One Planogram, Two Different Markets
A 900 sq ft apparel and accessories store in a Haryana market town opens in three weeks. Head office sends a standard planogram: men's shirts on the right wall, women's kurtis in the centre, accessories at the back, billing at the front-left, and a main aisle 90 cm wide. A local survey says 70% of the footfall in this market is women buying kurtis and dupattas, most of them between 11 am and 2 pm. The frontage is 12 ft of glass facing a busy lane used by morning vegetable sellers; the shutter takes direct afternoon sun. Opening stock is 1,800 kurti units, 600 shirts and 900 accessories. The billing counter will also handle returns, exchanges and online order pickups, and it is the only counter. Staff strength is three, with one person on billing at all times.
1. Which elements of the planogram should be changed for this store and which should be kept? Justify each decision with the data given.
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Change – zone allocation. 70% of footfall is women buying kurtis, so kurtis must occupy the highest-visibility, highest-dwell area: the centre plus the right wall, which is where most customers turn on entry. Head office has put shirts on that wall. Stock tells the same story – 1,800 kurti units against 600 shirts – so the wall space currently given to shirts cannot hold its own inventory either. Shirts move to the left wall and rear, with one feature rack near the entrance only if the first fortnight's data supports it.
Change – aisle width. 90 cm is a secondary aisle, not a main aisle. With peak footfall between 11 am and 2 pm and customers carrying dupattas and bags, plan 120 cm for the main path and 90 cm between secondary fixtures. This costs one gondola run; it buys conversion.
Change – window handling. Direct afternoon sun through 12 ft of glass fades kurti fabric within weeks and heats the window zone, so add a blind or awning and rotate the display on a fixed cycle rather than leaving it for a month.
Keep – billing at front-left. It is beside the exit, deters walk-outs, and is where returns and pickups should be handled. But carve a 60 cm side spot for returns and online pickups so a return does not block billing during the 11–2 peak, when only one of three staff is on the counter.
2. Design the opening window display and state what it must not contain.
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One story, three price points, everything visible from the lane. Three mannequins in complete kurti-and-dupatta sets at ₹499, ₹699 and ₹899 – the volume price bands for this market – with the price on a plain tag at eye level (about 1.2–1.5 m). A fourth plain form holds a dupatta in a contrast colour to show the accessory range. A single bold poster with the store name and the opening offer, not five posters.
Fill 50–60% of the window, not 100%. A packed window reads as a clearance sale and stops the eye; light space makes the ₹899 set look worth ₹899.
Must not contain: mixed categories (no shirts among the kurtis, or the market reads the store as a family garment shop and stops coming for kurtis), dead stock or a single odd size, faded stock that has been in the sun, loose hangers, or anything without a price.
Rotation: change the hero set every 10–14 days, and after the first weekend if the opening offer has run. A window that never changes tells regulars there is nothing new. Keep a simple window calendar in the store file with the change dates signed.
3. How would you prove, within six weeks, whether the changes worked?
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Measure before and after with the same method, and be honest about what a small store can actually count.
Baseline (weeks 1–2, after opening settles, ideally on planogram A): daily footfall tally between 11 am and 2 pm kept by the billing person at the door for one hour per day; conversion = bills ÷ footfall; average transaction value; kurti units per bill; total sales by department.
After the change (weeks 3–6): repeat the same tally hours, then compare like with like – same days of the week, same time band.
Primary indicator: kurti units per bill and kurti share of sales value. A successful zoning change raises both without extra footfall. Secondary: conversion, since a wider aisle should reduce people leaving without billing. Watch two risks – returns/exchange rate rising (over-selling, wrong sizes) and shirt sales falling sharply (shirts lost too much space, so restore a feature rack).
Six-week review: change one variable at a time. If the window and the zoning both change in the same week and sales rise, the store will not know which one to keep – that is the trap head office planograms are meant to avoid.