Category Variants Use Cases
You can specify which shelves will share the same planogram template using category variants. Which category variant labels you choose depends on your corporate strategy. There are 3 basic options described in this manual.
In this manual you will find a description of three examples:
- Equal priority of all fixtures of the same category
- First fixture with the highest priority
- More fixtures in one module
Fixtures that have the same category, the same number of shelves and the same category variant share the same planogram template in the Project Editor.
For a general description of what category variants are and how they work, see the Category Variants manual.
The purpose of this manual is to show 3 possible cases of how category variants can be used in Quant.
1. Equal priority of all fixtures of the same category
This is probably the most common designation of category variants in Quant that we recommend. The number after the slash indicates the total number of fixture in the store with that category. For example, if there are 3 fixtures with the category Drinks, the first one will be marked 1/3, the second 2/3 and the last one 3/3.
When will you use this option?
You can mark category variants in this way if you want to distribute the most important products among all the modules of a given category in a store.
How will this be reflected in the planograms?
Stores that have the same number of fixture with the category Drinks will share the same planogram because they will have the same category variant. For example, if you have 7 stores with 2 fixtures of drinks and in 4 stores these fixtures will have 6 shelves, then we will share the planogram template between all these 4 stores.
The following 3 figures demonstrate a simple example. We have a store A and a store B, which have only 1 module of the category Drinks with 6 shelves. In store A the fixture is 73 cm wide and in store B it is 100 cm wide. These two stores will share the same planogram template as the same 1/1 category variant will be used for them.
Next, we have stores C and D, which have two modules of the Drinks category, with both modules being 73 cm wide in store C and 100 cm wide in store D. These stores will share the same planogram template for both modules. For the first module, the category 1/2 variant will be used and the planograms will look as follows:
For the second module, the category 2/2 variant will be used and the planograms will look like the figure below:
It is also important to note that we are creating 3 different templates for these 4 stores in total. The first template is for variant 1/1 and will be applied to all stores with one module. The second template is for the first module of the two-module variant (1/2) and the third is for the second module of the two-module variant (2/2).
2. First fixture with the highest priority
The second option is to mark fixture with the same category with numbers. Thus, if there is one fixture with drinks in a store, it will have variant 1. If there are two fixtures in the store, the first fixture will have category variant 1 and the second fixture will have category variant 2. This means that the fixture with variant 1 will subsequently share the same planogram template.
When to use this option?
Marking category variants in this way can be used if you always want to have the most important products in the first fixture. This way you can stack your most important products in the fixture with the category variant "1". Then the planogram template with these products will be shared between all stores that have at least one fixture with this category, because it will have the category variant 1.
In stores A, B, C and D we have at least 1 module of the category Drinks with 6 shelves. For all the first modules, the same planogram template will be used to generate the final planogram because all the modules will have a category variant 1. Therefore, it is important to put all the important products in this template.
There are even 2 modules in stores A, B and C. This second module will have a category variant 2. For the second module, another template will need to be created, which is shown in the figure below. In this template there should be additional products that we know will not be able to be displayed in store D due to lack of space (there is only one module in store D).
3. More fixtures in one module
Another option is to add the widths of the fixture in one row and then plot them as one fixture. You can then give them all the same category variant (e.g. 1). The result will be that there will be one piece of fixture with a category variant 1 in all stores, but this fixture will have a different width in each store. However, this is not a hindrance for the planograms themselves, because you will create one template for all these planograms into which you will stack a large number of products. Quant will then select the best products from the template for each store in terms of their sales and place all the essential products in the planogram. In a store where the category has only 80 cm of space, many products will be crossed out in the template because most of them will not fit in the final planogram. Conversely, in a store where the category has 240 cm of space in width, most of the products from the template will be placed.
The Brighton store originally had 2 drinks fixtures with a width of 80cm. We will plot them as one 160cm wide fitting.
This means that all stores that have any space for the Drinks category will have drinks fixture with a variant of 1. The fixtures will vary in space width. The image below shows the fixture in the London store, which is only 80cm wide, so many products are crossed out in the template because they don't fit in the planogram. Quant will always select the best products from the template.
In the picture below we see the fixture in the Brighton store, which is 160 cm wide. Both the London and Brighton fixtures have the same category variant 1, so they share the same planogram template. We can see that the template has accommodated most of the products because the products already fit into the 160 cm wide planogram.
When will you use this option?
You can use this option if you have fixture with the same category next to each other and you want to use the planogram optimization. At the same time, you can only use this option if all modules have the same shelf heights.
You will create a large template with products, which Quant will then adapt to the dimensions of the fixture and sales of each store and create a customized planogram for each store.