Home > Business Solutions - 3D Category Management

Category Management is a retailing concept in which the total range of products sold by a retailer is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are defined as product categories.  Examples of categories include Dairy, Meat, Fish, Pharmacy, Household, Clothes, etc, and many categories are then broken down into sub-categories, where Dairy for instance would include, milk, yellow fats, yogurt, etc.

Each category has a Category Manager, and usually sub-category managers under them (certainly in large stores), and each are given Margin Targets for the category/sub-category (a % profit that they are required to achieve for their area of responsibility).

To achieve Margin Target it is necessary for Category Managers to sell as much high margin product as possible (always on higher shelves), in order to balance the sale of high volume low margin goods (which are always on lower shelves).

Buzz 3D Solution
Whether you are a Retailer, or a Manufacturer where you adopt a collaborative role with the Retailer and advise with regard to ‘what goes where on shelves’ in order to maximise the joint return, Buzz 3D offers a powerful visual solution.

If you are a Manufacturer, with individual or multiple brands, 3D Category Manager can –

1. Enable you to display both your own products and those of your competitors on shelves exactly as they would be seen in a real world Retail environment, Supermarket, Corner Store, etc.

2. Via the integrated and powerful MySQL database position the products on a shelf to maximise interest, and potentially associate Margin and Volume in order to undertake ‘What If’ scenarios.

3. Provide better support for your National Account Managers in order to help the Supermarket Buyer manage the Category more effectively.

If you are a Retailer, in addition to visual representation –

1. The internal Analytical capabilities of 3D Planogram can facilitate Micromarketing through the exploration of different ‘What If’ scenarios relating to volume & turnover parameters for each shelf, which in turn generate individual and accumulative resulting margins per Category or sub-category.

2. It would also be possible to import real-time data from the tills for individual stores or geographic regions, or linked to Loyalty/Club Card data, thereby simulating in a dynamic and highly visual 3D environment what is actually happening in the ‘here and now’.  Subsequent analysis could then also be visualised in support of future Marketing initiatives and Training.

To read a full Executive Summary on the software's key features please click here or for further enquiries and to try our software first hand please contact our CEO, Ian Medhurst at ian@buzz3d.com.

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Category Management