The creation of the initial range plan reflects the quantities that have to be bought
at item level by colour, in the correct size ranges,
at the target mark-ups and retail selling prices. It is essential that the monetary
buying amounts of the plan are
aligned to the merchandise plan
intake values.
The buying plan should reflect the strategy which guarantees the correct amount of
selection within the stock parameters while still providing the right spread of
products in the required quantities that will best serve the target customer in both style, form and function at any
point in time of the season.
During the construction of the plan,
the principle that
needs to be adhered to is that the merchandise plan must guide the buy with the
customer top of
mind. Lessons learnt from previous seasons need to be analysed and equally
applied to both the basic continuity lines
as well as the high end fashion products. Fundamentally it is also important to
get the right balance of the
correct number of choices in
quantities that enable the guarantee of basic lines in depth without impeding the introduction of newness.
It happens often that too much
emphasis is placed on the fringe or peripheral lines, or there is excessive similarity in
characteristics and price offerings that can disrupt the balance.
The emotional wishes of the buying team and suppliers can
also have an influence on a distorted balance being achieved and should be
guarded against.
The range plan which
represents the assortment of
products developed within specific categories must
represent the organisation of the business and therefore should be balanced
across the width and
depth of the
structure.
The width represents how broad the choice of product is
while the depth represents the quantities required to cover
the number of sizes and colours including the amount of price points within the product categories. It is probably easier for niche retailers
that focus on a narrower customer segment of the market to best be able to serve
the both the depth and width demands of their market.
The difficulties that retailers are
faced with in striking the right balance of width and depth of ranges is that of presenting real customer choice while at same time optimising the
return on investment. In other words, there is the need
to attract customers by
maintaining a level of newness and fashionability without compromising the
traditional or core customers and especially the high volume
sellers. It is therefore critical that the buyer has a clear vision of the marketing position and understands the target customer though
continuous research which
provides the confidence to determine as to what should or should not be kept in
the range.
The other challenge of having a too
broad choice of styles is that the decision making process becomes an effort to
select a product and diminishes the pleasure of the shopping experience.
The volume and choice balance emphasis that the customer expects
to find new styles in
their size in a
variety of
colours can be illustrated as follows.
