The 8th Joy of a Retail Spring: Defining Omnichannel Assortments

The 8th Joy of a Retail Spring: Defining Omnichannel Assortments

The question “how much product should I put in my stores?” has always generated animated and healthy debate amongst retail businesses.

That question, and the discussions around it, just got a whole lot more complicated as the opportunities and threats of e-commerce and true omni-channel assortment allocation has made store capacities one of the most important decisions for retailers to get right.

 

The reduction of physical store capacities for an omni-channel retailer, supported by flexible and reliable inter-channel replenishment, allows the development of inspirational, best-seller focused, showcase store experiences.


The inability to edit  assortments effectively will continue to weigh down physical stores with the burden of carrying an unnecessary complete inventory.

  • how should  I allocate my assortment across physical and on-line channels?
  • what percentage of my stock should I allocate to stores?
  • which categories should I focus on selling in my stores?
  • what omni-channel services do I need to employ to deliver across channels?
  • what store experience features should I employ to maximise the visual impact, proposition and message of the product and the retail brand?

How we can help… Omni-channel assortment editing & allocation

 

“How should my assortment be edited and allocated to deliver a more commercial omni-channel proposition and a commercial physical store capacity, by how many options should it be reduced, which products should be edited, and which remaining products should form the new physical store assortment structure?

Overview:

A combination of qualitative and quantitative benchmarking of both the in-store and online assortments of commercial best practice competitors, and the internal KPI assessment by best seller, worst seller and 80:20 breakdowns of the client’s in-store and online assortments.

  • External benchmarking – “looking outside”
  • Quantitative benchmarking of best practice competitor physical store assortment and online assortment by total size and by department, category, brands and other segment…
  • Internal benchmarking – “looking inside”
  • Quantitative assessment within typical client stores of total assortment capacities and breakdown by department, category, brand and other relevant segments
  • Quantitative Assortment benchmarking of the client online store assortment
  • Cross-analysis of major segments and percentage of space against percentage of sales/profit
  • Analysis of the variation between clients online and store assortments
  • Comparison of assortment differences of online and stores between client and best practice competitors

Benefits

  • Identify the principles of edited store assortments of best practice competitors for application to client assortment structures – as a total and by department, category, brands and other relevant segments
  • To identify by segment and range the relative sales contribution online and in physical stores, and to equate this to the physical assortment present in store
  • To conclude the size and breakdown by department, category, brand…the optimum client omnichannel assortment for stores

Process:

  • Online & store assortment structure measurement and analysis of best practice competitors
  • Online & store assortment structure measurement, analysis and comparison for client stores
  • Client KPI sales analysis for online & in-stores by total, department, category and sku
  • Recommendation of quantitative and qualitative assortment editing and grading for stores

 

Aggressive actions (from a potentially long list):

  • reduce physical store assortment capacities
  • re-focus store selling on best selling merchandise
  • create Wow! displays using store space to show off edited ranges
  • control more effectively store replenishment processes
  • communicate more clearly Omni-channel services

 

Check out more of our series of “audits, analysis, answers & aggressive actions”