Category Management in Vending

Category management is a merchandising system that can maximize product sales from your Planet Antares vending machines. It will increase your sales and profits by providing the customers of your vending machines with the products that they want, when they want them. In other words, it will help you have top selling products in your vending machine every day.

Category management is easy to implement, however it requires changes in your merchandising system and an organizational commitment to make it work. It increases your bottom line by increasing sales from better merchandising. At the same time it also helps you to meet more consumer demand.

Category management in your Planet Antares vending business will reduce the inventory and handling costs of additional, unnecessary SKU’s. As a result of this, the purchasing efficiency will increase dramatically. There will also be an improvement in route and warehouse efficiency. You will find that route merchandising and product selection is simpler and more efficient. Fewer SKU’s and lower inventory levels result in substantial reduction in ware house labor.

The evolution of category management in vending is one of the most important changes taking place. The vending industry is following a pattern that has been set by supermarkets, drug stores and convenience stores. Category management system has emerged as a standard operating procedure. There are a number of benefits that come with category management, the most important being that it gives creative power to the vending operator.

Once category management becomes a standard practice in your Planet Antares vending business, the relationship between product manufacturers and operators will be very different. Vending operators armed with marketing data will commit to larger volumes of the selling items. In return they will expect suppliers to provide better prices and more merchandising support.

With this system in your Planet Antares vending business, operators will take a lead role in a proactive rather than reactive role in marketing and merchandising. They will set goals for the product suppliers to meet, rather than the other way round.

As technology gives operators better reporting tools, we can expect to see new applications beyond the traditional venues. We can also expect that applications will be found beyond the traditional snacks, food and beverages.

Most industry veterans will agree that automatic merchandising is growing beyond its traditional role. Technology in the vending industry is causing things to change faster than they have in the past.