How to choose an assortment for a children’s goods store

Assortment

The number of items and their location in the store depends on whether they will be bought or not. We tell you how to choose the right product items and place them on shelves and hangers.

How to create a product range

Predicting what will sell well is difficult. The range will have to be constantly adjusted depending on the season and demand.

See what your competitors offer and how they design the store. The stores to explore must match your business model:

• by target audience,
• by geography,
• by price segment.

Take note of relevant experiences, but don’t copy them completely.

Before you buy a product, create an assortment matrix — a kind of product catalog in the form of a table.

Example of the assortment matrix for a children’s goods store

We use an assortment matrix to keep the proportion of products and the size range in mind, so that the age or season does not “sag”. We create everything in a Google spreadsheet and choose new brands based on what we already have, so that it doesn’t repeat itself and is interesting for customers.

Our assortment matrix is linked to the place that we can allocate for brands. Sometimes it is logical to buy half as many products for the point, but we can’t leave the shelf half empty, so we make a commercial compromise — we put up more than is required to visualize the shelf for the brand. Then the system counts everything. It sets the minimum number of products, and as soon as it reaches a critical figure, the system automatically sorts the product that is in our warehouse.

Olivia Yuzna,
founder of the children’s store “Chicks Market”

The assortment matrix in our store is not as complex as in large production facilities. Today, we clearly know how many items we need to produce for sale in a given period. Four years of experience and mistakes that we have made during this time affect us.

We calculate the number of items based on what sizes of clothing are bought from us more often. Initially, I made purchases intuitively. But now, for example, I know that the smallest and largest sizes are non-mobile, so we make them in a smaller print run.

Olga Teslya,
co-owner and General Director of the Olant chain of stores for mothers and babies

Working with children’s products

The range of children’s products depends on which niche you choose. If this is a multi-brand store with all types of products for children from 0 to 16 years old, the range will be very wide. If you position yourself as a store for newborns, then you should not include products for adult children in the range, but you can add accessories for pregnant and nursing mothers.

Children’s products can be divided into groups:

• Children’s clothing and shoes.
• Accessories: backpacks, belts, sunglasses.
• Toys. They are divided into different categories: soft, plastic, battery-powered, construction kits, educational games, and so on.
• Children’s books.
• Baby products: mobile phones, walkers, bottle warmers, baby monitors, strollers, etc.
• Children’s furniture: cribs, dressers, changing tables, tables and chairs, etc.
• Baby food: juices, purees, dairy products, etc.
• Products for pregnant and nursing mothers: special clothing, baby feeding devices, ergorukzaks, etc.

To make life easier for parents who live in a fast pace, we have made an expanded range so that you can buy everything in one place — clothes, books, and toys.

Most of all, we sell children’s wooden toys. There are fewer items for children’s interiors: panels, posters, perhaps because we have never positioned ourselves as a store with products for children’s interiors. At the same time, a lot of children’s clothing and accessories are sold.

Until recently, we focused only on children’s toys and accessories, this was the concept of Kids, interior and toys, but gradually we began to expand the offer, and now Bunny Hill is a store for children and parents. This year, we are actively introducing new categories that were not previously presented, such as useful gadgets, children’s books, and a range for parents: cosmetics, decor, and home fragrances. We plan to continue expanding so that our customers can delight not only their children with gifts, but also themselves and their loved ones.

When forming a line of children’s clothing, follow several rules.

• Choose your clothes so that they are combined with each other. It is better to divide things into segments: casual clothing, school uniforms, sportswear, etc.
• Post ready-made images in social networks. This will make it easier for customers to navigate when they come to your store.
• Include seasonal items in your product range. In the summer, you can add children’s swimming trunks and swimsuits, as well as expand the range of accessories by adding glasses, umbrellas, panama hats, etc.
• Follow the trends. Fashion is changing not only in the clothing segment, but also in such segments as toys and accessories for newborns. For example, in the mid-noughties in Russia, slings and ergorukzaks (an ergonomic carrier that ensures the correct physiological position of the child) became popular.

If you are just opening a store, don’t rush to buy a lot of products at once. Put up a small assortment for sale and evaluate what is in demand and how quickly these products are sold out.

Disadvantages of a wide range of products:

• We need large investments for the purchase of goods and rental of premises. Some start-up stores operate without goods in stock: they accept orders and buy items from suppliers depending on demand.
• You can’t always predict demand. For example, you purchased 300 children’s car seats. But the lockdown began, and demand for car seats plummeted. At the same time, you spent money on the purchase and now have to look for an additional storage space for the product.
• Numerous trading positions entail a large document flow.

We sew small batches of clothing approximately every one and a half to two months. We try to tailor our products to meet demand, so that they don’t linger in the warehouse for too long, but at the same time we always have the most popular sizes and colors available.

Retail area zones

• Dead zone. These are the first 1-4 meters immediately after entering the store. As a rule, very little is bought in these zones. The user has not yet had time to get used to the new place. You don’t need to place new products or popular products there. It is better to leave this space open. Let the customer look around, form an idea of your brand, and decide if they want to stay in the store.
• Hot zone. The area next to the dead zone is one of the most valuable in terms of sales. Here, the user slows down, looks at things, and gets an idea of prices. Place shelves, racks, and display cases with the products that you want to show first.
• The selling sector. If the customer is interested in things in the hot zone, they go further and turn to the right wall. Post the most relevant products here. The location of things here will have to be changed frequently, so use movable or removable structures in this area.
• Wall opposite the entrance. Another hot zone, usually visible from anywhere in the store. Find the most trending and expensive products here.
• Paco Andrehill, a consumer behavior researcher and author of Why We Buy, found that shoppers do not like narrow aisles where it is difficult to miss other customers. They are reluctant to go to such zones, even if there is a product of interest there.
• Cold zones. These sections are considered corners and the part of the store to the left of the entrance. To attract visitors to these zones, place discounted products there. You can also put shelves there with bright clothes that attract attention. Place the cash register on the left side of the store.

Calculation principles

• Left-to-right positioning. The customer views the product on the shelf in the same way as they read a book, so products with high demand should be placed on the left, and those with low demand should be placed on the right.
• “Golden” shelves. Such shelves are located at a height of 1.5-1.7 meters from the floor — that is, about 20 centimeters from eye level. Items that are located on these shelves sell better than others. Those that are above eye level are perceived as more expensive, and those that are lower are perceived as cheap.
• Cross-pollination. Put things that complement each other side by side: school suits and boots, sneakers and a backpack.

Layout planogram

What to consider when creating a planogram layout

• Efficient use of space. Popular items take up the most space in the store. They are not overlaid with marketing support, so that the buyer can easily find them with their eyes and easily approach the shelf.
• Impulsively purchased items should be located next to popular products. Place cheap items next to more expensive but colorful items.
• Promotions and interactive content. From time to time, offer discounts when buying a fixed amount of goods, and help customers decide on their clothing choices.
• Properly designed checkout area. Place inexpensive and colorful items near the cash register — chocolates, keychains, and small toys. These items attract children’s attention and encourage their parents to add to their shopping cart. Place the most popular products behind the consultant’s back — this place is clearly visible at the time of payment.

We make a planogram before opening the store. It is adjusted before the start of a new season or during brand rotation. Large chain stores have entire programs for managing products on the shelves. We don’t have such a program. We divide products into zones. At the end of the period, we look at: if one product zone was too large and the other was too small, then we can slightly expand one brand in favor of the other. I made the planogram myself, it doesn’t require any special skills.

Programs for creating a planogram

• Shelfplanner. On this platform, you can create a planogram and report on it. You can work with “rsp”, “pln”, and “psa”files;
• Exсel. The program is available on any computer with Microsoft Office installed . You can use it to create tables, calculations, and charts.
• PowerPoint. A program for presentations. You can visually place blocks and insert images.

The main thing

1. Create an assortment. To do this, create an assortment matrix — a product catalog in the form of a table. Also study the competitors ‘ products and their prices.
2. If you are just opening a store, don’t rush to buy a lot of products at once.
3. Place children’s products correctly in the store. Study the types of product layouts and think about which one is most suitable for your store.
4. Follow the basic layout principles so that the product is visible and the user doesn’t leave you without buying it.
5. Create a planogram of the display of goods in your store using one of the special programs.

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