Category-wide scope
Every item on the retailer's shelf, yours and your competitors', analyzed under the same rules so the result reads as objective.
For sales and customer development leaders
Bring the buyer a category story, not a supplier pitch.
A line review is decided by whoever explains the whole shelf most credibly. Edgewood Consulting Group builds objective, category-wide assortment recommendations that a retail buyer can act on, and our team stays with yours through the reset.
The line review problem
Every supplier walks in with the same argument
A line review gives you a short window with a buyer who has already heard a version of your case from every other manufacturer in the category. A recommendation that favors your own items is discounted before the meeting begins, however careful the work behind it. The buyer is managing a whole shelf, and a partial view of that shelf is easy to set aside.
The alternative is to speak for the category. When the recommendation covers every item the retailer carries, shows where variety duplicates itself and where shoppers would walk if an item left, the buyer has a reason to engage. Your items are then judged on the same evidence as everyone else's, which is the fairest hearing a supplier can ask for.
What the buyer receives
What an assortment recommendation contains
An Edgewood recommendation is built for the retailer meeting, not for an internal deck. These are the parts a buyer expects to see and can check.
Variety duplication
Where items in the set serve the same shopper need, and which of them the category can carry without giving up sales.
Transferable demand
How much of a delisted item's volume moves to other items and how much leaves the store, drawn from shopper decision research rather than assumption.
A retailer-specific view
Run by individual retailer and matched to that retailer's planogram, so the recommendation fits the shelf the buyer actually manages.
Scenarios with projected economics
Alternative assortments compared on projected category sales and profit, clearly labeled as projections, so the trade-offs are visible.
A presentation written for the meeting
A clear, evidence-led document in the buyer's language, prepared by Edgewood's team together with your account team.
Inputs
The data an analysis can draw on
The method works with the data you already have access to. More sources sharpen the answer; none of them is a precondition for a first conversation.
- Syndicated category data
- Point-of-sale data for the whole category across the retailer's market, covering your items and every competitor's, so the shelf is seen as the buyer sees it.
- Retailer point-of-sale data
- The retailer's own store-level sales, where the retailer shares it, so the analysis reflects that account rather than a market average.
- Loyalty data
- Household purchase records, where available, that show which items the same shoppers buy across trips and how far substitution really goes.
- Shopper decision research
- Shopper Decision Hierarchy studies that establish how shoppers choose within the category and which items they treat as interchangeable.
Before we talk
What to have ready before a first call
None of this needs to be polished. Knowing where you stand lets us tell you quickly what a category-wide recommendation would take for your review.
- The retailer and category the line review covers, and the timing the buyer has set.
- Your current distribution at that retailer and the items you want added, protected or expanded.
- Which syndicated or retailer data your organization already licenses for the category.
- Any shopper research you hold on how the category is shopped.
- The retailer's stated category strategy, if the buyer has shared one with you.
- Who on your account and category teams will work alongside Edgewood through the reset.
Capabilities
Three pillars, one team
Insights
Retail buyer interviews (Trade Probes), Shopper Decision Hierarchy research and category studies that explain how a category is shopped and what buyers expect from it.
Innovation
Category thought-leadership platforms, pricing analysis and trade promotion analysis that give an account team a point of view the retailer has not heard before.
Implementation
AssortmentEdge® assortment optimization and RevenueEdge™, which simulates a whole category market so that revenue management decisions carry their margin impact, both delivered as a service, with Edgewood's team doing the analysis and staying through execution.
Your next line review is already on the calendar.
Tell us the retailer, the category and the timing. We will explain what an objective, category-wide recommendation would involve and what your team needs to bring to the table.
Prepare for a line review