The right product, the right place, the right time, the right price and the right quantity.

Consider the usual definition of “merchandising”. For decades, the corner grocer has been slowly transforming into a self-service operation over time in an almost scientific manner.

It must be stated that, with the explosion of competing brands and modern business needs in all areas of commerce, there is a great risk of loss and/or failure unless a minimum degree of order and organisation is maintained.

This is even truer in a hypermarket where there are often 60,000 to 80,000 SKUs (product types) all of which must be placed in a multitude of aisles and on hundreds of shelves. But how? Imagine our poor grocer of yester-year, could he accommodate all this? Probably not!

Profitability can only be maintained by extensive analysis of the positioning of products on shelves, the variety of stock, the quantity of product per “SKU”, etc.