Within the retail sphere, customer desires are clear-cut: they seek effortless product discovery and a hassle-free shopping venture. Falling short in these areas jeopardizes a store’s standing as a go-to shopping spot. That’s precisely why an exceptional customer experience hinges on adept space planning.
Known as a planogram, space planning entails optimizing a store’s layout and product positioning to enrich customer experiences and drive sales. Effective tactics involve placing high-demand and seasonal items near entrances, ensuring visibility in crucial zones, and adjusting layouts based on sales data and customer input.
In the Philippines, planogram creation is primarily manual, despite retailers using digital tools for sales analysis. However, for larger retailers handling vast data and numerous products, manual tweaks can become overwhelming.
Advanced technology now enables AI-driven retail space planning. RELEX Solutions, a prominent supply chain and retail solutions provider, sheds light on this burgeoning trend.
“A store-specific planogram caters to a particular store or location. Unlike a standardized planogram for multiple stores, it considers unique store characteristics like layout, customer demographics, and sales data,” explained Donald “DJ” Felbaum, Head of Sales for the Philippines at RELEX Solutions. “Tailored to individual needs, it optimizes product placement and merchandising to bolster sales and enhance service.”
Yet, this is often seen as challenging and time-consuming due to lengthy and costly implementation projects. Imagine a retailer with 1,000 stores needing weekly updates to five planograms each. It’s an impractical task without AI assistance. AI streamlines the process by configuring parameters across thousands of planograms, slashing costs and avoiding inventory adjustments.
AI-generated local planograms offer precise shelf configuration and one-touch replenishment, minimizing inventory handling and maximizing storage efficiency. Additionally, they provide standardized merchandising reports, empowering retailers to optimize placement, pricing, and inventory management.
These store-specific planograms epitomize the future of retail space planning, enabling swift adaptation to market shifts, elevating customer experience, boosting profitability, and nurturing brand loyalty. Harnessing advanced technology ensures a tailored approach, culminating in enhanced customer satisfaction and optimized product placement.
