Overview:

Growth of Merchandising Services from $18 Million to $30 Million*: Associate led effort with national drug store chain to expand numerous categories being served by the merchandising organization’s continuity program.  Categories included household plastics, hardware/paint, insecticides, suntan, pet care, durable medical equipment, party paper & supplies. Retailer results from increased coverage included significant improvement in speed to shelf, higher category sales and improved customer satisfaction.  Merchandising revenue from retailer grew from approx. $18M to approx. $30M over five years.

    Problems / Challenges Faced:

• Associate's merchandising organization was doing significant amounts of work for the retailer, but the project work load fluctuated significantly every two weeks

• The amount of merchandising work was constantly growing

• Problem for retailer was that they did not know how to work with a merchandising organization and expand effective use of merchandising

     Solution:

• Associate identified categories that were not being effectively  merchandised

• Associate met with retailer's category managers and educated them on what could be done

• Associate met with numerous manufacturer's team leads that were calling on the retailer.  Helped manufacturers understand how effective merchandising would benefit them.  Key benefits that the manufacturers wanted:

  • Speed to shelf - all new products on shelves in two weeks (was actually accomplished)

  • Manufacturer had more control over item placement - where their product would be on the shelf, improved planogram compliance and integrity.

• Key benefits retailer received:

  • Speed to shelf - all new products on shelves in two weeks (was actually accomplished)

  • A single point of responsibility (Associate)

  • Manageable, predictable costs

  • Full capacity, store by store reporting resulted from data collected by merchandising organization

  • Saved retailer's managers significant amounts of time by reducing number of merchandising and manufacturer personnel that managers had to work with

• Merchandiser was paid by retailer, but funds actually came from manufacturers

Results:

• Growth of Merchandising Services from $18 Million to $30 Million per year over 8 years

• Lessons learned and reference account helped Associate's company to close 3 or 4 additional major preferred retailer accounts, generating many millions in merchandising revenue.