How to manage your merchandising
1. Design your Brand with the End in Mind
Consider merchandising as you develop your product. Certain colours and designs don’t look good on shelf. Not all colours travel well, white can look crisp and pristine but can also become discoloured in transit. Packaging can get crushed on route to stores. What can you do about this? Ensure that your development process includes conducting transits tests to test the durability of product componentry and packaging.
2: Manage your Packaging In-Store or Hire a Team to Do this for You
Reality check, retailers may be short staffed in-stores. Whilst they hate to be ‘out of stock’ and losing sales, on a busy day if they are short staffed, shelves may stand empty. You may have to provide your own staffing for their stores, or you might be better off employing the services of a merchandising team to travel around the country managing the stocking and merchandising of your products in-stores. Ensuring that your brand is correctly merchandised in-stores through the services of a professional team implementing a well-thought through planogram, could save you a lot of money in lost sales.
3: You can’t Control where you are Positioned in Store
Although I have been involved in many a negotiation with a beauty brand (including with the most premium brands in the most premium stores) with regards to their location in stores, with some refusing to go in unless they were positioned at the front door, remember products and brands are merchandised based on a planogram and their contribution to sales performance. You are not responsible for the stores planogram. So, you will have to compromise. Be prepared to do this. Based on the size of a store and the value of your sales contribution, you will be allocated a space. It may not be what you have in mind, bear in mind you may not be the brand that drives the most sales for this retailer. Accept and be happy with that. This will change store to store dependent on the layout of the store and the brand portfolio.
4: Retail changes Day to Day
Promotional dates change, orders changes, planograms change, sometimes whether a retailer wants to keep your brand in-store changes. That is the nature of retail, you can’t control the way people shop. Accept this, there is nothing you can do about this.
5: Have a Plan A and a Plan B
Plans are great, they provide you with a structure and a vision. But be prepared to flex this, this is the way all successful retailers and brands work. Whilst you have a Plan A for your brand and for your product, as you roll your brand out from retailer to retailer, and market to market, remember you will have to flex this plan to changing demographics so have a Plan B.
Working with Bespoke Advantage
Bespoke Advantage is a London based international beauty brand consultancy. We are a team of experts, associates and business partners specialising in supporting our clients – award-winning entrepreneurs, well established beauty and wellness businesses, retailers, investors, trade bodies and embassies – in developing and growing their brands across the beauty and wellness marketplace. If you are looking to launch a beauty or wellness brand or you are looking for support in expanding your brand across markets, GET IN TOUCH.
