4 Tips for Rethinking Resets
By Angel Abcede on May 21, 2018CHICAGO -- As many retailers put the finishing touches on their store resets going into Memorial Day weekend and the traditional start of the summer driving season, the Monday morning quarterbacking will soon begin.
With scheduling, planning and negotiations between a retailer and his distributor happening as much as a year ahead of time, it’s not too soon to start thinking about next year, said Steve Montgomery, president of b2b Solutions LLC, Lake Forest, Ill.
Of course, retailers operate on their own unique schedules, but being ready for summer is usually a priority. “Normally, everyone wants resets to occur in the spring before the warm weather hits,” Montgomery told CSP Daily News. “During the summer months, no one wants their stores disrupted.”
And yes, retailers sometimes have to do resets after they change distributors or make plan-o-gram tweaks during the year. But for the most part, resetting is an annual event for center store and coolers that wraps up about this time every year, he said.
To help pinpoint areas where retailers can generally improve on the reset process, Montgomery offered a few tips …
1. Prepare, prepare, prepare
Retailers should not abdicate control of their resets to suppliers, Montgomery said. They need to do their own prep work. They should be prepared with documentation on what is and is not selling at the category and SKU level. Space and items should be justified by sales.
2. Question authority
Retailers should ask what basis a distributor has for his or her recommended items. Some distributors have a great methodology, and some do not, Montgomery said. Just because a distributor shows three or four facings of a certain item, retailers should not just accept that it’s what belongs in the store.
Of course, retailers should also keep in mind their contractual space obligations with suppliers. Still, Montgomery recommends retailers push back if the plan-o-gram includes an item the retailer can document as not selling.
3. What’s missing?
Retailers should remember that historic data tells them only what they sold and not what they could have sold. Additional research should include working with distributors to find out the top-selling items going through their warehouses. Retailers can also shop their competitors to see what they are selling.
4. Selection, placement harmony
Item selection should reflect retailers’ positioning and overall strategy, Montgomery said. This is true for both space allocation and item selection. For instance, if a retailer is trying to position the store as a place for healthy foods, then he'll want to invest in more space for better-for-you categories.
Also, store layouts should be based on the customers’ path through the store. Typically, customers come into the store to fulfill a need, Montgomery said. As a result, retailers are less likely to be successful in trying to sell customers additional SKUs before they make that purchase.
“The trick is to interrupt their path back to the cashier with add-on items,” he said.