by John Stanley

It often seems that retailing is getting tougher by the week. But, imagine you are a supplier and trying to get your product exposed to consumers in a retail location. That can become a real challenge. I have recently visited a number of trade shows around the world and walked past supplier after supplier booth. All of these suppliers were hoping a retailer would pick them and display their products on the shelf.

The consumer is now confused by the array of “stuff” that is offered to them. If you do not believe me, take a walk around your local supermarket and see the different options available for milk, drinking water and toilet paper. You will soon see why the consumer is confused.

The challenge is that although the consumer may seem to be spoiled for choice, the supermarket is still not stocking the whole range available; there are other suppliers who would like to get their products on the shelf as well. What is happening is a space war; the winners get the opportunity to play the game, while the losers are still figuring out how to play the game.

There are challenges for retailers and suppliers in the space war. The key is that retailers need to help the customer make a decision. What steps need to be considered to maximise the opportunities?

Decision One: As a retailer, you need to decide the maximum space you can provide for a category. This decision will depends on a number of factors, including the total number of product ranges you have to stock and the width and depth you want to stock within a range.

The decision will depend on your positioning in the market place. If you are perceived as the expert in the category, consumers will expect you to be wide and deep in the core range you are famous for, and this allows you to be shallow and narrow in the ancillary range that provides a service.

For example: If you are an expert in gardening, your consumer will expect you to be wide and deep in the plant material you provide, but narrow and shallow in slug control as you can provide expert advice. If you were a hardware store, they make expect you to be wider and deeper in slug control.

The key to the thinking process is that a retailer should provide Good, Better and Best. This will eliminate the “me too” products in the range. This also provides a challenge to the supplier to ensure they are in the good, better and best range of the product on offer.

Decision Two: Then, suppliers should be providing a planogram on how they believe their product should be presented to the consumer. The retailer does not have to agree with the planogram and may change it, but without this information, a supplier should not expect to get the best exposure for its product. It’s amazing that I come across suppliers that feel they don’t need to provide this information to the retailer. I often get comments like, “I am the maker, not the retailer; the retailer knows better than I how to sell it.” The retailer may have over 25,000 different units to think about at any given time and this is just one of them. The supplier needs to provide as much information as they can to help the retailer make a decision.

Decision Three: How can you get the product “off location”? I recently visited my local supermarket; the cans of tuna fish were displayed in the toilet paper aisle on a unit that projected out from the shelf. Tuna fish was not on my shopping list or on my mind, but because it was “off location” I noticed the product and may have been inclined to purchase it. In my view, this was not a logical “off location” decision, but it did work. How can you take your product and display it in a unique way that allows the retailer to use it in an “off Location” situation where it will get noticed? This means looking at how it might help with solutions for the consumer.

How can you take your product and display it in a unique way that allows the retailer to use it in an “off Location” situation where itwill get noticed? Off location merchandising catches the consumer’s eye, and as a result sales should increase.

Decision Four: Social media marketing allows the supplier to work with the retailer to both push and pull the product through the supply chain. The key is to develop partnerships where both parties are involved. Social media allows the manufacturer and supplier to have a conversation with the consumer and encourage them to visit a particular store. This partnership should be a win: win for all the partners in the supply chain.

With so much choice in the space war, suppliers need to be proactive in ensuring they are part of the good, better, best product range and can manage to stay in the race.

John Stanley provides conference presentations, workshops and consultancy to the retail industry in 30 countries. He can be contacted at john@johnstanley.com.au.