It’s no accident that some of the most well-known brand name products are featured right at eye level in the center of your local grocery store’s shelves. It’s actually the result of careful and strategic planning.
Every retailer has their own process for creating planograms—detailed plans of how to arrange items in the store in order to maximize sales. Many accept the help, at least in part, of the CPGs and supplier brokers who make and deliver the products they feature on their shelves—a service those CPGs and brokers have offered historically. While cost-effective, there can be drawbacks to this approach. For example, each CPG is naturally inclined to promote its own products first, and rarely are the provided resources dedicated solely to a single retailer, potentially putting the security of each one’s data at risk.
In late 2014, Kroger, the second largest general retailer in the U.S. and an industry innovator, sought to remove the bias from this traditional planning model by assigning the work to a third party. After a competitive bidding process, SAS Retail was awarded the opportunity to serve as Kroger’s dedicated partner for general merchandise and apparel planogram development. SAS launched the Kroger Planogram Center of Excellence (PCOE) West, located in Portland, Oregon, on April 1, 2015.
“This is a very exciting opportunity for SAS to expand our partnership with Kroger in an area that helps them truly change the game,” says Mark Oliverio, SAS Regional Vice President. “SAS now supports the analytics, planning and merchandise presentation for general merchandise and apparel products in Kroger’s nearly 2,700 stores nationwide. By integrating with Kroger’s systems, we’re able to use sales and industry trend data to ensure stores are showcasing the right mix and assortment of both national and private brand products in alignment with Kroger’s vision. In addition, the decisions that our team makes in partnership with Kroger’s merchandising managers directly impact store inventory levels to ensure they’re not over-inventoried on slower moving items.”
“We have assembled a diverse group of talented professionals to run our operation, now onsite at the Kroger West/Fred Meyer main office,” continues Oliverio. “This has enabled us to act as an extension of the Kroger team and to seamlessly service the entire enterprise, including Kroger banner stores, as well as Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Dillons, Ralph’s, Food 4 Less, QFC, Smith’s and King Soopers.”
In addition to receiving unbiased, data-driven planograms, hiring SAS to run the Kroger PCOE has offered a number of other benefits to the retailer. “The new model helps keep Kroger’s data and information secure. They also benefit from a greater level of control over their shelves and product placement, without incurring incremental expense,” says Oliverio. “Overall this has been an exciting time for Kroger, and all of us at SAS are proud to be their partner.”
To learn more about SAS Retail’s general merchandise planogram capabilities, contact Mark Oliverio at moliverio@sasretailservices.com.