Convenience store merchandise management with 7-11 as an example

Mention of convenience stores, you have to mention 7-11, as a convenience store and even the benchmark of the retail industry, 7-11 not only brings a huge impact on consumers, but also affects a large number of industry practitioners; mention of 7-11, you have to mention the management of goods, especially single product management, from the initial rely on the clerk to count and record one by one, to the present in-depth to the heart of each 7-11 employees, it can be said that 7 -11's strength is reflected in every item.

So, as convenience store operators, retailers in theWhat is to be done at the level of commodity management(math.) genusWhat are the questions to think about?The author has compiled his personal reflections, hoping to play the role of a brick to attract jade.

What is being done at the commodity management level?

I. Dual perspective

Every convenience store operators are both practitioners and consumers double identity, but also business mindset and habits, the longer the practice, the more to stand to the consumer point of view to see the goods.

Anyone who leaves the work, are an ordinary consumer, back to ordinary life, it is not difficult to understand the customer's psychology and needs, to break the stereotypes, forget that they are a "professional", you will see more demand, see more goods.

II. Positioning

The combination and selection of goods must follow the positioning of the entire convenience store, to match the positioning of the entire system of the entire store, if you think of a store's goods to take care of all customer classes, all customer groups, it is likely that which customer classes are not good service.

Positioning is not just talk, nor is it set in stone, the more detailed our preliminary preparations, the more accurate the positioning may be, in addition to entrepreneurs, new entrants, the more limited funds, the more we must do a variety of preparatory work such as research, planning.

Are community convenience stores and business district convenience stores a niche? Yes, is a convenience store focusing on young people a positioning? Also yes, but this positioning is too broad, from the commodity point of view, it can only be said that it is a coarse screening for our commodity selection.

III. Consumer research

One of the joys of doing retail is consumer research.

I've been in contact with different industry elites, some like to study commodities, some like to study rivals, and consumer research is done by almost everyone in every business.

All of our core points are consumers, the starting point is the consumer, and the end point is likewise the consumer.

If you want to do a good job of convenience store merchandise management, researching consumer like especially consumer psychology is one of the essential work.

What characteristics do consumers have?

1, consumers have specific preferences and shopping habits, the closer the consumer traits, the closer these preferences and habits;

2. Every consumer is not a rational economic agent;

3. For convenience store operators and retailers, the herd mentality is a double-edged sword.

IV. Layout

Regardless of what stage of development we are in, whether we have only one store or have more than a hundred, whether we are new entrants or have been in the business for many years, we should do a good job of laying out our merchandise.

First, we should do a good job of the layout of the entire commodity structure, and then fill the categories and items based on the layout of the entire structure, and do a good job of management accordingly; second, we should do a good job of at least the medium-term layout of the commodity, and we can not use the stagnant point of view to manage and layout of the commodity.

V. Utilizing but not fetishizing tools

Now almost all the convenience stores are using the system, using a variety of software, at the level of commodity management, it is even more important to take advantage of a variety of tools, but it is important to note that since it is a tool, simply rely on the tool is not good management of goods.

Convenient tools can help provide us with the information we want and improve our efficiency, but trying to do good merchandise management with tools alone is nearly impossible.

How can you utilize the information provided by various tools for good merchandise management?

First, good at collecting all kinds of information: Utilizing tools to collect information on various commodities, retaining reasonable and effective information, and improving data and information is the first and most critical step in this work; if the information is not correct, the subsequent actions are useless;

Second, really analyze all kinds of information: Under the premise that the information is correct, analyze the relevant data and information to find the essence and reason behind the information and prepare for the next step;

Thirdly, rational use of informationAll the information, data, can not be used in the work of the words, are a bunch of meaningless words, figures, effective and work with the combination, is the hard truth.

VI. Strong Learning Improvement Capability

This is the advice I have given to quite a few people after being exposed to or experiencing some great retailers about how to manage merchandise well.

Not all enterprises are 7-11, not all enterprises can have a perfect system, process, system at the beginning, how to do a good job in a lot of preconditions do not have the premise of merchandise management and even do a whole project? My suggestion is: learn, imitate, or even copy can be, and then improve into something suitable for their own development.

Not all innovations are made from scratch, and what has been proven to work, we can take and improve and continue to use.

Of course, we still encourage innovation, but we encourage even more to keep a mindset of always learning and an open mind.

The six points above can be seen as preconditions for us to do merchandise management, or belong to generally applicable regulations, then, as convenience stores themselves, theWhat needs special attention in commodity management?

What are the issues of commodity management that require special attention?

I. Commodity closure

Merchandise management is a cycle of management of the whole chain, and we can't just focus on one link, such as only focusing on merchandising, only focusing on the introduction of merchandise, and so on. What practitioners have to do is to control the whole chain of merchandise, from the introduction of merchandise, to new product trial sales, to sales management, main promotion, promotion, clearance, etc., are all we need to continue to pay attention to, and fine-tuning of the work.

II. Architecture, categories, items

The more choices of commodities, the richer, the greater the choice for commodity managers, but also the more test practitioners of vision, professionalism, how to avoid falling into the "chaos of flowers into the eyes of the fascinating" situation?

Following the management sequence from architecture to category management to item management will make the logic of our merchandise management much clearer.

The whole structure is not well planned, or unreasonable, the subsequent commodity management will always be in a state of confusion. Reasonable structure, with reasonable categories, the correct classification, and then detailed to the single product management, the entire commodity management process will be much smoother.

As for how to do a good job of category management, single product management, not in this article to do the elaboration, will be followed by a separate elaboration.

III. Focus on commodity contribution margins

Convenience stores have limited space, which requires practitioners to pay special attention to merchandise contribution margin, which encompasses the following dimensions:

Sales contribution and gross profit contribution are two basic contribution margin metrics and metrics that can be fully considered with data;

Word-of-mouth contribution, lead contribution, service contribution, etc. belong to the implicit merchandise contribution rate, which is an important indicator that front-line managers pay special attention to and feed back into the upper level work of merchandise management.

Fourth, fast is the important treasure of convenience store commodity management

Convenience stores, especially community convenience stores, are relatively fixed in terms of the consumers they serve, so how can they remain attractive to customers and how can they keep them coming back for more than one visit when the area is limited and the incoming customers are not easy to break through?

Fast, the world of martial arts, only fast, for the rapid introduction of new products, fast elimination of slow-selling products, customer demand rapid response, customer feedback and so on, are convenience stores to maintain the competitiveness of the important magic weapon.

Finally, and most importantly: what's right is good.