Friday, November 27, 2009

Significance of Category Management In Vending Business

What is category management? In order to justify every single product offered by the retailer, entire range of products is divided into discrete groups and each of these groups is known as product category. For instance, detergents, toothpastes etc fall under various product categories.

You may like to know what the benefit of these product categories is. After segregating individual products into groups, each product category is run as an independent business unit with its own set of turnaround and profitability. The key reason for introducing category management is to add value to retailers business. Prior to category management, the situation was very different and lacked clarity. For instance: if a product with two brands A and B is offered, every time brand A promotes its product, the sales of brand B would go down and vice versa resulting in no net gain for the retailer.

Post introduction of category management the entire scenario was changed and both the retailer and shopper in the store were benefited. In fact vending operators have been engaged in category management for more than half a century now. Multiple column candy machines have increased sales by catering to needs of vast number of customers.

The scenario was completely different in 1960’s. Vending operators were unable to offer everything that customers wanted. They had to assemble the most efficient assortment of a limited number of items to meet customer demands and at the same time maximize their profits.

Operators soon found a way to effectively deal with fragmented customer demand. This is how they came up with category management. Category management simply manages group of products which customers perceive to be interrelated. Dealing with these products as a group allows retailer to efficiently satisfy customer needs and make profits simultaneously. It is also beneficial for producers and distributors of the goods since this method keeps their costs under control.

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