Study guide: Retail Organization Merchandising

📋 Course Outline

1. Organization Merchandising Fundamentals
2. Back Office and Front Office
3. Store Aisles and Customer Flow
4. Hot and Cold Zones
5. Shelf Layout Strategies
6. Organizational Constraints and COS
7. Checkout and Presentation Fixtures

📖 1. Organization Merchandising Fundamentals

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Organizational merchandising: a practical store arrangement that helps customers find what they are looking for easily and facilitates employees’ work
• Zoning: the layout plan of a point of sale, designed to make customers buy as many products as possible

📝 Essential Points

• The objectives are:

  • facilitate customer circulation
  • encourage customers to buy
  • follow a purchasing logic

• Kepner’s 6B are:

  • the right product
  • the right place
  • the right moment
  • the right quantity
  • the right price
  • the right information

💡 Memory Hook

The 6B: Good Product, Place, Moment, Quantity, Price, Information

📖 2. Back Office and Front Office

★ Must-know

📌 A physical point of sale is divided into a back office and a front office.

Further detail

• The back office contains:

  • reserves
  • offices
  • a break room

• The front office contains:

  • the sales floor
  • aisles and checkouts
  • sales staff

💡 Memory Hook

Back office supports operations; front office serves customers

📖 3. Store Aisles and Customer Flow

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Penetrating aisle: the aisle through which customers enter and access the store from the entrance
• Central aisle: a wide aisle in the center of the store, parallel to the checkout line, serving most aisles and leading toward the back of the store
• Secondary aisles: small aisles containing gondolas, separating each department and joining the central aisle
• Peripheral aisles: go around the store

📝 Essential Points

📌 The sales floor should be organized so that customers pass in front of as many departments as possible because visible products are more likely to be sold and products that customers can take are more likely to be bought.

💡 Memory Hook

Entry aisle → central aisle → secondary aisles → peripheral aisle

📖 4. Hot and Cold Zones

📝 Essential Points

📌 The hot zone receives natural customer traffic and often contains non-food departments, seasonal products, and promotional impulse purchases.

📌 The cold zone receives little traffic and contains necessity departments and considered purchases so that customers cross the entire store.

💡 Memory Hook

Hot zone = natural traffic; cold zone = deliberate traffic

📖 5. Shelf Layout Strategies

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Corner: a store space dedicated to a single brand, as in Galeries Lafayette

★ Must-know

📌 In a grid layout, departments follow the store’s aisles and form a grid, as in Leclerc.

📌 In a directed circuit, customers are constrained to pass through every department, as in IKEA.

Further detail

📌 In a free circuit, customers circulate through the point of sale as they wish, as in Celio.

💡 Memory Hook

Grid organizes; directed circuit constrains; free circuit liberates; corner specializes

📖 6. Organizational Constraints and COS

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Coefficient of floor occupancy: or COS, measures how the sales floor is distributed between departments and customer circulation areas

★ Must-know

📌 Circulation areas must allow customers to move easily with shopping carts and have enough distance to see products.

📌 Aisles must allow employees to restock departments without disturbing customers.

📐 Formula - The COS is calculated as $COS(\%) = \frac{\text{floor area of departments in linear metres}}{\text{sales area in m}^2} \times 100$.

Further detail

• Product placement should be: heavy products near the reserves, cut-to-order departments near laboratories, fresh products and fruit and vegetables near cold rooms

💡 Memory Hook

Good circulation and product placement → easier shopping, replenishment, and customer capacity

📖 7. Checkout and Presentation Fixtures

★ Must-know

• Checkout requirements include: accessibility to wheelchair users, enhanced lighting, a height between 0.90 m and 1.30 m, information directly readable by deaf and hard-of-hearing people

Further detail

• A single-sided gondola is used for end-of-aisle displays, while a double-sided gondola presents products on both sides.

• Presentation fixtures include:

  • refrigerated furniture
  • refrigerated display counters or sheep pens
  • perforated panels
  • tombs
  • rolls
  • sheep pens or islands
  • podiums
  • mannequins
  • carousels
  • clothing racks

📊 Synthesis Tables

Store Aisle Types