Chapter Five (2:08)

Steve Frenda:

The old retail adage of stack it high and let it fly has way outlived its usefulness. Execution and effectiveness with a shopper focus is key. Give me your comments on emerging capabilities in this important area.

Jill Andersen:

Having the data or the ability to measure ROI on merchandising has kind of been the holy grail of the industry and hard to get at.

Today, beyond the use of third parties and field agents, the ability to see real time, on a given day, a specific store, whether or not your merchandising has been executed is extremely valuable, both to the brands and the retailers we work with.

Brandon Barr:

I just think you can understand your displays better.

Instead of stacking high and sending them in and loading the retailer's inventory, we can be smart about what we put on the displays and making sure it's the right SKUs, the right mixes so that they sell through the store appropriately and the retailer is not sitting with a lot of inventory. You are not waiting for him to move through product so that you can ship more displays in the future.

You can get the size right, the mix right and the SKUs right. 

This is crucial for both the brand and the retailer so no one is sitting on excess product and being penalized for just making one big display and sending it to the store.

Jill Andersen:

There's a second component to that as well…engagement.

The opportunity to engage the shopper with your merchandising.

You can utilize technology, the ability to feed in real time either product education, specials, and promotions.

The ability to talk to that shopper, at the very moment that they're choosing a product, is key.

With technology today, we're able to do that.

Steve Frenda:

“Stacking high and let it fly” is about 50 years old, back when the retailers would promote items at a loss.  They would of course make it up with volume.

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