Not so long ago, the concept of "merchandising" was marketed by marketers, and everyone understood it in their own way. It depended on the practical training of Western companies. And no one could come to a single denominator. Either this is the display of goods, or the correct distribution at points of sale. Facing in merchandising remained an unknown science. Many did not attach any importance to it at all, although they understood that this method leads to an increase in sales, only the mechanism itself was not fully understood.
Facing: what is it?
Facing is understood as one of the processes of merchandising aimed at laying out commodity units on the shelves of self-service outlets in such a way that they are in maximum accessibility and visibility for a potential buyer.
The concept is derived from the English "faceting" - this is a person, a face. That is, the correct demonstration of the goods to the consumer. First of all, the presentation mechanism depends on the assortment and number of faces on the shelf space.
When the assortment exceeds the number of faces, the store cannot demonstrate all the goods for sale, and if the volume of faces is too small against the whole assortment, this will lead to a decrease in demand for a unit of production.
Targets and goals
The purpose of the faceting process is to ensure uniformity of loss of goods at the point of sale. The likelihood that the consumer will leave with the purchase of a certain unit of assortment should tend to 100%.
Facing a product has two objectives.
- Concentration of consumer attention on a particular product or brand.
This face is a strategy that involves placing the maximum number of labels to attract customer attention. This method is valid for large supermarkets, when the buyer is faced with the product one on one. In this case, your assortment should be located at the most advantageous positions in the shelf space, avoiding “dead zones”. It should be noted that too wide an assortment disperses the attention of the buyer, thereby reducing the profitability of the shelf. The optimal number of labels is from two to four.
- Maximum “capture” of the space of the most profitable shelf with its range.
This task is feasible through the number of units of items present on the shelf. If the facet assortment is competent, the company “captures” a large shelf space. Here it is highly likely that the competitor’s areas were also under your product.
Why is this needed?
It is clear that adequately set goals help to achieve the desired results. What can a swingeriser get, in addition to the benefit in the form of cash income, with the help of faceting:
- control - space surveillance helps the best sale of goods;
- the best display with the help of faceting will help to persuade the buyer when choosing goods in their direction;
- Facing is the status of a brand or a company on competitive sites, the ability to demonstrate the superiority of their enterprise.
A well-thought-out strategy displaces insignificant or less popular brands of products from the profitable space in the area below the rank. It is also a good opportunity to make it clear to competitors that they have no chance of survival.
The right face
To keep the shelf space, merchandisers can resort to some tricks and tricks. For example, a very common method is conspiracy with managers or administrators of outlets. With the connivance of the staff, the merchandiser can not only improve the faceting of his product, putting it in the most favorable place, but also make the competitor’s layout less profitable. At the same time, dispensers and shelftalkers are used.
Proper branding should set itself different tasks.
Firstly, there should be more than additional positions in the calculation of priority positions. Thus, the goods will not be stale. This is very important if the merchandiser deals with food.
If the company is only conquering the market, you can not copy the actions of the leader, because you can lose your personality and leave the race at the very beginning.