CATEGORY MANAGEMENT & INSIGHTS CASE STUDIES

OPPORTUNITY

A fast growing wellness category in healthcare was being limited by the space it received in many stores and especially its 290 highest volume stores due to adjacent categories. The challenge was to manage average inventory, improve Guest education, provide enough holding capacity to support sales as well as product assortment to satisfy the demands of the Guest.

WHAT DID OMG DO?

An extensive analysis of $/ft productivity for every category within healthcare was performed to understand the opportunity for space adjustment to allow for expansion for  this fast growing category. Further challenging the process was adjacent categories were merchandised differently and not conducive to a much easier lateral expansion. A category adjacency change was recommended by Retail Lab that allowed an over-spaced category to shrink and this category to grow. This provided space to grow holding capacity and item innovation that was entering the category.  It also paved the way to integrate info-cubes to delineate format and provide the new Guest entering the category information to make the right product selection to ensure long term success.

OUTCOMES

In higher volume stores, space was able to be increased to allow for category expansion along with sales and market share growth while keeping inventory spend in line.  In many remaining stores, product placement was improved with the up-trending formats placed at the right level to ensure the Guest knew Target was serious about the category.  Groundwork was also laid for healthcare innovation that was being planned for the future.

OPPORTUNITY

In a transforming food category that had previously been thought of as mature and extremely male focused, there were new and unique brands coming into the category that were bring new Guests and a completely different purpose for the category. These brands emerged regionally, which presented a challenge for a national retailer such as Target to identify the right store placement to maximize brand strength and cut through the clutter of the many emerging brands that have shown up in the market.

WHAT DID OMG DO?

Leveraging a combination of third party data, research and close following of the category trends, Retail Lab designed a strategy to support the category with the most relevant brands in each market.  This allowed each brand to grow respective of its market without the category being over assorted in brands that would cannibalize each other and provide success for none. Because these were emerging brands, identifying the proper use of resources to drive controlled growth was significant in the long term health of their company and the success of the brands at Target.

OUTCOMES

Target turned around category performance by previously underperforming the market to being in step with the market.  The brands we partnered with are excited about their opportunities and large contributors to the growth in the category. Target has also now become a destination for the category as the new Guest segment in the category aligns with the core Target Guest.