Merchandising Planning Process
By [Link]
Steps in Merchandising Planning Process
Forcast sales
Buy Merchandise
Develop Assortment Plan Monitor & evaluate & make adjustments Develop inventory Level &Product availability
Plan for managing inventory
Allocate Merchandise For stores
Types of Merchandise planning process
Staple/Basic Merchandise consist of items that are in
continuous demand over an extended time period. Examples: paints, notebooks,
Fashion Merchandise A FAD
consists of items that are in demand for a relatively short period of time. New products are continually introduced into these categories, making the existing products obsolete. Examples: high-end womens apparel, laptops. is a merchandise category that generates a lot of sales for a relatively short time, often less than a [Link]: some electronic games
General Features of Staple Merchandise Categories
Relatively easy to forcast demand and the consequences of making mistakes in forcasting are not great Predictability of demand makes it easy to plan for continuous replenishments Generating orders for inventory replacement can be automatic when the inventory falls below a predetermined level
General Features of Fashion Merchandise Categories
Forecasting of sales is much more complex Buyers for fashion category have much less flexibility in correcting forecasting errors. The attempt is to be as close to out of stock as possible at the same time that the SKUs become out of fashion Seasonal Merchandise categories are treated more or less similar to the fashion merchandise and they consist of items whose sales fluctuate dramatically depending on the time of the year
Category Life Cycle
maturity
Total
retail
sales
growth
decline
introduction
Time
Comparison of Category life cycles -fad, fashion, staple Fad
Sales over many seasons Sales of a specific style over many seasons Dramatic variation of sales from season to next season
Fashion yes
Staple
yes
No
No
no
yes
yes
No
no
Questions that help buyers in distinguishing between a fad and a fashion
1.
Is it compatible with the life style of the consumer? Innovations that are consistent with the life style of the consumers are more enduring fashions. (Example) Denim Jeans Vs Leather Pants Does the innovation provide real benefits? (Example) Poultry and Fish based products VsMutton based specia;l dishes Is the innovation more compatible with other changes in the market place? (Example) Cell phones with more mobile , time conscious society Who is adopting?
3.
4.
Forecasting Staple Merchandise Categories
Extrapolating Historical data with necessary corrections using statistical methods like time series analysis etc
Forecasting Fashion Merchandise Categories
1.
2.
Previous sales data Personal awareness shop, converse, act,
notice
3. Fashion and trend services [Link] 5. Market research
Assortment Plan
It is th list of SKUs that a merchandiser will offer in a retail category Variety is the number of different merchandising
categories offered and is often refered as the breadth
Assortment
or depth is the number of SKUs offered within a category
Determining the Variety & Assortments
1.
Firms Retail Strategy GMROI Physical characteristics of Store Complementary Merchandise
2.
3.
4.
Product Availability
It is the percentage of demand for a particular SKU that is satisfied. Also known as level of support. Higher the availability higher is the need for buffer /basic stock