Stratagem Cards & Games in Australia is an excellent example of a store with a deep product assortment in select categories. Pondering these questions will help you determine the right product breadth and depth to implement.įor instance, if you cater to die-hard fans of card games like Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon, you’ll want to have a deep assortment of cards within the key games that your customers love, as opposed to say, stocking a wide variety of products beyond games.

Who are your customers? How do they perceive your store and what purpose does it serve? The first step to having an optimal product assortment is to recognize who you are and what your brand means to your target customers. Get clear on your store’s image and purpose But there are a handful of general guidelines and pointers you should consider when coming up with the right product mix.Ĭheck them out below. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania sums it up quite nicely: Optimizing your merchandise mix: 6 product assortment tipsĮvery store is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all product assortment strategy that would work for everyone.

For instance, a store that specializes in office supplies can stock the same type of pen but in various colors. Most specialty retailers have deep product assortments. This time, it’s all about how deep an assortment is in a given category. Product depth refers to the number of variations within a particular product line. One example is Walmart, which sells everything from toilet paper and diapers to PJs and jackets.Ģ. A retailer that sells many different types of products is considered to have a large product breadth. Product breadth is all about how wide and diverse an assortment is. Product breadth, which is the variety of product lines in a store.

Product assortment, sometimes referred to as merchandise mix, refers to the variety of products that a retailer stocks and sells.

This post will give you an overview of assortment planning and optimization, and will offer tips so you can implement the practice successfully in your retail business. You need data, a deep understanding of your customers and trends, as well as some foresight and intuition into what your customers want. Having a good merchandise mix requires both an art and a science. Getting your product assortment right is one of the most important - yet trickiest - things to do in retail.

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