Assortment analysis at the point of sale
Well-known manufacturers in the consumer goods industry rely on appJobber and its community to efficiently check the implementation of listings and product placements at the POS. Realograms, which make the number and location of products on the shelf analysable, have become an indispensable part of assortment analyses.
appJobber and its crowd are on site all over Europe to quickly, reliably and inexpensively survey the actual situation in supermarkets, drugstores, pharmacies and petrol stations, among others. From the photos taken at the POS, appJobber then reads out relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) for its customers and, if necessary, compares them with the positions of competitors.
From Out-of-Stock to Share of Shelf
Whether nationwide or regional, whether for a selected retailer or different market participants: with appJobber, brand manufacturers keep an eye on the placement of their products at the POS.
In data formats that can be easily imported into their own systems, appJobber customers receive the exact information they need. For example:
- which products are available on site, which are missing from the range?
- Out-of-Shelf/Out-of-Stock of products
- New listings of competitors or discontinuations of own products
- the placement of products on the shelf or the degree of implementation of given planograms
- the share-of-shelf as well as contact routes of specific brands, manufacturers, sub-categories or product groups
- the shelf price of each product
Assortment analyses as the basis for successful category management
The collection of this information helps different departments to improve the performance of defined key figures. In particular, employees from sales, trade marketing or category management gain important insights through the checks and can initiate measures to improve the placement of products at the POS.
Valuable insights from the on-site assortment analysis can be, for example:
- which competitors' products are directly next to your own?
- what is the price range of the competition's products?
- what depth of range do the competitors achieve on the shelf?
- how high on the shelf are the company's own products - also in comparison to the retailer's own brand?
- are the products that are listed actually available in the store?
- Have shelf stoppers, product notices or promotional prices been placed as agreed?
- is the product name and quantity on the price label correct?
Sensible supplement to the field service
Manufacturers who want to document said information in the stores through their own sales force regularly come up against limits:
During their visits, the company's own sales representatives often simply do not have the time to create extensive image material or to directly analyse the product range on the shelf.
In addition, it is usually not possible for the sales force to visit all retail outlets - they usually concentrate on the more successful stores. In the process, the less well-run outlets are easily lost sight of, which distorts later evaluations.
By using appJobber for assortment and placement analysis, on the other hand, the client receives comprehensive information. Depending on the specifications, hundreds or thousands of stores can be visited cost-effectively to collect representative data.
On the basis of the data from the appJobber projects, the sales representatives of the manufacturers can then visit those stores where there is a need for action, for example because
- the goods are not available on the shelf
- the placement strategy was not implemented as agreed
- Products have been discontinued cold, i.e. are missing together with the corresponding shelf price label.