Operations Training Notes

Answers to Retail Merchandising Quiz

1. Take a look at the retail/restaurant area – How does it look to you? What is
good and what can be improved looking at the following points?
• (Posters) (Point Of Sale (P.O.S.)) (Signage)
• Clutter /view through the trading area
• Cleaning requirements – What should be included in the Daily and
weekly cleaning schedule?

POS
• Neat and correct. Not broken.
• Relevant and in date promotions
• Visible – Key places – Free standing and wall mounted
• Examples of POS – A3 A4 Promotion Posters, Shelf Edge pricing, Shelf
talkers, Directional signage, Restaurant signage, Menus outside and inside
restaurant

View from the trading area

• Retail area not obscured
• Using trolleys to unload stock. No product on the floor

Cleaning
• Is everywhere in the retail area clean and dust free.
• Our hygiene standards are just as important front of house as in the
kitchen. This is how the customer judges our hygiene standards.
• The Retail area should be included in the daily/ weekly cleaning schedule
covering?

▪ Entrance, fridges, tray runs, windows, mirrors, doors, tables, chairs

etc, all the areas that our customers make contact with each day.
▪ Retail stands, crisps, confectionary cold drinks?

All the above should be dusted, cleaned, polished and buffed to ensure
they are free of dust, crumbs, finger marks, grease or dried on old
product
▪ Some items may need cleaning mid service eg Coffee machines,
drink dispensers.

Highlight
• Every day the Manager should carry out a Daily floor walk to include
interior and exterior
• Take down any handwritten signs, Out of date posters/promotions. Remove
any clutter, anything broken or damaged. Move anything not for Sale that
is taking up valuable retail space
• Ensure all areas are clean and tidy – if there are areas that we are not
responsible for cleaning Think about
▪ Do they have an impact on your restaurant?
 2. Identify the main customer flow through the retail area/ restaurant?

Understanding the customer flow will help you to identify your Hotspots.
This is also known as Macro space planning – Finding out where your counters
will go

Draw Layout of Unit and customer Flow

here

3. Where are the key retail opportunities looking at the following points?
• Category adjacencies
• Hot spots
• Impulse product opportunities

• Category Adjacency
o Items that are linked together e.g. coffee and cakes or Sandwich,
drinks, crisps and confectionary or a Meal deal
• Hot Spots
o Best sellers in prominent positions e.g. next to till
• Impulse Product Opportunities
o Getting people to buy what they hadn’t planned for : More money
from same people
o Near till; in Hot spots
Extra point
• Zones
o Are there any areas for browsing; less busy e.g. newspapers and
distress items
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 4. Look at each of the display cabinets and identify what is good and what could
be improved by looking at the following points
• How are sub-categories grouped?
• Are brands positioned together?
• Is it neat and tidy to the front of the cabinet?
• Are displays piled high?
• Are there gaps in the cabinets?

• Categories
o All categories and sub categories grouped together

Category Sub Category

Dairy Deck All sweets together/sandwiches
Confectionary All filled Chocolate bars together, Tablet Chocolate, Packet
sweets, Mints, Chewing gum etc
Drinks Grouped by Waters, Carbonated, Health, Energy
Crisps Grouped by brand e.g. Walkers, McCoys

• Brands
o All brands together e.g. Coke, walkers

• Neat and Tidy to the front

o Are the FOH Staff pulling the product forward at all times.
o New products always placed at the back in order to rotate stock
FIFO – first in first out

• Piled High?
o Product should be well stocked and neat not over flowing. As
this looks untidy and unappealing to the customer.

• Gaps?
o Absolutely no gaps face product across temporarily with next
product if out of stock
 5. How should Products be priced

• It is a legal obligation that every product must be priced. If a product is in

two positions each position will need labelling.

• Using Shelf edge labels for pricing not only helps us fulfil our legal
obligation, it also helps our teams to stock the shelves consistently as it
acts as a marker.

• Shelf edge labels must be placed at the bottom left edge of the run of the
product; at every position.

• If a product runs out (Gap) you should fill/double face the product to the
left of the remaining product. When the product is back in stock you should
refill

• Pricing should be in line with your sectors pricing guide

• If a product is on promotion – the full price of the product should be

displayed as well as the POS that will contain the promotion price

6. When looking at large displays of similar products why should they be

displayed and grouped in vertical blocks?

• Research has shown that customers move eyes up and down not side to
side. Please note that your planograms will have taken this into account so
please follow your planogram

• Blocks encourage volumes as customers more willing to grab and go

7. Where are the best selling positions for products that are your best sellers
within each display?

• Hot Spots
• Nearest the Till
• Eye Level

8. All products need to be ‘faced up’. What does this mean?

Faced up – Logos and Labels are the correct way round for customers to read
from front to back
 9. When running promotions look at the retail area/restaurant and see where
you would best position the following P.O.S. to attract the customer’s
attention?
• A3 grip frames
• A4 acrylics
• Shelf talkers
• Dump Bins

Each month the Company will run a series of promotions these will be
communicated to you via the Go Buy magazine. This will tell you
• Products available and the offer
• POS supplied and the position to place it in
• Implementation and cost

Use an example of an existing promotion to show where the POS should be

POS needs to be next to the product and in key Hot Spot areas

10. Why do we do promotions?

• To increase sales and customer spend

• Increase footfall
Increase frequency of visits by customer
• Building and rewarding customer loyalty
• Introducing new products
• Maintain interest and create excitement

11. What type of promotions do we do at our sites?

• Price reduction
• Meal Deals
• Loyalty
• Extra product free
• Product Highlighted

12. How can you maximise promotions at your sites?

• Being prepared and planning

• Clear about what the deal is
• Briefing and getting your team involved

13. How will you get your team on board?

• Communicate what it is about and objective of promotion

• Why you want them to be involved and how
• What they will have to do
• When it starts and finishes
• Benefits of promotion to the customer
• What targets you are trying to achieve
• Incentives for the team to work to
 14. How can your Team sell the promotions

• Everyone needs to - SHOUT ABOUT IT – Promote the promotion

• The team need to make sure the they display the products prominently, that
they are fully stocked and POS is used to market the promotion
• At the till if a customer has part of the promotion SHOUT ABOUT IT
• On the shop floor as the customer are selecting SHOUT ABOUT IT
• As a Manager – you will need to order extra product for the promotion so
you don’t run out – Remember – Retail Is Detail

15. What are Planograms?

A detailed picture or chart showing the exact position and numbers of facings
for each product within a display

16. How are Planograms used?

• Best sellers in best positions with more/correct facings

• Staff use when replenishing to ensure products are always positioned
correctly
• Order stock using Planograms ensures no Gaps

17. Why do we use Planograms?

• Easier for customer to find their favourite product

• Greater consistency and impact of displays
• All staff know exactly where and how to display product
• Makes stocking up of counters easier

Two main reasons why Retailers lose Sales

• Out of Stock
• Customers cant find product
Use Planograms to eradicate both these issues

18. In operating a retail unit what are the key considerations we should give to
stock?

• Need higher back up stock of best sellers to keep displays fully merchandised.
• Customers do not care if it is week 1.2.3. or 4. You cant buy big in week one and not
top up your best sellers
• Retail = to sell. You can’t sell what you haven’t got
One on the floor and one in the store
• For core products you should keep one case in stock, and always order from the
stockroom not display.
• It is also important that your team continually monitor and replenish stock on display
and that they must not just ‘set up’ for the start of day and expect the quantity on
display to last throughout the trading period.
Keep Filling The Shelves
 Please note, to avoid learner confusion, this question has been removed from the
learners quiz.

19. How could GP% be affected by selling retail products?

£ v %
• Retail products will generally have a lower GP% and you should therefore
focus on the cash £ Gross Profit being generated
• The aim is to generate a higher volume of sales thus improving the cash GP
eg Mars bar v cake its easier to grab a mars than a cake

You cannot bank a percentage.

• Tesco announced impressive results in 2007 of £2.6 billion on an overall GP

of 6%!

19. What Benefits will your unit get from using retail principles?

Negative GP% Stock Levels

☺ Positive £ Profit Volumes