How to make an assortment list of goods. An assortment list of goods for a retail facility on a leased area. How the assortment is formed

Formation of the assortment of the store

Sometimes store managers argue like this: why do we need to understand "bookish" product classifications, categories, etc.? The store already exists, the assortment has long been defined, well, yes, something is added, something is dropped. We need to optimize the assortment, not form it. On the one hand, such directors are right - at their core, the assortment, most likely, should not be changed (if the store is generally effective). On the other hand, the situation does not stand still: the market for goods is developing, competitors are also developing, and all this needs to be monitored and kept in step with the times. Otherwise, buyers will quickly feel you are lagging behind and you will start losing sales. Without understanding the correct approaches to the classification of goods and the formation of an assortment, you will not be able to answer many "simple" but frequently asked questions:

Do we need 378 teas or is 200 enough? Or 150? If 200 is enough, which ones should be left and which should be removed? And what should be included in the assortment instead?

Maybe we will buy XO cognac, last year one day a buyer drove a Mercedes to our stall and asked for French cognac?

28 types of canned green peas - is this a lot or normal?

What assortment of New Year's goods should we buy? Do you need Santa Claus toilet paper? Or maybe buy New Year's dishes?

These questions only seem simple, in fact, the wrong answer can cause significant negative consequences. Let's consider an example from practice. Grocery store, located in the suburbs of a small city with a population of about 300 thousand inhabitants, has an area of ​​​​about 170 m2. There are about 2000 items in the assortment, mainly food products for every day: dairy products, bread, water, sausages, frozen, cereals and pasta, confectionery etc. The store is located next to the bus stop, around - wooden houses. After two cases of “arrival” of rather wealthy citizens who, according to the store employees, made purchases for impressive amounts, it was decided to purchase elite strong alcohol: whiskey, cognac, expensive vodka. They bought it, but more wealthy citizens did not stop by, and a year later the store decided what to do with this product. And the locals, looking at expensive alcohol in a closed glass cabinet, were constantly annoyed: “How expensive, who will buy this!” Conclusion: before making decisions on the introduction of goods into the assortment, you need to understand the possible consequences. Consider how to approach the formation of the assortment, what you need to pay attention to.

Range- This is a list of goods sold in the store, compiled by types, types, varieties, sizes and brands.

The range is characterized by three main indicators:

The breadth of the range (how many commodity groups shop offers)

Depth of assortment (how many items of goods are offered in each product group);

Balanced assortment (how successful is the combination of different product groups in terms of store format, customer needs and price range).

The formation of the assortment of the store and its management depends on:

The strategic goals of the company;

Features of the target and secondary groups of buyers;

Available resources (finance, suppliers, etc.).

Often, the formation of the assortment is approached on the principle of "buy and see how it goes." The result of this approach is well known to many: the store turns into a museum, and the goods - into museum exhibits that can be viewed without going beyond the fence. The other extreme is trusting words sales representatives who sincerely believe that their product is the best and most popular. It is not a fact that a product that sells quickly in a store in a neighboring area will be equally popular with your customers.

To form the assortment of the store, you need to draw up and determine the following positions.

I. Commodity classifier- the structure of the assortment, the list of classes, groups, subgroups, categories that make up the assortment of the store (Table 2.1, 2.2). Traditionally, a product classifier consists of five levels of hierarchy. Each level can have its own name, although this is not required.

1st level(often defined as a class of goods) - the highest level of generalization, for example, "foodstuffs" and "non-grocery goods" or " clothes" and "shoes" - that is, what in the view of the buyer is united by a common functional purpose. For example, “food products” are what they eat, and “non-food products” are what they don’t eat at all, “clothes” are what they wear on the body, “shoes” are what they wear on their feet.

2nd level(often defined as a commodity group) is a collection of goods united by certain common features- type of product, method of production, etc. ( For example, "dairy products", " bakery products», « women's clothing”, “men's shoes”, “furniture”, “lamps”, “home accessories”).

3rd level(often defined as a product category) is a set of goods that the buyer perceives as similar to each other, or goods that are combined by sharing. Simply put, a product category is what a customer goes to the store to buy. For milk, kefir and yoghurts (and not for dairy products). For a T-shirt, T-shirt and sweater (not knitwear). For shoes, boots and sandals (and not for shoes). Behind the vacuum cleaner, washing machine and heater (and not behind household appliances). Behind the sofa in the living room desk and a bookcase (and not behind the furniture).

4th and 5th levels(often defined as subcategories or segments of categories) are products that are grouped according to some intraspecific characteristics. For example, milk within its category is divided by type of milk ( cow, goat, buffalo); by type of processing ( sterilized, pasteurized, melted); by fat content. Shoes are divided according to the material of manufacture into genuine leather shoes, artificial leather shoes, cloth shoes, etc. In addition, shoes can be divided by style - classic, sport, comfort, party, etc. Televisions, for example, are divided into LCD TVs, plasma TVs and electric tube TVs. Also, TVs are divided by screen size. It is important that the most important properties (characteristics) of the product should be taken as the basis for singling out the 4th and 5th levels of the commodity classifier. At the same time, some products may have 3, 4 or 5 levels in the hierarchy of the product classifier, i.e. 5 is the maximum number of levels.

A product classifier with set shares of groups/categories can be compared to a basket with many cells of different sizes and shapes, in each of which certain goods are “placed”. For example, we have a clothing store. First, we divide the entire assortment into women's, men's, children's clothes - this will be the most high level generalizations in the commodity classifier. Each type of clothing should have a certain share in the assortment, for example, we will have 33% of each group of clothing in the assortment. Further, within each part, we determine what types of clothing and in what quantity we will present: either by brands, or by types of clothing, or by collections. For example, we decided that women's clothing will be represented by three lines: casual (casual) - 50%, business (office) - 30% and evening (evening) - 20%. Next, we divide everyday clothes into capsules, and capsules into types of clothing (capsule: jacket, skirt, trousers, etc.). The smallest cell (lowest level of classification) is the description of the heading: women's long-sleeved cropped jacket made of cotton with elastane. This cell can be filled with a certain number of jackets: pink or green, with or without patch pockets, with lace inserts or with fur trim, depending on the tastes of the target customers, fashion trends of the season, suppliers' offers and the chosen direction of the store.

Table 2.1. Examples of compiling commodity classifiers (excerpts)

Food

Household appliances and electronics

Jewelry

Table 2.2. Sample assortment lists Foodstuffs

Appliances

Jewelry

In practice, the compilation of a product classifier is one of the most difficult stages of work on the formation and optimization of the assortment. First, there are no "universal" or standard product classifiers - each store or retail chain has its own product classifier. This is due to differences in the assortment of stores, so the grouping of goods also differs. For example, in a supermarket with a small retail space two product groups - "Diabetic nutrition" and "Healthy nutrition" - can be combined into one group with a reduction in the assortment inside (for example, there will be no soy products or nutrition for athletes). In a hypermarket, dishes and gifts will make up two different product groups (categories), and in a small (about 500 m2) store, dishes and gifts will make up one category with two subcategories. And in the latter case, this category will no longer include pots, pans, the range of dishes will be closer to the gift: French presses, gift-wrapped tea pairs, salt-pepper shakers, etc.

When compiling a product classifier, it is important to provide for an excessive number of product groups and categories so that in the future, when introducing new types of goods, there is no need to change the classifier itself and, accordingly, product codes.

next quite a few important point– observance of internal consistency and consistency in the preparation of a commodity classifier. A logically correct classifier combines groups of goods with the same level of generalization at the same level.

Correctly:

Car oils:

Automobile oils of domestic production.

Not properly:

Car oils:

Imported motor oils;

Automobile oils of domestic production;

Car oils brand "X".

Or, for example, it is impossible within the framework household appliances distinguish between large household appliances, small household appliances, audio-video equipment and computer equipment, since large and small household appliances are distinguished on the basis of size (dimensions) of equipment, and audio-video equipment and computer technology- based on purpose. In this case, it is logical to single out kitchen appliances and home appliances instead of large and small household appliances.

It is also extremely important that the classifier CANNOT HAVE hierarchy levels with names: “outdated”, “illiquid”, “stock”, “old”, “miscellaneous”, “what is to be withdrawn from the assortment”, “what is nowhere did not enter”, etc. If it turns out that there are goods that “did not fit anywhere”, most likely, a revision of the classification grounds is required. It is advisable not to allow this, thinking in advance to what extent the name of the level may or may not include all the proposed headings. Marking of illiquid goods, goods to be withdrawn from the assortment, etc. must be carried out in information system companies in another way, for example, you can enter the so-called "product status", which can have several options:

Actual product (to be sold in chain stores),

Obsolete goods (purchases are not carried out, there is a sale of existing balances),

New product (product recently introduced into the assortment on a "trial period"),

Irrelevant product (product completely withdrawn from the range),

Seasonal item (item subject to sale only during certain periods).

It is also important to correctly formulate the names of the levels in the commodity classifier: they cannot name, for example, “grocery 1” and “grocery 2”. The names of groups, subgroups, categories should differ in meaning from each other and imply different content - each group has its own, specific set of goods that can no longer be attributed to another group, subgroup, category. This is a very important point, the possibility (or impossibility) of conducting an effective analysis of the assortment will depend on this.

Often the question arises, where to put seasonal goods? For example, the penknife that appears with "picnic supplies" - is it "cooking/serving utensils and accessories" or "picnic supplies"? Do New Year's napkins refer to "napkins" or to "New Year's seasonal goods"? As a rule, if a product by its nature can be attributed to the main (permanent, non-seasonal) product group/category, then it should be attributed to it. For example, New Year's napkins - to "napkins". In this case, it simply makes sense to organize an additional point of sale for New Year's napkins next to other New Year's goods. But Christmas decorations, tinsel, Christmas trees will make up the actual seasonal category "New Year's goods". A penknife, which is designed specifically for camping conditions, should be classified as "picnic goods."

Thus, the basis for the formation of the assortment is the compilation of a classifier of goods, which, on the one hand, must correspond to the tree of purchasing decisions target audience(more on this in the next section), on the other hand, to be logically correct, since it is on it that the whole accounting system. And one more thing: we must not forget for whom the classifier is ultimately built - for a procurement specialist, a merchandiser, an operator for receiving goods, i.e. for those who are directly related to the purchase and accounting of goods movement. Therefore, the classifier should be convenient for use by these particular employees.

II. Assortment list(assortment matrix)- this is a list of product names to fill in all cells without exception in the "basket" of the product classifier. This list is a variable value, since there are always some changes: they removed the product from the assortment, introduced a new one, etc.

For convenience, you can enter the columns “supplier”, “category manager”, etc. into the assortment list.

The assortment list is divided into three types:

1) assortment minimum, or the so-called "basic" assortment, i.e. a list of goods to be sold in all stores of the network;

2) assortment lists of formats / regions / stores, i.e. lists of goods to be sold in stores of a certain format, or a certain region, or a specific store;

3) general assortment list - a list of all goods available for sale in a chain of stores.

III. Matrix "Supplier-product"- this is already a list of specific commodity items and all suppliers that supply these goods. Relevant only for those stores that have many suppliers for one type of product. If the store is mono- or multi-brand, then such a matrix is ​​not compiled. Such a matrix is ​​a tool for the procurement of goods and supply management (Table 2.3).

Table 2.3. Matrix "Supplier of goods"

IV. Shares of product groups/categories/subcategories and commodity items in the assortment- how many certain goods should be presented as a percentage of the established total number of product items presented in the store.

Usually, the shares of product classes in the assortment are strictly regulated, since different classes of goods in one store are sold in completely different ways, have different profitability and require different management approaches. For example, it is necessary to strictly define the shares of food and non-food food products, shares of clothes and shoes, shares of clothes, shoes, furniture, food, toys in a children's goods store.

In stores of a certain product specificity and a certain format, there are “settled” ratios. For example, in a hypermarket, about 40% of the assortment is made up of food products and about 60% of the assortment is non-food products. In the supermarket and department store, about 80% are food products, 20% are non-food products. Shoes in a mixed clothing and footwear store occupy no more than 10–15% of the assortment.

In a multi-profile children's goods store, clothes and shoes usually dominate, followed by toys and food, furniture in terms of share in the assortment in last place.

Regarding product groups and product categories, there are no strict rules for the distribution of shares, they must be determined by the store itself, based on established practice, the results of financial efficiency and positioning of the store. For example, in ordinary jewelry stores of a low and medium price segment, the shares of product groups can be approximately the following:

Silver items - about 10%;

Gold items without inserts - about 20%;

Gold items with non-precious inserts - about 25%;

Products made of gold with inserts of ornamental stones - about 20%;

Gold items with semi-precious inserts - about 15%;

Gold items with precious inserts - about 10%.

On the chain - 25%;

Pendants - 20%;

Rings - 20%;

Earrings - 15%;

Bracelets - 10%;

Necklace - 7%;

Piercing - 3%.

V. Assortment minimum of goods, or "basic" assortment - a list of commodity items that must be constantly present in the assortment of the store, regardless of seasonal changes assortment. The assortment minimum is compiled on the basis of existing product groups and depends on the product specifics and store format. For example, normally - with a full assortment matrix - there should be five types of jackets with the required characteristics, and at least two.

The same is true in the food example: for example, juices are represented in a store by five brands in certain proportions (30%, 25%, 20%, 15%, 10%). Brand number 1 should have a line of seven main types of juice: orange, apple, cherry, tomato, peach, pineapple, grape. Assortment minimum - the presence of the first four types of juice.

The “basic” assortment for chain stores is especially important: it must be present in all stores of the chain, regardless of the location and format of the store within the chain. This text is an introductory piece.