Guide · 6 min read
What is a planogram? A practical guide for retail and grocery
A planogram is the map of a shelf: which products go on it, where each one sits, and how many faces of each the shopper sees. Done well, it puts more of what sells in front of shoppers and less of what doesn’t.
What a planogram contains
- The fixture: a bay, gondola, wall, cooler, freezer or pegboard, with its width, height, depth and shelf positions.
- The products: each SKU placed on a shelf at a position from the left.
- Facings: how many units of each product face the shopper side by side.
- Depth: how many units stand behind each facing — together with facings this decides how much stock the shelf holds.
- Shelf heights: set so each shelf fits its tallest product with a little room to reach in.
Why retailers use planograms
Shelf space is the most limited resource in a store. A planogram decides how that space is split between categories, brands and products — and therefore how much each of them can sell.
It also makes the shelf repeatable: the store team, a vendor’s merchandiser or a franchisee can set the same shelf from the same picture, and head office can check that they did.
The rules behind a good planogram
- Space follows sales: a product’s share of the shelf should be close to its share of sales.
- Facings hold stock until the next delivery, plus safety stock, so best sellers don’t run out.
- Blocking: products are grouped by category, then brand, so shoppers find them.
- Vertical zones: best sellers at eye level, big and heavy packs on the bottom shelf, light boxes up top.
- Every shelf fits: the widths of all facings add up to no more than the shelf, and each product fits under the shelf above.
How planograms are made
Traditionally a space planner draws each planogram in desktop software or a spreadsheet, using sales reports and product measurements. A single category can take days, so most stores share one template.
Planogram software like EazyPlano does the arithmetic automatically: it reads sales, product sizes and fixtures, chooses the products, sizes the facings, places them by zone and block and fits every shelf — in seconds. People then review and adjust.
Planogram vs. floor plan
A planogram describes one fixture. A store floor plan (or store layout) shows where every fixture stands in the store. EazyPlano keeps both: the floor plan places gondolas, coolers and checkouts, and each fixture opens its own planogram — all of it visible in 3D.
By the WhyNotGlobal team, makers of EazyPlano.