New Items Need To Bubble Over And Find Their Way

I like to evaluate three categories of item performance.

• Winners / Sub-Divided into High Demand / High Units vs High Price vs Low Price.
• Contenders.
• Others.

Winners make up 5% - 10% of items and around 45% of annual demand.

Contenders make up 35% - 40% of items and around 45% of annual demand.

Others make up the rest - usually most of the items and less than 10% of annual demand.

This framework requires us to focus on the top of the assortment - the stuff that causes a business to be successful ... Winners and Contenders.

Look at this table, for the business we've analyzed for the past month.

Start by looking at the middle of the table, new items. Look at how many new items became winners? In the past year, just 2 new items made it to the top, compared to 7/5/4 in prior years.

Look in total ... only 52 winning items and 238 contenders last year ... compared to 67 winning items and 191 contenders the year prior.

The assortment is evolving ... fewer winners and more contenders. This company is trying more and more things to figure out a path to the future ... and is having less and less success.

As a marketer, you can help your merchandising team - feature their new/contending items in email campaigns and push those items toward success. You can help the merchandising team fix problems!! You can "fix it"!