Chudo Market

"Chudo Market" is a young supermarket chain with more than 30 retail outlets. The company serves about 70,000 customers in different cities every day. Its product range includes 12,000 items. The retail chain has consistently made progress. "Chudo Market" has ever been changing and innovating. First, the stores have started to use multiple analytical systems that serve as the basis for sustainable development. Secondly, the chain has formed a team ready for changes and works as a consolidated tool. In recent years, the chain has managed to double the number of its stores. What exactly helped the chain to scale so quickly? Let's try to figure it out in this article.

Challenge:

To standardize the stores so that the entire chain runs like a well-oiled machine

In recent years, in "Chudo Market," they have been working hard to standardize their retail outlets as the company has developed with little to no conception. Each store was individual, and it had its own product matrix, its own counters, refrigerators, equipment, and so on. All this complicated business management and prevented receiving a decent return. However, each retailer's task is to make a profit. And the more complex the management, the greater the profit cost. It was necessary to unify the product range, their display, arrangement on the shelf, the number of facings, and so on. For this, the following work had to be done:

1. To analyze all outlets display;
2. To review the range at each location;
3. To select clusters of stores similar to each other and those with the same product range;
4. To approve adjustments, say, at the regional level.

Another problem arose with making a plan for display standardizing - manual and troublesome work on constructing planograms. New products should be delivered to the stores quickly within a day, as the market is dynamic. But with the process being limited to Excel spreadsheets, you had to wait for managers to draw the changes for several stores. As a result, the work done by the specialists turned out to be irrelevant because it took too much time.

With the chain growth, this problem has become more tangible, so the management decided to launch a program to optimize costs and help with standardization.

Process:

The way the companies adapt to the new tool

The initial stage consisted of acquaintance, with consequent thorough study of the chain business. It was important to introduce separation of concerns in implementation. The LEAFIO project manager supervised the implementation stage, working closely with the merchandising department of the store chain. For the "Chudo Market" chain, the stage of uploading and synchronizing data turned out to be most difficult. This is painstaking and long work. But thanks to the joint efforts of the teams, everything worked out. With the rest of the implementation stages, everything turned out quickly.

“It was difficult in the beginning. Despite this, the Leafio team always responded promptly, reacted to our problems, helped to correct errors. They always took into account our wishes and finalized the functions that we needed for efficient operation,” Maryna Kharytonova, Senior Planogram Maker at the "Chudo Market" chain.

Project progress tracking and IT company's technical support are important criteria for the success of the project. Any changes in key business processes can be the reason for difficulties, so it is important for both the chain team and the vendor team to work together.

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Result:

A common approach to managing merchandising throughout the chain

The central management of merchandising made the display more efficient. This helped to standardize the "Chudo Market" chain stores, making them alike, which was the main goal of the project.

• Now there are more than 30 stores and currently all the planograms are served by four employees, which significantly saves the company's costs.
• Previously, the chain had a problem with finding products that were not only in the warehouse, but also on the trading floor. Now, using the Leafio Planogram Optimization mobile application, the manager scans the barcode of the product and sees on which rack and shelf it should be.
• The system lets you see all the tasks, assign them to a specific person, and after their completion, take a photo and send it to the headquarters.
• Leafio is a convenient system first of all. It is easy and understandable for all employees to work with. Managing the trading floor layout allows you to build a sales area and fill it with all the necessary equipment. The analytics of the program helps to improve the display of the products even better.
• All stores receive automatic notification of any changes. Now there is a control of the display via a mobile application, which is a matter of no little interest.

The management plans to develop market presence, and automation plays an important role in this.