Beauty retail merchandising plays an integral role in how customers view brands and whether they will decide to purchase a brand product. In this case, every centimeter of shelf space should be used to achieve the desired effect, because improper display of goods on the shelves can lead to a significant decrease in sales.
This article examines the difficulties that may arise when displaying beauty products in shops, and the methods for eliminating problems that beauty brand owners resort to.
Table of Сontents
Merchandising Challenges Faced by Beauty Companies
Display maintenance is one of the most difficult tasks in beauty merchandising. Problems can arise at any stage, from storing products properly to keeping shelves in order. The main difficulties are discussed below.
Large Assortment
Today, companies deal in a variety of beauty products. Most beauty products, for example, foundations, can offer dozens of options developed for different skin types and needs. Checking the proper layout of each beauty product on the shelves becomes a challenge because jars are not very different from each other and the merchandiser needs to be very careful to distinguish one jar from another.
Continuous Product Line Extension
Beauty brand owners release new seasonal collections and limited sets of their brand beauty products and update the packaging design of their beauty products on a regular basis. This requires changes to planograms in each case of release or update, monitoring the proper layout of novelties and timely removal of previous collections.
Expiration Date Monitoring
Cosmetics are products that have a limited shelf life, and since they are applied to the skin, expiration dates must be strictly monitored, followed by timely removal of expired products and testers from the shelves.
Rules for Product Adjacency
Some beauty products should be placed on different shelves. For example, perfumery products should be kept away from strong-smelling products, and sunscreens should be protected from direct sunlight. The proper placement of a product should be determined by its category, with ongoing monitoring.
How to Effectively Monitor Product Display
Today, beauty companies monitor proper product display using two methods – they either hire their own merchandisers or use third party services. The second option involves regular audits of shops by the manufacturer’s employees to ensure quality control of the contractor’s performance and control over compliance with contractual obligations for the provision of merchandising services.
The most common form of auditing retail outlets is when a merchandiser or auditor visits the shop, manually checks the completed product displays against the planogram, prepares a report and moves on to the next retail outlet. The field employees provide the manager with the photos of the display, the number of which can be measured in hundreds or even thousands. The manager then manually checks the received photos for compliance of the goods displays against the planogram. This type of audit has many minuses – it is slow, and mistakes are inevitably made due to factors such as inattention, fatigue, and others. Managers only process 2–3% of the photos because they are physically unable to check more photos. As a result, the reports contain inaccurate data, which is then presented to senior managers for review. Ultimately, critical decisions regarding the effectiveness of the applied tools and methods of product promotion are made based on invalid data.
To obtain accurate and error-free analytical data, some manufacturers have already begun to implement special-purpose tools that help automate the control of product display and minimize the occurrence of human errors.
Let’s take Goods Checker as an example to see how such tools work. Goods Checker is a system designed to automate merchandising processes, from preparations of planograms and product display control to generating analytical reports.
Goods Checker checks the product display in the following way – the merchandiser takes photos of the products on the shelves, and artificial intelligence automatically analyses whether the products are displayed properly. The system compares the actual product display with the planogram and finds discrepancies in the product display, price tags and POS materials. Goods Checker also identifies those places where the product is missing from the shelf but must be placed there according to the planogram.
In addition to checking whether the product display complies with the planogram, the IT solution also monitors the availability of critical products on the shelves. The manufacturer can provide its master stock list, for example, a list of its brand’s popular foundations, and the system will track the availability of the listed items on the shelves.
Goods Checker analyses every photo taken by merchandisers and generates consolidated analytics. Reports provide senior managers with critical information, such as where their brand and competing brands are placed on the shelves, the extent of compliance with the planogram, and the existence of empty spaces, in near real time. The system can display this data by categories such as region, country, brand, or employee.
What is the Benefit of Automation - Necessary Merchandising KPIs Can Be Controlled
Technology helps speed up and improve the quality of shop audits. Merchandisers can visit more shops, and managers will not have to deal with photo processing and will have more time to perform tasks of higher importance.
Solutions like Goods Checker allow cosmetics manufacturers to monitor the performance of merchandising activities, such as whether the desired products are shelved, whether products are displayed properly on the shelves, or how promotions are progressing. They also provide information on what the best places where the product is sold – standard shelves or special-purpose merch tables. This information helps to display products in a way that will increase sales.
