Merchandising 2025: new strategies for driving sales growth in retail chains
The retail market continues to change rapidly. New customer expectations, the growing influence of digital habits, and intense competition demand not just adaptation from retailers, but a complete rethink of how retail space is managed. Today, the shelf is no longer just a place to display products. It’s a decision-making zone, a point of contact with the customer, and a tool for influencing their choice.
Let’s explore what merchandising looks like in 2025, and why traditional methods no longer deliver the desired results. The focus is on the practical challenges facing retail and the new approaches that support growth, even with limited resources and a fast-paced environment.
This article shares key ideas and methods, real-world examples, and insights that will help you see merchandising in a new light — as a core part of your sales strategy.
Merchandising in 2025 is no longer about “alphabetical displays” or “products around the perimeter.” Its role has expanded significantly, now encompassing sales strategy, analytics, and customer experience. Three key shifts have come to the forefront:
What’s changed in 2025: the new shelf reality
1. The customer has changed
Customers are making decisions more quickly. They expect shelf layouts to be intuitive — like the interface of a mobile app. The shelf needs to speak the customer’s language: not to be searched, but to be instantly understood.
2. Online habits shape offline expectations
Even in a traditional store, people now expect the same logic, convenience, and consistency they’re used to in e-commerce. The digital experience sets the standard: fast search, clear structure, relevant suggestions — and all of it should be present in the local shop.
3. Merchandising = KPIs
It’s no longer just about display — it’s part of a broader sales management system. Modern retailers track shelf performance, monitor out-of-stock rates, turnover, and profit per square metre. The quality of a planogram now directly impacts both average basket size and shrink levels.
Today, merchandising is an integrated and managed process that requires digital tools, data, and cross-functional teamwork.
In recent years, retail has faced new challenges — complex and multifaceted ones that require more than just local fixes. They demand a strategic rethink of the entire approach to merchandising.
New challenges: why standard approaches no longer work
Consumers have become more demanding. Their path to purchase is shorter, and their behaviour less predictable. Expectations are shaped by digital experiences: customers want “intuitive” shelf layouts — as clear as an app interface. They’re not willing to spend time decoding the shelf.
In a world of short attention spans and high-speed living, the winners are those who offer clear category logic and help customers make quick decisions. In the past, display effectiveness was judged by compliance with standards — today, it’s measured by its impact on sales.
The customer evolves faster than the shelf
The old model — where merchandising meant alphabetically arranging products or mechanically copying planograms — no longer works. Modern merchandising is a tool for category growth, brand strengthening, and increasing the average basket size. It must be embedded into the overall sales strategy.
This means taking into account a wide range of factors: from shopper behaviour to seasonality, from new product launches to shelf share, from store format to actual stock levels.
Merchandising ≠ just display
Poorly thought-out shelf order is another reason for missed revenue. Milk placed next to toilet paper, seasonal items buried under boxes, new products forgotten in a corner — these aren’t hypothetical examples, but real situations observed in actual stores.
Out-of-stock is one of the main sources of loss. When a key SKU is missing from the shelf, it’s not just a lost sale — it’s a blow to customer loyalty. Instead of making a purchase, the shopper leaves frustrated, and possibly won’t return.
Missing products and shelf chaos
Planograms can’t keep up with change: they don’t reflect actual sales shares, ignore differences in store formats and fixture layouts. As a result — excess stock, duplication, display errors, and a lack of transparency at all levels.
New product launches often stall: the process is slow, they’re not reflected in planograms, and they’re not tracked in sales. This undermines the launch’s potential and disrupts planning.
New products get lost, planograms go out of date
When there’s only one staff member in the store — expected to receive deliveries, serve customers, stock shelves, and report planogram compliance all at once — everything suffers: display quality, customer service, and sales.
The lack of structured processes increases staff turnover and weakens team stability. Burnout is no longer just an HR issue — it’s a factor that directly impacts business performance.
Staff shortages and burnout
In 2025, merchandising can no longer be seen as simply “putting products on shelves.” The market, customer behaviour, and expectations of retail space have all undergone a fundamental transformation.
Customer behaviour: speed, digital patterns and the intuitive shelf
The modern customer:
- makes decisions quickly and intuitively, unwilling to waste time searching;
- expects the same convenience, structure, and personalisation from offline as they do from online;
- applies digital habits — scanning the shelf visually like a feed, expecting the logic of an interface.
In this context, the shelf becomes more than just a place to display products — it’s a key interface for engaging with the customer. A clear and convenient layout is a competitive advantage. Disorder and chaos translate directly into lost sales and revenue.
The role of merchandising has changed. It’s no longer just a technical task, but a fully-fledged sales strategy tool. Key business metrics now depend on the quality of display: turnover, average basket size, and revenue per square metre. Merchandising has become the link between category management, marketing, operations, and procurement — most decisions that impact the effectiveness of retail space now run through it.
According to available data and observations:
- up to 35% of customers leave without making a purchase if they can’t find what they need;
- lost sales are often linked to out-of-stock items, outdated planograms, and overloaded or illogical layouts;
- staff shortages and high turnover make regular manual shelf adjustments an unmanageable task without automation.
All of this points to a new retail paradigm: changing customer behaviour and market challenges are turning merchandising into a growth driver, not just an operational routine.
Today, merchandising has fully stepped out of the shadows. It’s no longer an operational task of “arranging shelves,” but a strategic instrument that directly influences key business metrics.
Merchandising is no longer just about display
Companies that still treat product display as routine risk more than just losing sales — they lose control over the customer’s attention.
The modern approach to merchandising demands clear and measurable metrics. Key performance indicators now include turnover, profit per square metre, out-of-stock rates and their impact on sales, facings effectiveness based on SKU ABC analysis, planogram compliance, and the share of new products in categories. There’s no longer room for guesswork — only data, only facts.
Planograms are no longer just aesthetic diagrams — they are judged by outcomes: how much the average basket has increased, how the visibility of focus products has changed, and whether stock levels have been optimised.
KPIs and analytics: the new foundation
One of the main challenges is the lack of end-to-end communication between departments. In companies where merchandising remains an isolated function, teams work at cross purposes: marketing follows one logic, category management another, while retail adapts as best it can. For the system to function effectively, cross-functional collaboration is essential.
Today, merchandising is the outcome of joint work between category managers, analysts, logisticians, and the operations team. It becomes part of a unified decision-making chain — from assortment planning to evaluating shelf performance. Only with this integrated approach can display truly impact business results.
Synergy with other departments
Automation as the answer: changing planograms fast
Modern retail doesn’t just demand quick responses — it requires scalable control. This is where automation stops being just a tool and becomes the foundation of the entire shelf management system.
Automated merchandising means:
- the ability to update planograms across the entire network in a matter of hours
- real-time analysis of displays: how well they match sales, standards, and brand share
- linking shelves to data: stock levels, ABC analysis, store format, seasonality
Automation is about more than speed
There’s no longer any need to manually edit Excel files or send instructions via messaging apps. Space and assortment data now live within a unified digital system — from head office to the shop floor.
One of the key benefits of automation is reporting. Display becomes transparent: it’s clear where the planogram is followed, where there are deviations, where a new product didn’t make it to the shelf, and where there’s excess stock.
Automation brings together:
- category managers
- the procurement team
- logistics
- store staff
Transparent reporting, coordination, and flexibility
Each link in the chain has its own level of access, its own area of responsibility — and a shared decision-making environment. The planogram is no longer just a diagram, but a working tool for the whole team.
Automation enables rapid hypothesis testing. One of the key trends is assortment reduction in favour of greater efficiency.
The “less is more” principle
According to research, reducing the assortment by 15% can increase the average basket size by up to 23% — thanks to more focused displays and more deliberate customer choices.
This is only possible with transparent data: which products are truly needed, which are sitting idle, which can be replaced, and how that change will affect the overall shelf layout.
So, automation isn’t about data for data’s sake. It’s about structure, flexibility, and the power to make rapid adjustments at every level.
Merchandising no longer exists in a vacuum. It’s no longer just about how to arrange products on a shelf — it’s about sales, analytics, strategy, and business resilience. And to adapt to the new reality, you don’t need to change everything at once. It’s enough to start small — but start with what matters.
Conclusion: where to begin your transformation
Here’s where to start:
Rethink the role of merchandising.
A standalone department, a temporary contractor, or a simple “shelf manager” is no longer enough. Merchandising in 2025 is an integral part of the overall strategy — from category management to procurement and analytics.
Digitise the processes.
If shelf display guidelines live in spreadsheets, emails, or spoken instructions, consistency is impossible. The first step is to move planograms and display rules into a digital format — accessible, up-to-date, and aligned across all teams.
Rely on analytics, not intuition.
Which products drive sales, and which ones just take up space? Which SKUs are lost to out-of-stock, and which are stuck on the bottom shelf? These answers come from ABC analysis, automated stock tracking, and planogram visualisation. Without this, you can’t respond quickly to shifting demand.
Invest in automation.
Speed is retail’s most valuable resource. Automation tools enable you to:
A standalone department, a temporary contractor, or a simple “shelf manager” is no longer enough. Merchandising in 2025 is an integral part of the overall strategy — from category management to procurement and analytics.
Digitise the processes.
If shelf display guidelines live in spreadsheets, emails, or spoken instructions, consistency is impossible. The first step is to move planograms and display rules into a digital format — accessible, up-to-date, and aligned across all teams.
Rely on analytics, not intuition.
Which products drive sales, and which ones just take up space? Which SKUs are lost to out-of-stock, and which are stuck on the bottom shelf? These answers come from ABC analysis, automated stock tracking, and planogram visualisation. Without this, you can’t respond quickly to shifting demand.
Invest in automation.
Speed is retail’s most valuable resource. Automation tools enable you to:
- update displays faster
- adapt to the specific features of each store
- manage new products and demand shifts without disruption
- coordinate the entire chain — from marketing to frontline staff
Merchandising automation isn’t a trend for the sake of trends. It’s a response to a reality where customers expect convenience, intuitive logic, and fast reactions. A planogram is no longer a “tick-the-box” image — it’s a working tool for growth. And the sooner businesses realise this, the easier it will be to adapt to the new pace of retail.
If you’re just starting your automation journey — start with a key category.
Take that first step, look at the data, and implement targeted improvements. Simple actions often deliver the most tangible results.
Take that first step, look at the data, and implement targeted improvements. Simple actions often deliver the most tangible results.
Tilda Publishing