Question

Variety, assortment, and product availability are the cornerstones of the merchandise planning process. Provide examples of retailers that have done an outstanding job of positioning their stores on the basis of one or more of these issues.

Answer 1

The top three retailers who have achieved on positioning their stores with variety assortment and product availability can be Wal-Mart, Costco and the home depot.

• Wal-Mart generally targets the lower income group in US. It has wide variety of goods ranging from groceries to electronic devices. The main advantage of them is their low price of goods. Wal-Mart buys in bulk and hence other companies can’t compete because of low cost. Wherever the Wal-Mart store pops up people move to those areas. It has a very diverse business model growing in countries like Mexico, Brazil and china.
• Costco: Whoever wants variety in their food, the first option that comes up in their mind is Costco. It has a huge parking lot near its store and offers everything right from cheap foods, drinks at food court etc. its biggest pro is lowered cost prices. They also provide samples of whatever product they are selling. They also have quality merchandise from street wear to brand clothing. They also provide photo printing services to their customers. The unit prices are considered to be very reasonable.
• Home depot: it mainly focuses on customer service and they help everyone in the store to fix their problem. It has its presence in over 2200 locations and offers everyone whatever they want in this market. They have a very good supply chain management team to cut costs and hence they can sell them at lower number. Another main advantage is that Amazon or eBay are not threat to home depot in the market.