Smaller retailers can reap rich rewards if they get their ranging right.
Partners for Growth Retailer Advisory Panel member Ramesh Shingadia, of Londis in Southwater, says getting ranging right can really pay dividends for independent retailers.
“It’s a no-cost solution,” he says. “It requires no investment other than time and a bit of effort but it’s a lot like gardening – it’s about pruning, monitoring your shelves, making sure the merchandising is right and keeping an eye on your sales.”
Ramesh has made great use of all the ranging advice available to him as a Londis retailer, both from the group itself and from supplier partners including Unilever Partners for Growth, to tailor his range perfectly for his customers.
He has expanded his fresh and chilled ranges and uses Londis planograms across the store to merchandise as effectively as possible.
John Pattison, Brand Director, Londis commented, “We work closely with our suppliers, making sure we have the product offering to maximise success. Every category has a planogram solution and these are tailored to stores and their customers.”
As part of a complete refurbishment of his store, Ramesh had already enlisted the help of Partners for Growth in organising the layout to cater for his customers’ shopping missions. This meant wider aisles and low level gondolas at the front that to allow customers to see right to the back.
Ramesh continues to review the range in every category monthly, removing slow sellers, constantly reassessing and arranging products to suit customer missions.
“We look at each category and adjacencies and the fine details,” he says. “We adopt a ‘good, better, best’ approach for most categories and use Londis and PfG planograms – it’s invaluable, impartial advice and the guidelines on merchandising and display on the websites are really good.”
“We’re very much focused on customer needs, so we stock the best sellers and we have created in-store theatre, building up seasonality and making it an environment people want to shop in.”
The store saw an initial 20% uplift in the first period of trading after the refit and the business has continued to grow, with an uplift of about 10% overall in the last year.
John Pattison of Londis added, “Ramesh has made a great success of his Southwater store. The Londis team worked closely with him ahead of the re-launch to ensure the product selection, layout and availability were all on target and it is great to see it working well.”
And you don’t need to build a new store to reap the benefits of effective ranging. There’s expertise on industry best practice readily available to help independent retailers maximise their profits.
Check out the best sellers and top ranging and merchandising tips for each of our eight categories – click here.
