The Chudo Market is a young supermarket chain with more than 30 retail outlets. The company serves about 70,000 customers in multiple cities every day. Its product range includes 12,000 items. The retail chain has experienced steady growth. The Chudo Market is always changing and innovating. First, the stores have started to use multiple analytical systems that support sustainable development. Secondly, the chain has formed a team ready for changes and works with the automated system 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 that out.
Challenge: to standardize the stores so that the entire chain runs like a well-oiled machine
In recent years, the Chudo Market has been working hard to standardize their retail outlets as the company has developed with little to no broad concept. Each store was individual, and it had its own product matrix, its own counters, refrigerators, equipment, and so on. This complicated business management prevented a decent sales profit. Obviously, each retailer's goal is to make a profit. But the more complex the management, the greater the profit loss.Therefore, it was necessary to unify the product range and their display and arrangement on the shelves.For this, the following work had to be done:
- Analyze all outlets’ displays;
- Review the range at each location;
- Select clusters of stores similar to each other and those with the same product range;
- Approve adjustments, for example, at the regional level.
Another problem arose with making a plan for display standardization – 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 the process was limited to Excel spreadsheets, and you had to wait for managers to manually input the changes for several stores. As a result, the work done by store staff turned out to be irrelevant because it took too much time.
With the chain’s growth, this problem has become more pressing, so the management decided to launch a program to optimize cost saving and help with standardization.
Process: the way the company has adapted to the new tool
The initial stage consisted of a thorough study of the chain business. It was important to distinguish what the concerns were in the implementation. The LEAFIO project manager supervised the implementation stage and worked closely with the merchandising department of the store chain. The stage of uploading and synchronizing data turned out to be most difficult for the Chudo Market chain. This is painstaking and time-consuming work. But thanks to the joint efforts of the teams, everything worked out and the rest of the implementation stages were completed quickly.
“It was difficult in the beginning. Despite this, the Leafio team always responded promptly, reacted to our problems, and helped to correct errors. They always took into account our wishes and finalized the functions that we needed for efficient operation.” – Maryna Kharytonova, Chudo Market Senior Planogram Maker
Project progress tracking and the IT company's technical support are important criteria for the success of the project. Any changes in key business processes can cause difficulties, so it is important for both the chain team and the vendor team to work together.
Result: a common approach to managing merchandising throughout the chain
The central management of merchandising made the product displays more efficient. This helped to standardize the Chudo Market chain stores, making them similar in concept, which was the main goal of the project.
- Now there are more than 30 stores and currently all the planograms are managed 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 sales 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, they can send a photo to headquarters.
- Leafio is a convenient system primarily. It is easy and understandable for all employees to work with. Managing the sales floor layout allows you to build a sales area and fill it with all the necessary products. The analytics of the program helps to efficiently improve the display of the products.
- All stores receive automatic notification of any changes. The mobile app lets you control the display, which is of prime importance.
The management plans to develop market presence, and automation plays a crucial role in this.
