Page 19 - HME Business, August/September 2018

RETAIL:
HAVING THE RIGHT PLAN
As providers increasingly add retail sales to their revenue mix, planograms become an essential tool. What makes a effective planogram and how can providers use them strategically?
By David Kopf
RETAIL IS A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF HME PROVIDER REVENUES these days, and because of that, providers are becoming far more strategic in how they approach retail sales. And a key element a smart retail strategy is having a showroom that does the selling. A provider can employ only so many people, so it is essential that the store is organized and goods are presented in such a way that shoppers can find what they want, are enticed by other items, and can make an informed selection in instances when staff members are already helping other customers.
Planograms can help accomplish that. Long an asset of other retail indus- tries, planograms help retailers organize what’s on their shelves to help promote and sell their wares. Over the past several years, vendors and distrib- utors of HME have been supplying planograms to their provider customers in hopes of helping them excel and retail sales. HMEB sat down with a couple retail experts, Mike Scarsella, national sales director for Compass Health, and Rob Baumhover, director of VGM Retail and Vendor Programs, to get their take on how providers can use planograms strategically.
HMEB: What is a planogram and how does it work? What’s its function? Mike Scarsella: A planogram would be a pre-merchandise grouping of products that are merchandised together in terms of price point, in terms of category, in terms of function, but also in terms of display. So, they’re merchandised together, but they’re also grouped together in a prepack- aged presentation. The purpose, generally speaking, of a planogram would be to make things easy and simple and take some of the guesswork out of
the dealer’s responsibility and make their life a little bit easier. In places that the focus from the experts of a particular category or product line being the vendor or manufacturer.
Rob Baumhover: Derived from research and data related to consumer buying habits and trends, a planogram shows the layout, set-up, recom- mended product SKUs and quantities for a given product category a manu- facturer has put together.
HMEB: How important are planograms in terms of retail strategy? How can this help an HME provider?
Baumhover: Planograms are great for certain categories (incontinence, wound care, compression and bracing) or categories where a provider uses only one manufacturer per section or category. However, where categories vary more (fitness, pain management, daily living) then a provider should be creating merchandising plans using multiple manufacturers or products to get a healthy mix of product to satisfy the market or customer base. Scarsella: It’s important that the planogram doesn’t supersede the product itself, making sure that the product is right — right for the market, right
for the particular dealer. So all of that still has to come into play, but the planogram is important for a dealer in the sense that it can get them to the point of presenting their products to their customer base and consumer base much faster and much easier, much more consistent and stream- lined. It allows them to manage their inventory much better. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of that in terms of stocking inventory, reorder points,
19 HMEBusiness | August/September 2018 | hme-business.com
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