Merchandising optimization as a key to increasing sales

Casa Curata is a renowned retailer specializing in household chemicals, personal care items, and cosmetics. With 112 stores across six distinct formats, varying in size, product range, and location, the chain caters to diverse consumer needs. Offering over 11,000 SKUs, Casa Curata ensures a comprehensive selection for its clientele.

Before integrating the LEAFIO Shelf Efficiency system, Casa Curata faced challenges due to decentralized merchandising processes. Each store independently managed category displays, with shelf placement decisions delegated to field managers and sales staff. Shelf space planning relied on Excel spreadsheets and general product placement guidelines.

Project Objectives:

• Implement centralized assortment and display management.
• Customize the merchandising system to accommodate the six store formats.
• Realign product categories according to the network's unified strategy.

The implementation occurred progressively over six months across the entire chain, starting from the largest format stores and extending to medium and small stores.

The system rollout comprised three stages:

1. Integration. Express survey of merchandising in the company, setting up data exchange with accounting system, deploying FTP server, testing data exchange and uploading data to the system.
2. Planogram management. Training of the company team on the system functionality. Scaling planograms to all categories.
3. Monitoring, analytics and scaling. Training of personnel in the correct use of the analytics unit, implementation of the mobile application, support during the scaling of the solution for all stores of the chain.

"The success of implementing the system was greatly aided by the active engagement of the chain's sales staff, who were highly motivated to achieve positive outcomes. The project team maintained regular communication with store employees, actively soliciting and incorporating their feedback. Employees demonstrated swift responsiveness to tasks assigned through the LEAFIO Shelf Efficiency mobile application," revealed the project manager at Casa Curata.

Through the adoption of the LEAFIO Shelf Efficiency solution, the client underwent a substantial transformation in its approach to managing product displays, resulting in streamlined business processes network-wide.

All merchandising processes are now controlled from the central office: from the moment of creating a planogram to its implementation, to receiving a report from the store on the fulfillment of the task and analyzing its effectiveness.

With LEAFIO Shelf Efficiency, the retailer can swiftly generate format-specific planograms tailored to each store type. These planograms are seamlessly deployed to all stores of identical formats, expediting the process of planogram development, implementation, and updates across the entire network simultaneously.

The client can now create format planograms that significantly accelerate the preparation for the launch of new stores. This option provides opportunities for faster network scaling.

Product categories were realigned to ensure that each SKU's shelf space accurately reflected its contribution to overall profits.

Via the LEAFIO Shelf Efficiencymobile app, the head office can promptly dispatch planogram updates and track layout task completion reports. The app facilitates easy monitoring of store layouts for cleanliness and completeness, ensuring accurate presentation of promotional products and specific brands.

The system leverages sales data, inventory levels, and demand insights to produce optimized planograms. Users can access detailed information for each product, including dimensions, package quantities, shelf requirements, costs, stock availability, compression ratios, and more.

The network accesses data on merchandising effectiveness via the LEAFIO Shelf Efficicency analytics unit. Users can select analysis periods, download sales data, and review display implementation results.

Currently, the client predominantly utilizes the "Assortment" report to identify discrepancies between planogram items and assortment availability (or vice versa).

In the "Output" report, particular emphasis is placed on maximum discrepancies, highlighting deviations from planned metrics.

"The implementation of the LEAFIO Shelf solution has enabled us to create a more profitable layout and enhance assortment management, particularly for active and passive SKUs. Consequently, we've achieved improved customer engagement and centralized management decision-making, informed by analytical insights," shared Casa Curata's Network Manager.

Month	AUG 2023	SEP 2023	OCT 2023	NOV 2023	DEC 2023	JAN 2023
% of realogram compliance	65%	69%	75%	82%	88%	90%

Implementing an effective display and assortment management system will empower the Casa Curata chain to confidently scale and enhance the profitability of its business.