Category Planning and Management

Helping you manage categories as strategic business units

We believe category management is both an art and a science. When done well, it can drive significant improvements to a retailer's bottom line by increasing sales, margin and working capital.

Whether you need to rationalize assortments to create a compelling customer value proposition or build cluster-based offerings that cater to localized customers, optimizing your category management processes is vital to improving margins and sales.

We don’t believe in a generic approach for planning and executing category strategies. We believe instead that retail pricing is dynamic and scientific, and may change several times during the lifecycle of an item without sacrificing margin.

How PwC can help

At PwC Retail Consulting Services, we help retailers with the scientific improvement of space, inventory and assortments using proprietary frameworks, and implementing both proprietary and "off-the-shelf" technology solutions.

We’ve developed proprietary methodologies, including templates, toolsets, strategy frameworks and coaching/training materials to help you with your decision-making with an analytical, data-driven approach.

Retailers can realize significant returns through implementing enhanced category planning processes, focusing your organization on the customer and optimizing your organizational design to support these changes.

Contact an industry professional in your area to discuss your unique business concerns.