When opening a new store, an entrepreneur inevitably faces the problem of assortment selection. With limited retail space, it is necessary to give preference to those products that will provide the maximum profit. Assortment formation requires serious research both at the initial stage and in the process of work.
Necessary
- - marketing research;
- - ABC-analysis system.
Instructions
Step 1
Conduct marketing research. Select your closest competitors operating in a similar format and analyze their assortment. Identify the most common and common brands and product groups. Consider whether the potential assortment will suit the needs of your target audience. If there are no obvious competitors, conduct a consumer survey to identify their needs and wishes.
Step 2
Use the principles of category management. Divide the entire planned assortment into several groups, and work with each of them separately. For example, if you have a butcher shop, make the categories “raw meat”, “canned food”, “smoked foods and sausages”. After that, think over the composition of each section based on the results of the marketing research conducted earlier. So, the category "raw meat" can include frozen semi-finished products, chilled cuts, chilled semi-finished products with additives, offal. However, if you have a small store in a residential area, it is better to reduce this category to frozen semi-finished products and smoked meats, since all the others are unlikely to be in demand.
Step 3
Purchase the product according to the research carried out and your own forecasts. At the first stage, make purchases in small batches. Try to form an assortment portfolio in such a way that it contains products of different price categories.
Step 4
Take advantage of the ABC analysis principle, which will allow you to identify the most popular as well as the most profitable products. So, group A will include 20% of the goods that will provide you with 80% of your income. It is believed that for a successful business, it is enough to control only this group. However, do not forget about the less popular categories B and C, which provide a rich assortment.
