Planogram Display: Understand Customer Behavior to Boost Sales

Planograms are a powerful tool for retail stores, enabling them to strategically arrange products and create a seamless shopping experience. By understanding customer behavior, retailers can utilize different types of planograms to position products and enhance the overall shopping experience.
July 25, 2023

What Is “Planogram”?

Have you ever walked into a store and marveled at the perfectly arranged products, creating a seamless experience in finding what you need? That's the power of planograms. A planogram is a model that specifies the optimal placement of products on store shelves in order to maximize the customers’ purchases through visual merchandising. Planograms can vary across retailers. This is because different stores cater to different customers with different behaviors also. Therefore, aside from having to know various types of planograms, it is also important to understand customer behavior and how it influences the selection of a particular planogram for each store.

Types of Planogram

  1. Horizontal Product Placement

According to horizontal product placement, products are placed side by side on the same shelf levels to offer a wide range of options to the customers. To increase sales and provide equal visibility to all brands, age-appropriate products should be displayed at eye level. For example, adult preferred products can be placed along the top half of shelves, while child preferred products occupy the bottom half.

  1. Vertical product placement

Vertical product placement involves arranging the merchandise on different shelf levels, ensuring easy accessibility to the products for all eye levels. Retailers often adopt this approach to sell products that have equal appeal to both adults and children. Additionally, vertical product displays also offer the opportunity to create visually appealing color blocks.

  1. Block Product Placement

When block placement is employed, the related products or merchandise belonging to a similar category are placed near each other. Customers would prefer the use of block product placement if they want to easily compare the price and qualities of similar products of different brands. This would also help them make purchasing decisions easier. 

  1. Product Placement Based on Market Share

In the fierce world of retail, products on store shelves are mostly positioned based on their ability to generate revenue. Therefore, retailers would strategically place high-revenue-generating products on the best spot to not only capture customers’ attention, but also enhance the visibility of the surrounding products.

  1. Product Placement Based on Margin

Retailers often stock and sell products from various manufacturers in their stores. The product layout arrangement is decided based on the margin offered by the manufacturers. Small retailers, in particular, tend to prioritize their own benefits over product sales, making this strategy their preferred choice.

  1. Product Placement Based on Commercial Status

It is no secret that products of higher brand value often occupy the prime shelf space in stores, while lesser-known brands get less spotlight. This occurrence stems from the fact that most consumers are heavily influenced by their desired image and the reputation of brands in the market when purchasing items. This type of planogramming technique is commonly adopted by major retail stores such as Target, Walmart, and Costco.

Planogram Display

How Customer Behavior Affects Planogram Display

  1. Grouping Products

One common customer behavior is their expectation that the arrangement of related or complementary products in close proximity to one another. Thus, customers would appreciate this practice as it simplifies their search and comparison process.

  1. Linear Shelving

Our eyes naturally follow a linear path, whether horizontally or vertically, as this is how we were trained in reading. Retailers can harness this natural inclination by adopting a linear approach in visual merchandising. By arranging products in a consistent and orderly manner, following the path our eyes naturally follow, retailers can create a seamless and intuitive shopping experience.

  1. Eye-Level Placement

The popular saying “eye level is buy level” is true when it comes to strategic product placement. The most optimal location for products is at eye level, typically in the middle section of the shelves. This placement ensures not only that products are easily visible and catch customers’ attention, but also allows them to be easily reachable.

  1. Organizing by Price

Customers value a shopping experience where they can quickly locate products within their budget range. Organizing products in order of price, whether from lowest to highest price or vice versa, simplifies their decision-making and enhances buying efficiency.

  1. Middle and End-Of-Category Placements

Customers often scan through entire shelving units when faced with a wide range of choices. This is why many essential and high-selling products are placed near the middle or towards the end of the store. Such floor plans encourage customers to walk all along the aisle, increasing their time in the store and boosting the likelihood of additional purchases.

  1. Making Colorful Blocks

One effective technique to enhance visual appeal is arranging products in blocks of color or creating a captivating gradation or rainbow-like pattern. This approach adds a touch of vibrancy and visual excitement to the store environment, drawing customers' attention to the products on display. 

planogram display

GLAIR Planogram Compliance for Maximum Effectivity

Planograms are invaluable tools in the world of retail that serve as a blueprint for the most effective product arrangement. The demand for planogram compliance in retail stores is high, as it directly impacts a store's ability to drive sales and achieve its business objectives. When retailers can execute the planograms well, they create consistent and visually appealing displays that cater to customer preferences, making it easier for shoppers to find what they need and ultimately increasing the likelihood of purchases.

However, making sure planograms are followed can be time-consuming and a lot of work for retailers. It's all about paying attention to the details, keeping an eye on things, and making adjustments to ensure products are in the right place. That's where GLAIR Planogram Compliance solution comes in handy. GLAIR takes away the stress by offering a streamlined and efficient way to monitor and maintain planogram compliance. With GLAIR technology and automated features, retailers can easily track, analyze, and fix any deviations from the planogram within 15 seconds with up to 97% of accuracy!

planogram display

Reference:

  1. Key Craft Global: How to use vertical & horizontal display merchandising
    https://keycraftglobal.com/news/how-to-use-vertical-and-horizontal-display-merchandising
  2. Management Study Guide: Planograms - Meaning, its Need and Types of Product Placements
    https://managementstudyguide.com/what-are-planograms.htm
  3. Marketing91: What Is Planogramming? 6 Types of Planogram https://www.marketing91.com/planogramming/
  4. Indeed: What Is a Planogram? (With Definition, Benefits and Tips) https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-is-planogram
  5. Shopify: What Is a Planogram and Its Role in Visual Merchandising https://www.shopify.com/retail/planogram-visual-merchandising
  6. Stanford University: Deep Learning Approach to Planogram Compliance in Retail Stores http://cs229.stanford.edu/proj2016/report/ChongWeeBustan-DeepLearningApproachToPlanogramComplianceInRetailStores-report.pdf
Written by Jessica Donnyson
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