FRANCE: THE ADVANTAGES OF CATEGORY MANAGEMENT
Article Abstract:
Category management has appeared in France. Casino has adopted it, as has to a certain extent Carrefour which has signed an agreement with ACNielsen France and IRI-SECODIP to sell its store data. These two retail chains have chosen different paths. For Carrefour, it means delegating part of its marketing and product policy to the manufacturers, while Casino appears to be turning to an increasingly strong control of its marketing and product strategies. According to an expert, category management is now the only way for retailing to progress noticeably in terms of profitability. It is also the way to quickly conquer new markets as part of a globalisation policy. However, category management involves a major change in company organisation, since its purpose is to orient the company to the consumer, particularly by reducing the levels of organisation. It also implies a modification of the company's data processing systems, which must include consumer information systems and take suppliers and outside service providers into account. Category management also means that the buyer must learn to work with a seller. Customer management is the completion of category management. Retailers will come to the point where they match up their product categories and their customer categories.
Publication Name: Points de Vente
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 0150-1844
Year: 1998
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FRANCE: DOUBLING THE FOOD SELECTION
Article Abstract:
In France, the number of food products in supermarkets and hypermarkets is increasing steadily, up 11.1% in 1997 and 1998 in the chilled self-service department alone. This is due to the change in consumer habits; they are increasingly on the lookout for new products, safety, practicality, and pleasure products. This rise in new products gives retailers major merchandising products since the convenience food sections will not stretch. However, they are ways that the departments can be better organised. Some think that certain products with low rotation should be eliminated. Others, such as Carrefour are organise them according to areas of use, which clarifies the selection, by eliminating certain double stocking, while meeting customer needs. Carrefour takes other criteria into account in organising the convenience food products department, particularly the notions of purchases for pleasure and the shopping time as perceived by the customer. Carrefour thinks that while the selection must respond to the demand of all the customers, the volume and space given to each item must be adapted to the ways customers shop.
Publication Name: Points de Vente
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 0150-1844
Year: 1998
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