Open and flexible software solution for item level assortment decisions to help you make the most of opportunities for category growth

When you are in search of opportunities for category growth, you face some key choices. For example, will you:

• Focus on existing stores and look to increase consumer spending on your current assortment?
• Consider extending the availability of the items in the current assortment to new stores?
• Look to improve overall performance of the current assortment by adding new products or removing poor performers?
• Take an approach that combines all, or some, of these elements?

In the end it is the choice that the consumer makes at the shelf that matters. Therefore the assortment decisions you make are crucial for you and your business.

Based on an open-systems approach, ProductPlanner is a practical, easy-to-use software solution that helps you make fast, fact-based, item-level decisions about your assortment following a three-step business process.

One. Understand the current performance. ProductPlanner allows you to:

• Select and integrate the internal and external marketing data sources of your choice (from POS to space allocation, or from market research data to inventory costs).
• Drill down to view the status of your current assortment performance from the perspective that matters most to you (from margins to market share)
• Compare this performance against a broader assortment in reference markets (including outputs from relevant consumer studies and consumer research)

Two. Decide on the best strategy for growth. Combine your data with the processing power of ProductPlanner to:

• Make fact-based, quantified assessments about your assortment options, using relevant facts such as customer loyalty, sales volumes and profitability
• Decide what’s performing well and what’s not; what to add and retain, and what to drop
• Assess how to assign your assortment to various stores or store clusters
• Ensure aggregated space requirements match space availability

Three. Define how to implement and measure. Take your decisions and use ProductPlanner to:

• Link to your existing space planning tools and practices
• Automatically update planograms to present your decisions clearly and concisely for fast, accurate and consistent in-store execution
• Analyse the impact of your assortment decisions
• Monitor and adjust your assortment strategy on a continuous basis

Call your ACNielsen representative to find out more about what makes ProductPlanner an essential collaboration tool for manufacturers and retailers to manage their assortments and make the most of opportunities for category growth.