Market Management: What Is Category Management?

Notes on Category management what is category management?

Category management is the grouping of similar or related items that the customer would like to find together in a store. Category management is mainly used as organasational aid to better manage and monitor predefined groups of products.

Category management is linked to the four PS because its aim is to have the right product at the right price at the right place at the right time in order for the business to meet its projected sales targets and generate required margins and maintaining good stock cover of its categories in order to avoid stock out situations.

“Product category is controlled by the consumer behavior, the consumer drives what happens in the category. The biggest change

Merchandise management

Merchandise management is the process by which a retailer attempts to offer the right quantity of the right merchandise in the right place at the right time and meet the company’s financial goals. Buyers need to be in touch with and anticipate what customers will want to buy, but this ability to sense market trends is just one skill needed to manage merchandise inventory effectively. Perhaps an even more important skill is the ability to analyse sales data continually and make appropriate adjustments in prices and inventory levels.

Merchandise category

Merchandise category is an assortment of items customers see as substitutes for one another eg a department store might offer a wide variety of girls dresses sizes 4-6 in different colours, styles and brand names, a mother buying a dress for her daughter might consider the entire set of dresses when making purchasing decision. Lowering the price on one dress may increase the sales of that dress but also decrease the sales of other

The information about our customers is gathered through our data base that is created by the information the customers give when they open accounts or when they sign-up for thank you points cards that they use to earn points when they purchase cash.

The following considerations were taken into account in choosing the customer categories:

• Size- the size of our customer segmentation is a sizable segment which makes it viable for our business to pursue it.

• Growth potential- our customer segmentation have a potential for growth in future as the population also grows.

• Profitable- the segments will be profitable to the business and that will make the business benefit from it.

• The cost of reaching the segment was taken into account because as a business we must invest in things that will benefit the business in terms of profits and market share.

• Our customer segment had to be compatible with organisation’s objectives and strategy so that we can reach our financial objectives and