The Category Opportunities analysis compares the space shares and sales shares of the analyzed categories. Based on this comparison, it is possible to assess whether individual categories are allocated an appropriate amount of space on the store floor plan, or whether they are underestimated or overestimated in terms of space.

This report is equivalent to the Space and Sales analysis available in the Store Editor; however, the Category Opportunities analysis can be performed across multiple stores at the same time, whereas Space and Sales always applies to only one specific floor plan.

In what situations can you use the Category Opportunities analysis?

• • You want to determine whether the space allocated to each category corresponds to its sales share at a given store.
  • You want to see the space, the space share, the sales share, and the difference between them for a selected category across all stores.
  • You want to determine which categories have the greatest disproportions between space share and sales share—and where, therefore, there is the greatest potential for optimizing space allocation.
  • You want to identify the stores where the disproportions between space share and sales share are most significant, making them the best candidates for rebuilding.

The Category Opportunities analysis uses the space allocated on the store floor plan, not the space in the planograms.

Criteria Setting

First, you need to set the analysis criteria that will determine how the results are displayed.

For a more detailed explanation of some of the criteria, see the manual Basic Settings of Analysis.

Stores and Sales Data

Here, select the stores or sales data to be included in the analysis.

Parent Category and Categories

In the analysis, you must specify which categories you want to analyze. You can do this by:

• • Setting the Parent Category —this way, you will analyze all categories that are direct subcategories of the selected parent category.
  • Setting the Categories—here you can select any categories you want to include in the analysis.

Sales Time Range

Here, set the time period for which sales data should be analyzed.

Value Types

Here, you can choose whether to display sold pieces, profit, turnover, or other sales data that you send to Quant.

Show Average Benchmark Sales

This setting affects columns containing “Benchmark” in their names. Here, you can choose whether you want these columns to display the average value for a single store (checkbox marked) or the total value for all stores included in the Stores and Sales Data row (checkbox unmarked).

Stores

Here, select the stores or groups of stores whose space will be analyzed.

Space Type

Select the spatial indicator you want to use in the analysis. For example, you can analyze linear space, floor area, or an area calculated as width × height, etc.

Criteria Setting

Once all criteria have been set, click the Report button.

Analysis Interpretation

Each row of the analysis represents a combination for a single category at a single store. For each combination, data is available such as the space allocated to that category at the store, its sales, benchmark sales, and its space share and sales share relative to the other categories analyzed. In addition, the analysis includes other related metrics.

Note: Sales metrics are explained only for Sold Pieces but they can also be applied, for example, to profit or turnover.

Space: The space a given category occupies at the store.

Space Share: The share of space occupied by the category at a given store, relative to the total space allocated to all analyzed categories.

Sold Pieces (Store): The total number of Sold Pieces for a given category at this store during the selected period.

Sold Pieces (Benchmark): The total number of Sold Pieces for a given category at all stores included in the benchmark in the Stores and Sales Data criterion. If the Show Average Benchmark Sales checkbox is marked, the average number of Sold Pieces per one benchmark store is displayed here. This value indicates how the category is performing across all analyzed stores.

If we analyze 3 stores and Store A sold a total of 400 units from the Drinks category during the given period, Store B sold 500 units, and Store C sold 600, the Sold Pieces (Benchmark) will be as follows:

 - If the Show Average Benchmark Sales checkbox is unchecked = 300+400+500 =1 200 

 - If the Show Average Benchmark Sales checkbox is checked = (300+400+500)/3 = 400 

The benchmark value is the same across all stores for a given category.

Δ Sold Pieces: The difference between the values of Sold Pieces (Store) and Sold Pieces (Benchmark). A positive value indicates that the store’s sales are higher than the benchmark’s sales. Conversely, a negative value indicates that the store’s sales are lower than the benchmark’s sales.

Sold Pieces % (Store): The proportion of Sold Pieces in a given category out of the total number of Sold Pieces across all analyzed categories at that store.

Sold Pieces % (Benchmark): The proportion of Sold Pieces in a given category out of the total number of Sold Pieces across all analyzed categories at benchmark stores.

Δ Sold Pieces %: The difference between the values of Sold Pieces % (Store) and Sold Pieces % (Benchmark).

Space Share - Sold Pieces % (Store): The difference between the values Space Share and Sold Pieces % (Store). This value compares a category’s space share to its sales share and indicates whether the category occupies more or less space at a given store than is corresponding to its sales.

• • If the value is positive, the space share is higher than the sales share, which means that the category occupies more space than it deserves relative to its sales, and reducing it may be considered.
  • If the value is negative, the sales share is higher than the space share, which means that the category occupies less space than it deserves relative to its sales, and increasing it may be considered.

Space Share - Sold Pieces % (Benchmark): The difference between the values of Space Share and Sold Pieces % (Benchmark).

The following figures illustrate specific examples of how each metric is calculated. The table is grouped by store name, so you can see all categories for each store grouped together.

Analysis Interpretation

Sold Pieces

Sold Pieces % always shows the share of sales for a given category relative to the total sales of all analyzed categories.

Sold Pieces%

The Tea and Coffee category has higher space share than the sales share.

Space

Category Opportunities help you identify discrepancies between a category’s space assigned in the floor plan and its sales share, and identify the greatest opportunities for improvement. The stores where these discrepancies are most significant are the best candidates for rebuilding. By optimizing the spatial layout of categories in these stores, you can improve the utilization of space and boost sales performance.

Discrepancies evaluation