How to Make a Planogram: From Basic Design Tips to Advanced Software Analytics

How to Make a Planogram: From Basic Design Tips to Advanced Software Analytics 150 150 Scorpion Planogram

Even retailers who have had formal training and tutelage under an experienced merchandising analyst may feel uncertainty about building and implementing a planogram design on their own for the first time. Some store owners make planograms without a formal merchandising background, but a lifelong education in the family business, may feel apprehension about using new planogram design software for the first time. When it comes to making a planogram, things are a lot easier when you have powerful and user-friendly software that lets you quickly learn how to play with shelf design and communicate planogram templates with sales associates and suppliers alike.

Here’s something else store owners, brand managers, and retailers of all stripes quickly learn on the job: While it’s important to know the fundamentals of planogram design, the best planograms are also customized for each client’s retail space, brand, and product assortment. There is no one-size-fits-all solution that is also a competition-beater. With this in mind, we wanted to offer basic design tips as well as insights into how to make a planogram that’s customized for floor plans, merchandising strategy, sales optimization, and brand marketing.

An Introduction to Planogram Building

Planograms, shelf allocation, and micro space planning can also have an impact on whole store sales performance and the best strategy for retail space optimization. For this reason, building a planogram starts with retail floor planning for the whole store. Where will the shelved aisles be? What will the end caps look like? What space will be allocated to wall displays? Once you have a general layout for your store—even if it’s a tentative, modular store design—you can begin the process of micro space planning.

You can find similar online tutorials for how to make a planogram, but here is our take on the fundamentals of planogram design.

  • The first step is to define the purpose of each planogram. Is it a shelf designed to maximize product facings and range assortment? Is a featured merchandising display intended to sell hot, fashionable items? Is it a vertical riser meant to showcase smaller, uniform items? Is it an endcap or centrally located aisle for seasonal item merchandising? Knowing the role and goal of each planogram is critical to smart design.
  • Planograms are about space optimization, and you can’t optimize what you don’t measure. You should have accurate measurements of aisle length and width, shelf rise and depth, section length, fixture height, and wall displays. And if you decide to change something in the middle of the design process, you need to keep accurate tabs on how this affects the measurements of adjacent spaces. Essentially, you should have every last inch accounted for.
  • With accurate dimensions, it’s possible to populate the shelf space with the best possible arrangement of products based on market research, sales data, and basic merchandising principles like including top selling items and brands at eye level to boost sales. These design decisions can also help you better manage inventory, seasonal sales, and brand marketing. Planograms can help with inventory management, but shelf design and product sales must also be accurately reported to retail suppliers.
  • The best-made planograms may still not be effective if the designs aren’t reflected by in-store shelf displays. Known as planogram compliance, narrowing the gap between design and on-shelf availability requires every part of the supply chain and sales team to be on the same page. With time, experimentation, and accurate reporting, smart retailers can go from the fundamentals of planogram design to true space optimization for their individual stores.

How to Make a Planogram with Our Software

Our software offers customized design templates that allow for easy viewing and manipulation of shelf displays. A 3D interactive viewer is just the tool you need for visually appealing merchandising displays. When implementing new planogram designs, some of the secondary effects of these updates can be unexpected. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be measured. More than the initial planogram design, our combination of Category Insights and Retail Floor Planning provide the necessary tools to revisit product facings, shelf space allocation, and store planning.

best planogram software for in-house space planning

Better yet, a data-driven approach doesn’t require a huge investment of time and resources. While planograms need regular attention and communication with suppliers for better compliance and on-shelf availability, this doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel every time out. By indicating shelf fixtures, point-of-sales, and basic floor designs, our Automation planogram feature will auto-populate product facings for optimized sales.

Retailers who are ready to implement a full-service planogram software system with store and range assortment planning will also want to check out our Scorpion One platform. This solution allows you to leverage all of these retail planogram features with synchronized sales data, so you don’t have to learn and navigate multiple applications.

Add Scorpion Planogram Software to Your Business Resources

While many fundamental principles of planogram building never change, even the most experienced and gifted retailers recognize how important it is to stay up-to-date with the latest merchandising and planogram design trends. Get the type of results these experienced merchandisers routinely achieve with a minimal amount of investment and operational cost. Discover how Scorpion Planogram software can create sustained sales success and take your retail business to the next level.

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