Every year the convenience sector misses out on a massive £1.2bn in lost sales as a result of shoppers not being able to find what they are looking for.  With 52,000 convenience stores, that’s an average of £23,076 per store!  How can you prevent this happening in your store?

Last year Partners for Growth held a competition to give a retailer the chance to receive some expert Category Management advice from 6 award winning retailers in order to help improve their store.

In May they announced the winner – Barbar Sarfraz from supersave mini-market in Burnley.  After visiting his store the team advised him to get a better understanding of his key performance indicators such as number of customers per week, average basket spend and gross profit margin.  With this insight Barbar was able to make smarter judgements over what stock to keep and how best to present it.

Getting category management right is of huge importance to your business.  If you’ve got the wrong product lines for your average customer base taking up space on your shelf then you’ll end up missing out on potential sales and growth.

There is lots of brilliant advice out there as well as many examples of success stories to inspire.  Head over to our Retailer Resources section to get you started or to find out more about the particular advice that Barbar followed go to http://partnersforgrowth.unilever.com/