With a myriad of products to choose from and rising customer expectations, retailers are faced with overwhelming challenges to accurately align product selections with consumer preferences. Retailers can no longer use a cookie-cutter assortment approach simply because stores have similar sales volumes and size. Instead, retailers must align assortments with their unique customer base that are influenced by consumer buying patterns. In this article promoting our upcoming webinar, we share our top three best practices to help retailers create localized, consumer-centric assortment plans that will increase profitability and help drive the bottom line. For even more tips on how to optimize the assortment planning process, make sure to register for our webinar at https://mi9retail.wpengine.com/create-localized-consumer-centric-assortment-plans/
1. Always Keep Your Financial Objectives in Mind
By creating data-driven, customer-centric assortment plans that are aligned to financial and open-to-buy targets, retailers can truly set themselves up for success. What’s more, better understanding inventory needs and keeping processes simple and manageable can help retailers drive higher revenues and fewer markdowns.
2. Leverage Site Clustering
Utilizing site clustering strategies enable retailers to move away from cookie cutter assortment offerings that no longer resonate with consumers. By making the most of site clustering, item placeholder logic and other machine learning techniques, retailers can seed assortment plans automatically.
3. Create a Single Picture of the Assortment Plan
Assortment planning solutions should be designed to support a continuous planning process that joins pre-season and in-season planning aspects together and adjusts on an ongoing basis to properly manage new item introductions, ongoing core items and end of life items.