The store is more important than ever before. It is now the primary demand generator with over 70% of purchase decisions made at the shelf. In this environment, the role of the store is to help the shopper construct the information needed to make the “right choice”… by making the time invested to shop worthwhile. This means using merchandising to spark creative thinking, showing the shopper who is just looking where to find relevant ideas, helping connect product differences to important purchase requirements and helping the shopper invest time wisely by providing an information rich experience that has solution relevance.

The effectiveness of the overall shopping experience can be affected by store layout; communication on the shelf and on the product; location in the store, in the aisle and on the shelf; product adjacencies; shelf arrangement; fixtures; category assortment; product promotion; pricing, in-stock conditions and other factors within the store.

It is the goal of in-store merchandising is to create an effective shopping experience that builds sales by converting shoppers into buyers which in turn creates satisfied and loyal shoppers for the retailer. The key to making this happen is providing the shopper with the information they need to make an emotionally satisfying decision in the store.

In this environment, the role of the CPG manufacturer should be to assist the retailer in development of merchandising strategies and tactics, to be a key resource to the retailer and to provide those support capabilities required to enhance the effectiveness of the shopping experience in the categories in which it competes. Retailers cannot do it alone.

Our Experience and Expertise

Our senior consultants, with both retail and manufacturer management and consulting experience; our highly efficient analytic capabilities; our extensive experience in developing merchandising strategies and tactics; and our leadership in development of the beyond category management Shopper Centric RetailingSM model enables WWA to be a valuable resource to our CPG manufacturer’s. Our experience includes:

Our Approach

We employ a four step approach to the development of merchandising solutions that will enhance brand and category performance...and the shopping experience.

Step #1: Analysis and Assessment of Current Practices

We utilize available research to understand category based consumer decision hierarchy and potential applications; the shopper decision process during the shopping moment; and consumer purchase drivers and behaviors by brand and channel. Retailer merchandising practices and operating requirements across channels, customers and formats are identified. We analyze current assortment, space and in-store merchandising executions across channels, customers and individual stores versus sales velocity and inventory performance. WWA's proprietary technology and extensive analytical capability is used to efficiently address a broad range of issues related to assortment, space and merchandising planning.

Step #2: Merchandising Strategy Development for each Brand

We define merchandising strategies for each brand based on the consumer decision hierarchy, consumer shopping habits, retailer operating parameters, product assortment, space utilization and inventory management requirements.

Step #3: Define Optimal Solutions and Vehicles

Based on our analysis and the merchandising strategy for each brand, we develop the role and tactical guidelines for each key merchandising vehicle.

• Assortment and plan-o-gram
• POS: shelf, off-shelf/in-store signage
• Special packaging, on-pack communication
• Category section or end-aisle communication centers
• Category merchandising tools
• Shopper take-away information tools
• Cross-promotions across categories
• Out-of-store communications that complement in-store
  (loyalty program communications, web, mass media, Direct Mail)
  plus whatever else is possible

Step # 4: Segment Solutions

The final step is utilizing available segmentation analysis to develop channel, customer, store cluster and store specific plans for assortment, shelving and merchandising initiatives. We align brand segmentation with the retailers store cluster and store specific segmentation. It is necessary for manufacturers to work collaboratively with retailers to target the most attractive stores and the most important consumer segments. The targeting of assortment and shelving approaches as well as merchandising programs leads to maximizing ROI across all activities.

Assortment and Space Optimization

We have unique capabilities that enable manufacturers to influence retailer decisions by assisting them in determining how to best allocate brand, category, aisle, department and center-of-store space, across all stores. Our proprietary capabilities combine information from existing space management software with output from store specific POS movement, cost and retail price files. We also incorporate retail specific merchandising rules at the category or sub-category level. Our data engine provides highly sophisticated technology to perform analytics at the store and category levels… across stores. The results of this analysis include the ability to tailor product assortment to the retail marketplace, optimize inventory to customer demand, improve ROI on all items and find space to support new merchandising initiatives.

Read more about Center Store Space Optimization (Click Here)

This can provide manufacturers with:

• The unique capability of being able to find “other space” for retailers to reduce…it positions manufacturers to protect or expand valuable brand/category space.
  
  
• A fact-based understanding of category dynamics across a store as well as across all stores…manufacturers are no longer dealing with averages across stores.
  
  
• Added value to a manufacturer’s category management offering.