Introduction to Space Management

Description

Introduction to Space Management

This course introduces base knowledge and key concepts in selling space management and merchandise presentation.  It sets the baseline knowledge for further classes in the selling space management and merchandise presentation suite.

Who is it Suitable For?

This program is designed for:

• Store managers, potential store managers and new area managers
• Headquarters store operations management who need to drive sales and gross margin per square foot or square metre of selling space
• Buyers and merchandisers who need to plan assortments and inventory investments to drive sales and gross margin per share foot or square metre
• E-commerce management who need to drive sales per page
• New hires into retail headquarters functions involving aspects of selling space management or visual merchandising, including for online retailing
• Those involved in new store design, store refurbishment programs, or fixture selection and deployment
• People who sell or market to retailers, especially IT suppliers with relevant software, such as planogramming.
• It will also benefit category management and trade promotion teams in consumer goods manufacturers who deal directly with retailers.
• And is also valuable as part of induction training for retail management trainees, retail IT teams, finance teams and others who need to understand space productivity more fully.

Class Objectives

By the end of this program, learners will be able to

• List the goals of space management
• Discuss the various competing issues involved in optimizing space productivity, and the factors used in allocating selling space.
• Explain what a leased department or concession is and how it differs from own bought departments
• Explain the criteria used to locate individual departments on the sales floor.

Detailed Content

The detailed content includes:

• Types of store space – selling and non-selling
• Occupancy cost of space and the importance of space yield
• Which key performance indicators to use to track and drive space productivity
• Measuring the store accurately and consistently
• Leased departments and when they might be better than own bought departments
• Challenges with leased departments
• Common floor plan styles and which retail segments they suit best:
  • Free flow layout
  • Grid layout
  • Loop layout
  • Fashion layout
• Store formats exercise
• The importance of store ambience
• Where departments or categories should go on the sales floor and the link to shopper missions
• The important relationship between floor layouts and merchandise hierarchies for sales reporting (which many retailers are unaware of)
• An initial set of layout guidelines for merchandise within a department or category.
• Mastery test
• Learners completing the mastery test and obtaining a 70% pass mark will also receive a mastery certificate and digital badge upon completion.

Benefits of Studying This Program

Learners studying this program will gain familiarity with the key baseline knowledge on space management, which is a pre-requisite for embarking on space productivity improvement projects.

Hours of Study

1 to 1.5 hours

Resources Included

The class includes the following downloadable resources for printing and review:

• Space management action planning spreadsheet to help you plan improvements
• Space Management key factors guidance checklist
• Subjective factors affecting department and product placement checklist

Pre-Requisites Necessary

None, but those with no previous retail experience will find it beneficial to study the Overview of Retailing Class first.  

After This Program

This program is module 1 from our Space Management training suite. Other modules will be released in future months.  In the meantime, you can access the follow on content in the Retail and Consumer Goods Industry WIKI and EPSS here.