puts all three flows to the test Imagine a retailer planning a promotion on pasta sauce. The offer is attractive, the advertising looks great, and shoppers respond. But the stores run out halfway through the event. Where would you start looking? Product: Was enough stock ordered, delivered, and replenished onto the shelf? Information: Did the forecast reflect the offer? Were changes communicated? Could teams see where stock was running low? Financial: Were the agreed costs, promotional funding, and payment terms understood? What did extra deliveries or leftover inventory do to the result? Looking at one flow alone won’t explain the whole event. Teams need to connect what happened across all three. And sometimes the product comes back The supply chain doesn’t always end with the sale. A shopper may return an online purchase to a store. A delivery may arrive damaged. Products may need to be withdrawn or recalled. These situations involve reverse logistics: moving products or materials back through an appropriate process for assessment, recovery, recycling, or disposal. Again, all three flows matter. The returned product needs a destination. Its condition and inventory status need to be recorded. A refund, credit, or other financial adjustment may also be required. Simply moving the item into a returns area doesn’t complete the process. Balance the service promise with the business result The goal is to get the right products to the right place at the right time, while balancing service, cost, inventory, and risk. The cheapest option doesn’t always deliver the best business result. A lower delivery cost means little if unreliable service leads to empty shelves and missed sales. Equally, promising more speed or availability than the business can sustainably support creates its own problems. Teams need to understand the trade-offs and agree on what they’re trying to deliver. Bring it back to your decisions You don’t need to become a supply chain specialist to ask better questions. Before your next promotion, assortment change, or delivery commitment, ask: Can the product, information, and financial flows support what we’re promising? Then consider who needs to be involved before that promise is made. That’s the value of building a shared understanding of how retail works. People can see how their decisions affect other teams—and work together to deliver a better result for the business and the shopper. Free download: Product Returns & Inventory Flows A returned product still needs somewhere to go—but moving it is only part of the job. What happens to the inventory record? Who handles the refund or supplier credit? And who makes sure the process is complete? Our one-page reference connects the product, information, and financial flows involved in returns, with practical questions to bring back to your team. Download the free Product Returns & Inventory Flows reference CMKG’s Retail Fundamentals course explores these connections as part of the Understand the Retail Environment learning track. Through our Learn → Connect → Apply approach, retailer and supplier teams connect the concepts to their own business and put them to work. Explore Our Learning Approach

How often do you think about the effect of your decisions or recommendations on a Retailer’s Income Statement? If not often, consider that matching what Retailers are trying to accomplish from a financial perspective will help Retailers make better decisions and Vendors make better recommendations.

Here’s what you need to know about achieving Shopper Satisfaction, Collaboration and Effective Shopper Marketing — Are “Shopper” and/or “Collaboration” on your Strategic Pillars? For most organizations the answer is yes, but many are struggling with how to get any traction. It doesn’t have to stay that way. To succeed, Shopper and Collaboration need to be well-defined and go beyond transactional, one-off projects. Both Retailers and Vendors should begin with these three steps: Step 1. INTERNAL COLLABORATION Before collaborating with each other, Retailers and Vendors need to get on the same “internal“ page. An aligned, collaborative approach to Category and Shopper across their multifunctional teams will include: Define Internal Strategies, Guidelines and Processes associated with their target consumer / Shopper, competitive differentiation, brand and category (including private label or store brands), category roles and strategies, tactical strategies and supply chain strategies. Identify Assets & Best-fit Business Partners, including data & tools, personnel and research. Not all collaboration is created equal and this is a critical step for any organizations who have “collaboration” on their corporate strategies for 2016. Train Multi-functional Teams on Category Management foundations, data and analytics, and category and Shopper understanding (see the FAQs later on in this blog). Step 2. EXTERNAL COLLABORATION Once Retailers and Vendors have their teams working toward the same goals with a unified strategy, they are ready to collaborate externally based on the partnership guidelines they established in Step 1. The Category Management Association has created a free whitepaper on “Strategic Collaboration for Shopper Satisfaction” that delivers big picture perspective on how Retailers and Vendors establish and maintain true collaboration. Step 3. SHOPPER SATISFACTION Through successful collaborative business partnerships between Retailers and Vendors, both can reach consumers with integrated Shopper Marketing across the omnichannel at any point in consumers’ Path to Purchase. Strategy& and PWC’s whitepaper on “Reimagining Shopper Marketing” identifies good models of brand building through omnichannel experiences.

Store clustering is no longer about grouping retail stores based on store size, geography and/or dollar volume. The first step towards true Shopper marketing is building a new set of strategies for store clusters (groups of stores that have similar Shoppers, performance and traits). Then, for individual stores, assembling the right resources with the right ideas and competencies. In short, clusters need to be based on Shopper-focused attributes. By understanding the different demographics within local communities where their stores reside, stores can better meet the needs of a larger range of people. This Shopper-focused store cluster approach enables Retailers to quickly identify clusters of stores with similar demand patterns and focus on the most important target segments. Below are 3 steps to build and define Shopper-focused store clusters.

Your success depends on you and your team’s abilities to utilize rapidly-advancing changes in data, technology and the Shopper. STRATEGIC PRIORITY #1. Improve Your ROI on Data and Technology Purchases. Why is your organization operating like it’s 1999 when it comes to maximizing data and technology? Category Management has now been around for over 30 years. Data and technology continue to evolve and advance, pressuring organizations to invest heavily in new data sources, advanced technologies and market research to better understand their changing and increasingly sophisticated Shoppers.