Planogram Design in Vending Machine

Vending is undoubtedly most profitable business. But success can be gained without hard work. In order to become successful vending operator, a lot of planning and strategic implementation of plans is required.

Usually vending operators do a lot of market research before arriving at the product they would like to vend in their machine. Category management has proved to be highly beneficial in this regard. This is designed to enable you to get benefited by the market research while choosing products for your machine. Planogram can be designed in three steps:

• By identifying product categories

• Allocating space to each product category.

• Segregating specific products under each category

Once all items are broadly classified, they need to be further divided into smaller categories. The lower the number of categories, the easier it would be to design a planogram. On the contrary, the more the number of categories, the greater would be the variety in planogram.

Post categorisation, you also need to allocate space in your vending machine. At least one facing should be available for each category. The number of categories will also depend on the category sales and how well these products fit in your shelf.

Another important aspect is product selection and for this you need to consider the below:

• Core products: These are the products which are always in demand. 20% of product mix offered in vending machine usually represents its core products.

• Cycle products: These are filled in each machine during menu cycle.

• Choice products: Few items are offered in one particular location.

Separate planograms are created by vending operators for each location. This design allows vending operators to have complete control over the products they would like to stock in their vending machine. It is advisable for vending operators to make use of latest technology for ensuring smooth sales and thus incur stable revenue.