In the brick and mortar retail business product placement is extremely important. Investing in a product line of your own is not only a monetary investment but also an investment in your time. Making sure you give yourself the opportunity for success is something you owe yourself. The choice to add your own line of products as an additional revenue stream is something that could take your business to the next level or give you the financial freedom you are looking for.
Proper Placement
A common phrase in the retail industry is “eye level is buy level.” Products at eye level are literally more likely to catch your eye, providing such products with more visibility than products at waist level or ankle level. It is not uncommon to find new products or the store’s own products being stored at eye level. Convenience stores and grocery stores typically charge premiums for manufacturers seeking to promote their products at the eye level.
I have visited many salons and often times I see the products pushed off to the corner or behind the reception counter. Looking around the salon I know that space is limited and booth rentals are important revenue for many salon owners. Adding shelves on the sides of the mirror at each station to showcase your line could increase your retail sale without taking up valuable shop real estate.
What is a planogram?
Planograms are predominantly used in retail businesses. A planogram defines the location and quantity of products to be placed on display. The rules and theories for creating planograms are set under the terms of merchandising.
The image shows the height and placement you should think about when designing your product displays. Using a Planogram can
- Grabbing a consumer’s attention using a pleasing layout
- Creating incentives to trade-up to higher margin items
- Emphasizing bestsellers using placement
- Tracking success and failures to offer future improvement
- Monitor inventory and reduce both overstocked and out-of-stock products
How Analyzing my Sales?
You should be taking into account each product and the placement of the item on your shelves. Things you should ask yourself when analyzing this data are. What items are not selling? What items are selling the best? Are the hair types from my clientele only supporting certain product types? What were my sells from last month and what were they last year at this time? Historical data is a retailers friend.
Once you identify a possible trend in placement selling you can test your theory by swapping products placements to see if this increases or decreases sales. If I swap the product location does it improve the sales of the item that wasn’t selling the previous month? When you find the area that is consistently selling better that is the location for your highest profit margin products.
Thinking about these things as you examine your monthly sales data will help you grow the line of products that are selling and save you money on those products that are not selling. Finding those items that are not selling and removing them from your inventory will help you have more space for your products that are selling.
Additional Resources
Tool for creating planogram https://www.smartdraw.com/planogram/
Sales Analysis Magazine http://analytics-magazine.org/basic-sales-analysis/