The Real Cost of Assortment Planning Mistakes

Published on: 24 October 2018 Last Updated on: 22 February 2020
Assortment Planning Mistakes

In the world of e-commerce, there are many practices, concepts, and techniques that can help you boost your revenue and enjoy some extra profits. One of the least mentioned category of mistakes in this manner – and yet one of the most important – focus on the mistakes related to the assortment.

In other words, these mistakes include all the wrong moves that e-commerce store owners are making during the buying process. The real trouble of these mistakes is the fact that many are unaware of their real cost.

This is why we have decided to guide our readers in on the dangers of improper assortment planning – and how it can be fixed. The key, as you will notice in the sections below, is to optimize the process of buying inventory and therefore match the customer demand in a perfectly precise way.

Mistake #1: Using Excel to Track Your Buying Process:

One of the biggest mistakes that e-commerce owners make is the use of Microsoft Excel as a way to track their buying. Even though this seems as a logical way to organize your buying process, spreadsheets are generally a bad way to organize your information.

Speaking of, anything that contains information in categories (added manually) has to be automated. In times when e-commerce owners are experiencing a magnitude of orders online, adding buys manually is time consuming – which is why it needs to be automated.

Mistake #2: Improper Arrangement of Clusters:

Clusters are the next mistake we are focusing on, and one that is tremendously big nowadays. The main way in which e-commerce managers are making it is by assigning every store to a single cluster – which needs to be reorganized.

More importantly, products need to be clustered at a product class level, and use the information in quantities (before the assortments are bought). By doing this, you can link the buying process to the actual allocation and eliminate problems before it’s too late.

Mistake #3: Inter-Store Inventory Balancing:

If you ever caught yourself in a situation where you are losing sales in on store due to your lack of stock for a particular item, you are probably having the same product sitting and collecting dust on the shelves of another store (if you manage more than one store).

At this point, the best way to solve this problem is by a simple trick – which does not involve the purchase of new inventory or the elimination of the inventory in one store so that it can be moved to another.

Alternatively, you should use a smart predictive analysis engine and a tool that is known as “Inter-Store Inventory Balancing” to analyze every single influencing factor of your retail supply chain. As an advanced form of analytics, a tool like this will recommend the optimal inter-store transfer schedule so that you move merchandise from one store to another (from low to high demand).

Mistake #4: Going Big (Instead of Going Custom):

A lot of multi-channel retailers are nowadays focused on the “best rated” programs and solutions for optimizing their assortment planning. And while in most of the cases programs like these are built to last and cover as many aspects of product assortment as possible, they usually lack the functions that are needed in specific situations.

For example, these programs often fail to calculate hundreds of algorithms on the kind of Big Data that today’s omni-channel retail products are able to churn out on a daily basis. Therefore, the general conclusion that we can all take from this mistake is to properly analyze your needs and implement a solution to analytics that works for you as you scale your business, is end-to-end integrated and coordinated between your merchandising and marketing.

Final Words:

At the end of the day, we all must accept the fact that mistakes linked to product assortment happen all of the time – and there is no harm in admitting that.

As a retail expert, however, you should always be able to know how to fix them. Your assortment needs to be consistent, scalable, matching your needs and optimized for your specific customers.

This is what proper assortment planning is all about. Ultimately, it is what will help you determine how much of your merchandise should be placed on your shelf. The end result of proper planning goes a long way – mostly resulting in increased sales and improved customer satisfaction.

Read Also:

7 Proven Marketing Tactics To Increase Your ROI In 2018

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

View all posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

Franchise Digital Marketing

Franchise Digital Marketing: 4 Effective Techniques

Marketing is the backbone of every business. Whether you are a small business owner or a franchise owner, marketing is something that you cannot ignore. However, when it comes to franchises, marketing can be a tough nut to crack. As a franchise owner, you have multiple stakeholders to consider, and you need to maintain a consistent brand image across all your locations. However, with the advent of digital marketing, things have become a lot easier. In this article, we are going to discuss 4 franchise digital marketing tactics that can help you grow your business. 4 Franchise Digital Marketing Tools Let’s take a look at 4 common digital marketing tactics you can try out for your franchised business. 1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search Engine Optimization or SEO is one of the most effective digital marketing tactics that can help your franchise business. SEO helps your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERP), which drives more traffic to your website. When it comes to franchises, SEO is essential to ensure that all your locations appear in local searches. Local SEO helps businesses appear in Google’s Map Pack, which is an organic search result that displays local businesses in a specific area. By implementing local SEO tactics such as claiming your Google My Business (GMB) listing, optimizing your website for local keywords, and building local citations, you can improve your search engine rankings and attract more customers to your franchise locations. 2. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Pay-per-click advertising is a digital advertising model that allows businesses to pay for ad placements on search engine results pages (SERP), social media platforms, or other websites. PPC advertising can be a great way to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your franchise website. However, when it comes to franchises, it is essential to ensure that all your ads are consistent with your brand guidelines. By creating a centralized ad campaign that can be modified and localized for each franchise location, you can maintain a consistent brand image across your entire franchise network. 3. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing is a great way to connect with your audience and build brand awareness. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can help you reach potential customers and engage with your existing audience. When it comes to franchises, social media marketing can help you maintain a consistent brand image across all your locations. By creating a centralized social media strategy and providing localized content to each franchise location, you can ensure that all your social media accounts are consistent with your brand guidelines. 4. Email Marketing Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing tactics available. By building an email list of your existing customers, you can keep them informed about your latest offers, promotions, and events. When it comes to franchises, email marketing can be a great way to stay in touch with your customers across all your locations. By creating a centralized email marketing campaign and providing localized content for each franchise location, you can ensure that all your email marketing campaigns are consistent with your brand guidelines. Implement Digital Marketing Techniques to Drive Online Traffic to Your Franchise When it comes to franchises, digital marketing can be a powerful tool to drive growth and maintain a consistent brand image across all your locations. By implementing these digital marketing tactics, you can improve your search engine rankings, increase brand awareness, connect with your audience, and stay in touch with your customers. However, digital marketing is an ever-evolving field, and it is essential to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices to ensure the success of your franchise business. Read Also: Stay Competitive Locally: How A Duluth SEO Company Levels The Playing Field How To Get More Traffic For Your Small Business With Affordable SEO Why Is An SEO Services Company Better Than Others?

READ MOREDetails
Strategic Investment

4 Key Concepts on Making Signage an Effective Strategic Investment

Have you ever asked yourself how effective your signages on igniting consumers’ interest? Or you simply place them so you could have something like an interior or exterior design? Do not tell you just place signs outside your store because others have them. Come on. We invest money to earn more, not to lose. Let us get you started out on the right foot on doing an effective strategic business investment with these four rule of thumbs on signage making. 1. 3 ½ Second-Rule Three and a half second rule is a rule of thumb that gives business owners a chance to deliver their messages to passing motorists thru their signage within three and a half seconds before another car whizzes right on by. It is difficult to read your message when you overcrowd your sign with many lines of texts and words. Another, overstated ideas on signs could look busy and decrease the reading speed of your signage. Your goal is to let your sign have optimal visibility within three and a half seconds. How to increase your signs reading speed? First, add borders on signages. Borders tend to increase signage reading speed by 26%, especially when your target is automobiles audience. It could manage the reading space that let viewers directly focus on the center of the sign. Second, do the math when choosing the most efficient letter size on your signs. Distance and speed are the two essential factor when selecting the right measurement. Answer these guide questions: How far away do you want your sign to be readable? How fast people or cars could pass through the sign? 2. Typefaces A typeface or font is considered as a part one’s company’s signature. Every distinctive letter style on various signage from different infrastructures offers contrasting feelings. You could reinforce brand recognition in your place when you can choose the right typeface for you. Most customers are not conscious of typefaces. However, fonts subconsciously affect a signage’s style, way of delivery, and crispness of your message. Think of font styles as themes that would represent you and your business. There are two categories for typefaces. First is that signs could be friendly, warm, and casual like that of McDonald’s. Another could be formal, serious, and traditional like some of those by Shieldco business signage. What are the don’ts that I need to avoid? Do not use fancy designer fonts like Script Style fonts on signs that are not visible from a distance. Better use it on stationery or business cards. Avoid using different letter styles in a single design, too. Do not overdo layout that your main message would not stand out. 3. Optical Center Optical center is the area when human eyes tend to enter a design or page. Our vision typically gravitates toward a spot that is slightly above the mathematical center. If there is a logo above and information below in a sign, nudge the logo higher within the boundaries of a layout. Another example is when placing a sign in a center vertically and mathematically accurate, it will look low. To solve this, again move the signage a little bit higher to correct this visual anomaly. 4. Power Kerning You might never have heard about it, but power kerning is a powerful tool on signage making. It scales letters for better visibility. Proper scaling, perfect sizing, and precise spacing are prominent factors in designing. The same goes on signs. How Kerning works? Human eyes, with the help of our brain, could quickly notice irregularities on patterns. This is why perhaps most people could immediately point out mistakes, rather than good stuff. The thing is when there is asymmetry such as too much space, or little space between characters of a word, a reader’s eyes tend to stumble. Proper kerning would fix this unevenness through adjusting the space between letters, making each character of a word together into a single unit. Consequently, a smooth flow of details from the text would be easily delivered to one’s brain. Nowadays, many applications that could easily do the job of kerning for you. However, instances like do it yourself signs would let you address kerning issues manually. When doing it by yourself, there are a few things to remember. First, uppercase characters are spaced to fit the following ceding lowercase characters. Next, big headlines require spacing adjustment to attain better visual consistency. Last, over kerning is done when doing some layout effects. Takeaway Minimal content could adequately carry out the meaning of your business.  Emphasize only the essential meaning. Remember that the fewer your words are, the higher understanding customers would get. You will know that you had reached your audience successfully when you delivered your message clearly and concisely to the customers. Read Also: Calling Out – How Telemarketing Allows You To Reach A Wider Audience What Is The Future Of Digital Marketing In Regards To Shaping Up Small And Large Businesses? 5 Types Of Digital Marketing

READ MOREDetails
online business

Make Your Business Popular Online

Start Your Website: Almost for every businessman, whether small or big getting the highest rank on search engines is a dream. To achieve this, you should build and manage high-quality and useful for customers website. Let get the insight of the most important reasons on commercial site search ranking. For every website, the home page is very influential, so the presentation part is more important. If they find the improper link or irrelevant link, they ask you to edit it. Content, keywords, and the website design are essential things for SEO marketing. The content play a very important part in website promotion therefore content should be very clear and relevant. Unclear and illogical text can get the trouble for your website as Google can block it. Use of keywords should be appropriate and limited. It should not be repeated more than thrice. If your website has hyperlinks which do not take the user to the right page, it should be corrected or deleted. Also, it's very important to create clear, well-structured and easy to use website design. It should allow users to find any information in not more than three clicks, that will be loaded quickly as on desktop as on mobile. Use Social Media: The next step is related to social media marketing ideas which will improve the outlook for your online business It's likely that you're aware of the potential effect of social networking around the world. Do you know that internet websites are also great for promoting your business? Below are some ways you can use social internet marketing that will help you increase your organization. Create your post's headlines clever or attractive. The very first thing the various reader's views is the heading. Your headline must be interesting, useful, and also beneficial. Set some real attempt into great headlines. If you are planning to create a social networking profile, you must be prepared to regularly upgrade it. Staying updated will keep your articles new. Therefore folks think that they're studying something new and also interesting. Enhance your websites many times per week to enhance the standard of your articles. One great way of boosting your readers is by providing discount coupons as well as special discounts to them. Your customers will increase your gains and provide you extra product sales after they feel they're in a membership that is special. A highly effective Social Media Marketing strategy requires more than just good articles; it requires to resonate with buyers and also readers. So just be sure you do not change all your focus on one area like video clips and that you utilize resources like Facebook tweets or Twitter posts to assist you to market your products or organization. The objective must be to get and keep a reader's interest for as long as essential to deliver information. The long activity, obviously, is to have recurring site visitors. Do not let social media's popularity mislead you; you still have to make a cogent strategy to take benefit of this promoting. You must know how social media marketing can assist you and exactly how you can manage issues that come along with it. Managing a campaign with both training and organizing beneath your belt can help you defeat your rivals and build much more efficient techniques. Develop a competition for your clients through Twitter. Many people appreciate joining a contest or competition. By running either a contest or competition on your Twitter, the attraction of your web page will increase rapidly. These kinds of marketing promotions can help increase the popularity of your brand name. Utilize some network marketing sites for the best success. Facebook is hugely preferred. However, Myspace still has a following, as well as Twitter is growing in popularity. You have a higher possibility of success if you implement various kinds of media outlets. By using these tips, social networking sites will help make your organization. Social network sites now go beyond the occasional rank replace or discussed picture book; these days, these websites offer important chances for organizations. By applying the knowledge you have figured out above, you'll be able to use social networking to boost your business position. Read More :  1. The 10 WordPress Plugins Every Successful Blogger Uses 2. Building A Brand For Your Small Business   About the Author: Carol James is an EssayLab writer and senior editor. She has an MA degree in social sciences and is an excellent specialist in this field. Moreover, Carol writes articles, reviews on the different subjects interesting to her readers. So, if you have any questions, suggestions on the writing, feel free to ask her!

READ MOREDetails