Question

What is category management and why is it used in retailing?

Give a specific example.

Answer 1

Category management is the work of managing the categories of goods and services at the organization level in relation to its purchase and sales when it is broken down or narrowed down in many categories and subcategories. For example, a retail manager can procure things or goods for their shop in various categories like Electronics and Electronic devices, Home appliances, office appliances, Home decor, etc. So managing the supply chain of the categories and taking care of its purchase and sales and analyzing the revenue it is going to generate or it is generating typically called as Category management. This can be done in any Industry.

In retailing as I said above, now a category manager can easily focus on his or her category like a category manager of consumer electronics manages the procurement of the Consumer electronics, maintaining its inventory as per the customer demand, and noting down the revenue, making strategies for its promotion etc. while in the same retail shop, other category manager engaged himself or herself in category management of Books where focus is on maintaining an adequate supply of the books, unit sold, revenue etc