Every merchandising manager should know which product categories are most important to their customers’ store choice decisions. Unquestionably, the overall profitability of a jewelry store is dependent on the strategic category decisions made by merchandising managers. It would be difficult for most merchandising managers to make well informed product category decisions by only relying on their intuitive skills. Point of sale software systems can enable merchandising managers to track various variables to better understand how bundled purchases might provide desired return on investment. Merchandising managers need to develop performance metrics to most effectively manage each product category the company inventories.

What sort of reports or systems do you use to better manage your product categories? How do you know that you are putting the right amount of investment into each product category?

JCK