Planogram Productivity

Eighteen months ago, I decided to prove to myself that changing out red/grey pockets would truly make a difference in my stores. I started making gradual changes to two of my Home Hardware stores, both stores had 192-pocket displays, 144 pockets of Avanti and 48 pockets of A*Press.

Initially I started by exchanging out 3-5 birthday caption pockets every visit. I gradually worked my way through all of the red/grey pockets until I had exchanged out every pocket.

I continued to maintain the display and every time a red pocket would show up within the birthday category, I would exchange out the pocket for the next best-selling design as part of my ongoing display maintenance.

Once the display had been completely updated and all our best-selling birthday designs had been placed, I started to work my way over to the other categories, being mindful of the fact that Sympathy, Get Well and Friendship cards would not have the same velocity but would still require minor tweaks to keep that part of the POG updated.

My next step was to move the location of any best-selling cards into the strike zone using the "Pockets To Swap" function on ABO.

A day or two before my store visit I went to ABO and swapped the pockets online to expedite the process while working in the store. I continued to maintain the displays using this process for the full 18 months.

Recently I reviewed sales for our Home Hardware stores across Canada and discovered that both stores had become our most productive Home Hardware stores.

They're now our top two Home Hardware stores in Canada!

Take these steps to improve your displays and watch your sales grow.

1. Set a realistic timeline of 12-18 months to see the increase in sales 2. Exchange out 3-5 red pockets every visit 3. Move pockets into the strike zone

Keep your displays looking their best!

• Keep signage updated and the base clean and dust-free.

• Only one card design per pocket • One envelope color per pocket