Product Assortment Planning

Mastering Assortment Strategy in Retail: 8-Step Approach to Customer Delight The secret to retail success?  It's not just about having products, it's about having the right products for the right customers at the right price.  This is where a robust assortment strategy comes into play. Trying to summarize the assortment strategy through my 20+ years of retail and e-com experience. We will dive deep into how a retailer should tailor assortment to meet the needs of diverse customer cohorts.  This goes beyond simple demographics! 1. KYC (know your customer) - Customer Segmentation (Cohorts) : It can never be a one-size-fits-all strategy.  Analyse data to segment customers based on location (metro vs. tier 2/3 towns), demographics (age, gender, region), lifestyle (high-rise dwellers vs. independent houses), and even pincode-level analysis for e-commerce to deliver personalized experiences. 2. Value for Money (VFM):  Pricing is king! leverage EDLP (Every Day Low Prices), large pack savings, and strategic entry-level priced assortment (think 49/-, 99/- deals) to deliver exceptional value. 3. Seasonality & Festivals:  India's vibrant festivals and seasons are key drivers of demand.  Proactively plan relevant assortment well in advance, ensuring customers find exactly what they need when they need it – building trust and loyalty. 4. Brand Strategy:  A balanced portfolio is crucial.  Strategically incorporate national, challenger, and regional brands to offer diverse choices.  Regional brands, often offering incredible VFM, make an instant connection with the customers. 5. Private Label (PL) Power: In categories where branding is less crucial, private label products offer significant value, driving strong customer stickiness.  This is particularly evident in staples like pulses and dry fruits. 6. Evolving Trends:  The world of retail is constantly changing. monitor emerging trends, innovations & global selection through social media, market research, and supplier insights, ensure to include the latest and most sought-after products into assortment.  Be agile and adapt quickly! 7. Supply Chain Efficiency: Assortment strategy cant be just about marketing; it's about operational efficiency also. Carefully consider supply chain costs, warehousing, and logistics to ensure products are readily available. Availability is the Key 8. Continuous Improvement: Assortment planning is an ongoing process.  conduct quarterly reviews, analyzing velocity, profitability, and emerging trends to continuously optimize offerings.  Consider "assortment modules" for faster scaling and roll-out. This 8 step comprehensive approach will allow to offer a tailored shopping experience that truly resonates with diverse customer base. What are your key strategies for optimizing assortment? Share your insights in the comments! #retail #assortmentstrategy #supplychain #FMCG #ecommerce #merchandising #categorymanagement #omnichannel #indiaretail #valueformoney #privatelabel

Frantic SKU proliferation bleeds profit and cash. This is how to do SKU optimization in 7 steps: 1️⃣ Collect and Clean Data ↳ Compile accurate sales, inventory, and profitability data to ensure a solid start for analysis & decision-making 2️⃣ Run Portfolio Segmentation ↳ Segment SKUs based on performance, profit, volume, and value to prioritize efforts on the most impactful products 3️⃣ Identify Non-Performing & Low-Value SKUs ↳ Find SKUs that overlap, cannibalize sales, have low turnover or gross margin for potential elimination 4️⃣ Align with Sales, Marketing, and Finance ↳ Discuss and align with sales, finance & marketing during S&OP to ensure critical customer SKUs aren’t impacted during rationalization 5️⃣ Reach Consensus & Assess Impact ↳ Align with all stakeholders in that product footprint. Ensure that rationalization doesn't create any bottlenecks or disruptions 6️⃣ Communicate the changes proactively ↳ Ensure all teams and key customers are informed about SKU changes and provide alternatives where necessary 7️⃣ Rationalize SKUs ↳ Eliminate or consolidate underperforming SKUs to streamline your portfolio and reduce complexity Any others to add?

Assortment Planning: Where Strategy Meets the Shop Floor In apparel retail, the success of a season depends not only on what you sell but also on what you choose to stock. That’s the job of Assortment Planning. What is Assortment Planning? It is the structured process of deciding the right mix of products across: -Categories (shirts, denim, dresses) -Subcategories (casual shirts vs formal shirts) -Attributes (sizes, colors, fabrics, price points) -Store clusters (flagship vs small format, metro vs Tier-2) The goal is simple: offer customers choice without creating clutter and maximize return on investment. How is it done? Start with sales data -Analyze historical sell-through, GMROI, and size curves. Example: If black slim-fit jeans sold 80% sell-through last season, but wide-leg denim only did 45%, you adjust the future buy accordingly. -Balance breadth and depth -Breadth = number of styles offered. -Depth = number of units per style. -A wide breadth ensures variety, depth ensures availability. -Too much breadth means thin depth (risk of stockouts). Too much depth means excess inventory. -Work with a budget framework Suppose your seasonal buy budget is $2 million. You split it across categories: Men’s: 50% ($1 million) Women’s: 40% ($800,000) Kids: 10% ($200,000) Within Men’s ($1 million): Shirts: 40% ($400,000) Denim: 30% ($300,000) Outerwear: 20% ($200,000) Accessories: 10% ($100,000) This breakdown ensures a strategic spread of investment. -Factor in seasonality and fashion risk Example: Outerwear gets higher weight in winter but drops in summer. -You might allocate 70% of your buy to core styles (repeat sellers) and 30% to fashion forward risk styles. -Tailor by region and store type -Metro stores may sell more premium styles, Tier-2 towns may respond better to value-driven ranges. -Assortment planning ensures localization of the product mix. Why is it critical in apparel retail? -It prevents overbuying and underbuying. -It reduces markdowns and increases full-price sell-through. -It ensures the right sizes are available (no more running out of M or L while XS gathers dust). -It makes inventory work harder by aligning buys with consumer demand. A simple way to think of it: -Assortment Planning is like curating a restaurant menu. -Too many dishes confuse customers and increase waste. -Too few and people don’t return. -The right menu keeps them satisfied and coming back. Next time you walk into a store and see a well balanced collection where every piece feels intentional, remember behind that display was a carefully built assortment plan.

Everyone in beauty tells you not to launch a new product during Black Friday. Apparently, it’s “bad for business.” That’s not quite how things played out for us. The traditional playbook is simple: Launch at full price, collect the early adopters, discount months later. But indē wild has always been about reinventing tradition. So we launched one of our biggest products to date, the Champi Slick Stick, on Day 1 of our Wild Friday Sale. Any guesses on how that went? It became our biggest single product launch of the year. We sold out and had to reorder stock in the same week, and the product wasn’t even discounted. Which brings me back to this week. Launching a new product inside our biggest sale of the year isn’t usually the most finance-friendly decision, simply because this is when most brands push their existing catalogue, not debut new ones. But this was the product our community asked for in almost every support-group call. For a brand that’s built on listening, ignoring real demand, especially when it’s this loud, could end up being worse for the business. Black Friday is our annual stress test as a small team. Marketing, operations, supply chain, CX, everything gets pushed to its limit. And the team somehow still delivers, with good humour, which I’m told is crucial. In beauty, margins matter, but so does meeting people where they actually are. This week is our attempt to do both. Up to 35% off everything on the website, plus a few extra surprises that will appear straight in your cart. So if you’ve been waiting to try indē wild, or to restock, this is the moment where the economics work entirely in your favour rather than ours, and that’s intentional.

𝐀 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 3 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 The past month has been an eye opening journey across 3 distinctly different retail landscapes that make up India's diverse market ecosystem! From the 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐮𝐦-𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐢 where consumers prioritize branded experiences, to 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞-𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐡𝐢 with its mix of traditional and modern retail, to 𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐩𝐮𝐫 where relationship-based selling still dominates - each market demands its own unique approach. Key learnings that emerged:- 🔹 Mumbai thrives on premium positioning and convenience 🔹 Raipur responds best to personalized customer service 🔹 Delhi demands a perfect price-value equation What worked in one market completely failed in another. The success formula? 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠. From store layouts to product assortment, from pricing strategies to promotional activities - everything needs market-specific tailoring. I discovered that 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 is crucial. Each city's unique consumer behavior patterns, purchasing power, and cultural preferences shape its retail landscape. Thank you to all the retailers, distributors, and consumers who shared their insights. In India's retail sector, there's no one-size-fits-all approach - it's about creating 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 that resonate with local markets. #RetailInsights #IndianMarket #Customization #MarketStrategy #ConsumerBehavior #RetailBusiness #LocalMarkets

Over the years, I’ve worked on several margin improvement programs driving both cost reduction and topline growth. Interestingly, identifying the opportunities was rarely the difficult part. The real challenge was making the impact last. More often than not, once the program ended, things would slowly start slipping back. Old ways of working would come back, priorities would change, or key stakeholders would move on to another role or company. And over time, the gains would dilute. That used to be frustrating. But it also led to a shift in how I think about transformation. Margin improvement is not really about a set of initiatives but how a business operates. Yes, there are always quick wins renegotiating contracts, reducing inventory, optimizing networks, simplifying processes. These create momentum and show immediate results. But unless the change is embedded deeper into how decisions are made, how teams are structured, how performance is tracked the impact rarely sustains. What I’ve seen work better is taking a more systemic view. Thinking about how to build the discipline into the operating model itself. So that performance doesn’t depend on a program or a person, but becomes part of the way the organization runs. It’s not the fastest route. But it’s the one that lasts. #Operations #BusinessPerformance #Transformation #Leadership

The smartest launch campaigns don’t rely on one story. They build an ecosystem of stories. Samsung’s Galaxy S26 influencer launch is a great example of this approach. Instead of asking one creator to explain everything about the phone, Samsung worked with multiple creators across different verticals — each highlighting the feature that matters most to their audience. Film creators showcased Nightography, capturing cinematic low-light scenes that prove the camera’s power without saying a word. Gaming creators focused on the phone’s AI gaming capabilities, showing smoother gameplay, faster responses, and immersive performance. Lifestyle creators highlighted the privacy display, framing it as a practical everyday feature for people constantly on their phones in public spaces. Why this strategy works → Feature–creator alignment. Each creator demonstrates what they naturally understand best. → Audience relevance. Film fans, gamers, and lifestyle audiences each see the feature that matters to them. → Campaign depth. Instead of one big message, Samsung builds a network of narratives around the same product. Great product launches today aren’t one-off influencer posts. They’re creator ecosystems. Different creators. Different angles. One product story told through multiple perspectives. That’s how you turn a launch into something people actually pay attention to.

Most creators obsess over the product. Few obsess over the rollout. The release is part of the art. Not an afterthought. Taylor Swift understands this. Midnights hit 1.4 million equivalent album units in 5 days. Fastest-selling album of 2022. Spotify record for most-streamed album in a day. Radiohead proved it differently with In Rainbows. Pay-what-you-want strategy. Made $3 million instantly. Sold 3+ million copies total. Compare this to most launches: Only 40% of tech products hit their launch goals. Companies that run pre-launch campaigns see 30% higher engagement. Yet 68% of creators launch with less than 2 weeks of planning. The difference? Strategic rollouts. Here's the 7-step framework that turns launches into breakthroughs: 1. Build anticipation, not just awareness Swift's cryptic countdown posts drove millions into detective mode. Create mystery before revelation. Tease features, don't announce them. Let your audience solve the puzzle. 2. Treat timing as a creative choice Radiohead released when the industry said "impossible." Their timing made a statement about value. Your launch date is part of your message. Choose it like you choose your words. 3. Plan for the long arc Most creators go silent after launch day. The best ones create seasons, not moments. Map content for 90 days, not 9 days. Think campaign, not event. 4. Map your content ecosystem One launch needs multiple content formats. Behind-the-scenes videos for YouTube. Process breakdowns for LinkedIn. User stories for testimonials. Each piece feeds the others. 5. Build community before you need it Swift had Swifties before she had albums to sell. Start building relationships today. Engage in comments, not just posts. Your launch audience should already know you. 6. Design feedback loops Launch, listen, adapt, repeat. Every comment is data for your next move. The best launches become conversations. Plan how you'll respond, not just how you'll speak. 7. Create momentum multipliers Design each piece to generate the next piece. User-generated content campaigns. Media coverage from early adopters. Referral programs that reward sharing. Success should snowball, not plateau. Your creative work deserves a creative launch. Stop treating the rollout like an obligation. Start treating it like an opportunity. ♻️ Share this with someone ready to launch their work strategically 🔔 Follow Kabir Sehgal for frameworks on creativity

A unique case study on capturing consumer attention in retail marketing. With brands investing in physical spaces to build deeper connections, the challenge is clear: How can they attract customers, increase brand awareness and stay top-of-mind in an oversaturated market? [ad] An example of this is Footlocker’s flagship store during the Paris Olympic Games. Earlier this year, the store used HYPERVSN’s cutting-edge technology to display intricate 3D visuals, creating a dynamic, eye-catching experience for passersby. As pedestrians strolled past, they could immerse themselves in Footlocker’s latest products, brought to life through holograms seemingly floating mid-air. In an age where attention is the new competition currency, HYPERVSN’s technology transformed Footlocker’s window displays into a living story, with products and logos captivating passers walking by the store. Recent studies have shown consumer demand for immersive retail experiences is on the rise. Shoppers now expect brands to provide engaging and interactive moments that go beyond traditional displays. In return, by investing in innovative display technologies, brands can: • Amplify Their Story
↳ Craft compelling displays that bring your brand to life, communicate your values, and attract new customers. • Enhance Customer Engagement
↳ Encourage interaction with dynamic content, like HYPERVSN’s floating visuals, drawing people in and encouraging exploration. • Stand Out in a Competitive Market
↳ Differentiate your brand with unforgettable, immersive displays that capture attention in an overstimulated retail environment. • Deliver Personalised Experiences
↳ Use digital signage and smart technology to tailor messages and promotions in real time, making shopping more meaningful. • Adapt Quickly to Trends
↳ Update displays effortlessly to reflect the latest trends, seasonal promotions, or product launches, keeping your brand relevant. According to Coresight Research, 88% of brands investing in virtual storefronts report a direct boost in sales, while Zendesk’s 2023 Customer Experience Trends report highlights immersive experiences as a key competitive advantage. - 2025 will be the year of exceptional customer experience. Consumers are craving memorable brand moments like never before. Watch the video and share your thoughts, do you think this is the future of retail marketing?

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT (NPD) CHECKLIST FOR THE INDUSTRY SECTOR: 🧠 1. Idea Generation (Opportunity Identification) Objective: Find the right product to develop Checklist: Voice of Customer (VOC) collected (customer complaints, RFQs, feedback, warranty data) Market demand and volume potential estimated Competitor benchmarking done Product gap identified Technical feasibility checked Manufacturing feasibility checked Raw material and technology availability verified Financial feasibility (ROI, payback) prepared IP, patent and regulatory risks checked Initial business case approved 💡 2. Concept Development (Product Definition) Objective: Convert idea into a clear product concept Checklist: Product function and features defined Target customer and application finalized Product specifications frozen Target cost and selling price set Profit margin estimated DFMEA completed SWOT analysis done Regulatory and safety requirements listed Stakeholder review completed (Sales, QA, Production, Finance) Go / No-Go decision approved 🛠️ 3. Design & Engineering Objective: Develop a manufacturable and reliable design Checklist: 3D CAD models completed Engineering drawings released Bill of Materials (BOM) prepared Material grade and suppliers finalized Prototype built Functional testing completed Reliability & life testing done Design review (DR1, DR2) completed Compliance with standards (ISO, customer, safety) verified Design frozen 🏭 4. Process Design & Industrialization Objective: Ensure the product can be made consistently Checklist: Process flow diagram created Layout and workstation design done Cycle time and takt time calculated Tooling, jigs, fixtures designed and ordered Machine capacity verified PFMEA completed Control Plan prepared Work Instructions (WI) and SOP created Quality inspection points defined Supplier readiness confirmed 🧪 5. Pilot & Pre-Production Objective: Prove that production is stable Checklist: Pilot run executed First Article Inspection (FAI) passed Measurement system analysis (MSA) done Process capability (Cp, Cpk) verified Scrap and rework analyzed Packaging and logistics validated Operator training completed PPAP approved (if automotive or customer requirement) Customer samples approved 🚀 6. Product Launch Objective: Move to full-scale production Checklist: Production ramp-up plan followed OEE monitored Quality rejection tracked Customer delivery performance checked ERP part number and BOM activated Standard cost finalized Customer feedback collected Initial warranty issues monitored Launch review meeting conducted ♻️ 7. Post-Launch & Continuous Improvement Objective: Improve and stabilize the product Checklist: KPI tracking (quality, cost, delivery) Field failure and customer complaints analyzed Corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) implemented Cost reduction projects initiated Process optimization done Knowledge captured (lessons learned) Documentation updated Project formally closed