Authored by Balakrishna Parankusam Venkata
Retail Shelf Merchandising is also known as Planogramming, among other interpretations. For the uninitiated, Planogramming can be defined as the art and science of displaying products / items / Stock (or Store) Keeping Units / brands on the shelf of a retailer, which is based on various parameters on inventory turns, percentage contribution to volumes / sales turnover, based on mutually negotiated terms and conditions between the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) manufacturer and the retailer.
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planogram) defines a Planogram as a diagram of fixtures and products that illustrates how and where retail products should be displayed, usually on a store shelf in order to increase customer purchases. They may also be referred to as plano-grams, plan-o-grams, schematics (archaic) or POGs. Planogramming is a skill developed in the fields of merchandising and retail space planning. A person with this skill can be referred to as a planogrammer.
Having worked as an Operations Manager and subsequently as a Merchandising Manager, planogramming was one of the critical review areas of my daily store / merchandising operations. But due to non-exposure to high end Planogramming tools like JDA’s Intactix or Spaceman or Apollo , the planning, preparation and implementing of POGs was restricted to excel sheets, but as I progressed in my career I was exposed to JDA’s Intactix which totally turned around whatever perceptions I had about the availability and usage of advanced tools for effective building of POGs. But irrespective of the tool or mechanism used the importance of POGs was never lost on the retailer. Many FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) the Indian equivalent of CPG companies have had come forward to do the shelf management for the retailer, free of cost, but somehow the intent and seriousness with which they had started out could not be sustained.
The recent retail boom across India, has resulted in the retailers waking up to the importance of POGs and have built up dedicated teams whose key result areas are POG – ing and visual merchandising.
The objective of this post is not to dissect the defination of POGs or not to understand what it does and what has happened, but what does the future hold for the POGs and few other probing questions like, “How relevant is a POG in the retail industry? Are retailers serious about spending time and money on developing planograms which suit the respective demographic profiles and business requirements of each of the stores or is it “one planogram fits all” principle which is being advocated? If developing and implementing of planograms is considered highly relevant then why is it that the same is not being felt by the retailers? Or is it felt by the retailer and somewhere we are missing the crucial point linking its importance to a retailer’s business? Why is that retail ERP product companies are not big time into devloping and selling POG tools? Why ITES (Information Technology Enabled Servcies) and prominent IT companies are not able to go beyond the tip of the iceberg as far getting high end POG services outsourced?"
Rather than a post, this article, is more like a questionnaire to solicit answers , feedback , views from the readers and followers of this blog.
Retail Shelf Merchandising is also known as Planogramming, among other interpretations. For the uninitiated, Planogramming can be defined as the art and science of displaying products / items / Stock (or Store) Keeping Units / brands on the shelf of a retailer, which is based on various parameters on inventory turns, percentage contribution to volumes / sales turnover, based on mutually negotiated terms and conditions between the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) manufacturer and the retailer.
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planogram) defines a Planogram as a diagram of fixtures and products that illustrates how and where retail products should be displayed, usually on a store shelf in order to increase customer purchases. They may also be referred to as plano-grams, plan-o-grams, schematics (archaic) or POGs. Planogramming is a skill developed in the fields of merchandising and retail space planning. A person with this skill can be referred to as a planogrammer.
Having worked as an Operations Manager and subsequently as a Merchandising Manager, planogramming was one of the critical review areas of my daily store / merchandising operations. But due to non-exposure to high end Planogramming tools like JDA’s Intactix or Spaceman or Apollo , the planning, preparation and implementing of POGs was restricted to excel sheets, but as I progressed in my career I was exposed to JDA’s Intactix which totally turned around whatever perceptions I had about the availability and usage of advanced tools for effective building of POGs. But irrespective of the tool or mechanism used the importance of POGs was never lost on the retailer. Many FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) the Indian equivalent of CPG companies have had come forward to do the shelf management for the retailer, free of cost, but somehow the intent and seriousness with which they had started out could not be sustained.
The recent retail boom across India, has resulted in the retailers waking up to the importance of POGs and have built up dedicated teams whose key result areas are POG – ing and visual merchandising.
The objective of this post is not to dissect the defination of POGs or not to understand what it does and what has happened, but what does the future hold for the POGs and few other probing questions like, “How relevant is a POG in the retail industry? Are retailers serious about spending time and money on developing planograms which suit the respective demographic profiles and business requirements of each of the stores or is it “one planogram fits all” principle which is being advocated? If developing and implementing of planograms is considered highly relevant then why is it that the same is not being felt by the retailers? Or is it felt by the retailer and somewhere we are missing the crucial point linking its importance to a retailer’s business? Why is that retail ERP product companies are not big time into devloping and selling POG tools? Why ITES (Information Technology Enabled Servcies) and prominent IT companies are not able to go beyond the tip of the iceberg as far getting high end POG services outsourced?"
Rather than a post, this article, is more like a questionnaire to solicit answers , feedback , views from the readers and followers of this blog.