When it comes to increasing sales, many retailers ignore the importance of retail shelf management. Shelf management includes product placement and merchandising on retail shelves, as well as keeping products fully stocked and effectively organized. While some business owners do not think that their shelves have a big effect on their bottom line, the most successful retailers all use shelf management systems to optimize their product placement.
Shelf management systems, such as drop-in pushers, are used on shelves to keep products in their place and lined up fully at the front of the shelf with their brands facing forward. Here are some tips for how you can use retail shelf management systems to optimize your shelves, increase sales, and promote branding.
Representation of Products on Shelf
In general, products displayed on shelves at eye level have higher sales than their bottom- or top-shelf counterparts. As well, products with their brand labels facing forwards—towards customers—also have higher sales. By using a shelf management system, you can ensure products always have their brands facing forwards. As well, you can keep organized eye-level displays of the products you most want to sell. In this way, shelf management systems will help you increase sales.
Visualization
Studies have shown that the retail experience has a big influence on customers’ buying decisions. In fact, the majority of customers’ purchasing decisions are made in the store rather than before. Having fully stocked shelves encourage customers to buy more. By using a shelf management system, like a drop-in pusher, you can make sure your shelves always appear fully stocked.
Priority
With more competition from different brands than ever before, it’s become important for retailers to prioritize and promote their own store-brand products. By using retail shelf management, you can easily prioritize certain products on your shelves, promoting in-store brands that bring you higher profit. Reserve certain spots on your shelf for the products you want to promote most using shelf dividers.
Segmenting and Product Assortment
Part of creating a good retail experience for your customers is helping them easily find the products they want. By using shelf-dividers, you can segment your retail shelves and keep products organized neatly in rows, which helps customers find the products they want quickly. When consumers have to sort through cluttered shelves to find what they want, they can easily become frustrated or dissatisfied.
Shelf Holding Power
Using shelf management systems can help you create set areas on the shelves that are reserved for certain products, which will reduce the time your employees need to spend on stocking shelves. For example, if an item comes in a case of 12 and you sell two items per day, a retailer should have enough space on its shelf to hold 1.5 cases of the product. This will reduce backstock while also avoiding overstocking. In this example, a retailer could simply order one case per week and wouldn’t have to worry about constantly restocking the product throughout the week.
Constant Force Displays specializes in retail shelf management systems that give you the ability to reach and sell more goods. From a conventional shelf to a wire display, Versa-Trak is versatile and can work with a wide range of display and retail shelf management system. For more information on how Constant Force Displays can help you with retail success, call (800)-675-1636 or email sales@versa-trak.com.
