Space Management-A Science
Uday Devdas Menon
A lot of us who are involved with this Blog share a common Platform. We have worked with a company called Symphony Services which is a pioneer in Asia in terms of actively working on projects related to Category Management and Space planning. Space Management as a science is very nascent in India as there are not many retailer who use scientific tools and analytics to allocate category space. It is very advanced and well-rooted into the retail system of Europe and North America. A lot of retailers and CPG Manufacturers have an active tie-up and teams of specialists who are competent in using tools like Galleria's Spaceman, IRI'S Apollo or JDA's Intactix Space Planning Plus for creating Planograms and Floor plans
The primary objective of most retailers is a better Return on Investment and better Return per Square feet utilized. The advantage of Space Management is that if done scientifically, it can take care of the excess inventory issues, Out of Stock issues and ensure proper stock rotation. A small but very well-recieved advantage is also that stores that are scintifically planogrammed are lesser prone to losing customers because of stocks-out. When accurately done, the results are clearly visible to all that SKU level profitablilty goes up and the opportunity cost in terms of space utilization comes down.
India will not take too long to reach a stage where Scientific Assortment Building, Space Planning and high end Analytics becomes an integral part of its retail processes. At the rate at which Retailers are coming into the country, it does not seem a long way off. Already Metro Cash & Carry practices this and even have dedicated professionals on the job. Reilance, with its retail venture has also committed a team to focus on analytics and planning. The road ahead definitely looks sunny for Space Managers in India.
9 comments:
Having worked on the Space Planning applications, I share the author's enthusiasm for a greater role of scientific assortment planning tools in the Indian retail scenario.
Companies like Procter & Gamble, Colgate India Limited have initiated scientific space planning efforts, but it is in the nascent stage.
The day these initiatives come out of the labs and are implemented, it will completely change the face of Indian retailing.
It will result in better return on investment, sleeker inventory management and customer centric retail space management.
--Bala
Small observation - the Spaceman Suite of software belongs to AC Nielsen.
Galleria are large malls that may be using Spaceman as a Space Planning Tool - the reason why the author of the comment mentions it as Galleria's -- anybody aware of the Space Planning Tools the major retailers of the world use?
--Rebecca :)
As rightly observed by Rebecca spaceman suite belongs to AC Nielsen. Galleria is space planning tool widely used in Europe. There are few malls of DFS( Duty Free Shops) with the name Galleria in US, Europe and China...
As rightly observed by Rebecca.. Spaceman suite belongs to AC Neilsen.
Galleria is a space planning tool widely used in Europe by lots of retail and CPG companies.
There are big shopping malls of DFS (Duty Free Shops) under the name "Galleria" which are spread across US, Europe and China.
..Neeraj
star, your comment is very educated and shows a lot practical work on this topic. please post more content on the same blog as it'l only be more learning for all of us.....
hey thats lot of blog on space planning tools and the value adds....
i agree totally to the value which a space management tool can add on but probably it will take some time for the indian retailers to realise and reap these benefits as right now only a handful are practising it...
besides not many category captains are bringing upon the concept and putting a framework...
but heard cadbury's india is setting up something on these lines...
i needed to know what are the cost elements involved in it.
let me know what would be the costs of such tools..
happy weekend...
Prabhu
while on Space Planning tools, is anyone aware of IRI's Apollo? in it new avatar called "Designer Workstation" it has apparently bridged the gap betn itself and Intactix and is going places ....
If you've heard of Jim Roy (or is it GMROI :-?) in Space Planning context, you might see what I see -huge scope for an Analytical Solution which could revolutionize Space Planning - Space-Elasticity of Demand Model driven Space-plan optimization. If anyone is willing to invest & market this seriously, I'm prepared to quit my high-paying job and partner full-time ....
IRI's Apollo space planning suite includes a number of modules from planogram creation/analysis through floor planning to web publishing. Designer Workstation is a rule based planogram generator. What sets it apart from Galleria, for instance, is that it can be instantly installed on a desktop. Essentially it allows merchandisers to build a set of rules based on which the tool automatically produces store-specific planograms.
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