Moreover, proper display also shortens the transaction cycle - the time from the customer's first informational contact with the product to money at the till.
In general, merchandising carried out by a competent professional achieves the following objectives:

• provides the potential customer with full information about the product and its price;
• draws attention to the point of sale;
• stimulates the visitor to make an impulse purchase;
• reduces labour costs by allowing the visitor to make a choice without the salesperson's involvement;
• creates an overall psychological attitude among shop visitors;
• raises the average bill through the resale of related products and impulse purchases not previously planned by the customer;
• builds customer loyalty to the outlet and the manufacturer of the goods;
• prevents the onslaught of competing goods.

Requirements for merchandisers in charge of manual product layout

Until 20 years ago, merchandising in Russia was done by retailers themselves. However, with the growth of competition, merchandising has become a science in its own right, dealt with by professional merchandisers.

There are a number of requirements for merchandising specialists: they must understand the behavioural psychology of customers, demand management, consumer goods properties; they must have entrepreneurial and administrative qualities and analytical skills;

he/she must be able to anticipate market trends and make decisions in situations with a high degree of uncertainty.
With this approach, the human factor in the success of the entire enterprise is paramount.
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A new trend - merchandising of the future - is the automation of the entire process with the help of special software.

Automation of manual layouts


With GreenShelf, you can design a general shop layout, arrange virtual shelving, create several versions of the layout and then choose the best one.

A separate module is used to create planograms. Here, too, you can create several versions of a planogram and then choose the best one. In the same way, baskets of goods are virtually created and then filled with virtual shelves. The racks themselves are virtually mounted on the floor plan, which enables a more rational use of the entire retail space.

In addition, it is possible to automatically generate planograms, taking into account all marketing agreements.

The ability to virtually create multiple versions of food baskets, planograms and shelving layouts allows for split tests and the ability to find the most efficient options.

Automatic merchandising with GreenShelf

An important feature is that working with a constructor does not require the extraordinary abilities that classical merchandisers require: they do not need to have entrepreneurial talent, foresee market trends or understand psychology. However, the end result - profit - is higher than that of a classic merchandiser.

The need for a large number of professional skills in a classic merchandiser leads either to a higher salary or to lower requirements for the merchandiser, and consequently to a lower quality of his work. And to work in a constructor, it is enough to only have secondary education. Such an operator can be paid a very modest salary.

Thus, merchandising with GreenShelf achieves two goals at once: increasing profits and reducing labour costs.