Picture this: You’re a category manager for a large retail chain. You’re standing in a ballroom with a conference table and 24 feet of empty shelving. Three days later, after meetings with more than 75 suppliers, all 24 feet are filled and your planogram is done. The suppliers were all pre-screened and came fully prepped with the knowledge of your category goals, the appointments all started and ended on time, and once the planogram was set the samples are organized, packaged, and ready to be shipped to your office, with the follow ups and action items logged digitally. And the best part is, all of this busy work was done for you, so you could completely focus on what’s important – building the most profitable assortment possible for your company.

This is just one example of what ECRM’s Retail Team does for large retail chains. The team, led by Wayne Bennett, ECRM's SVP of Retail, develops individualized plans to help these retailers go to market faster and alleviate many of their daily challenges, whether those challenges are coordinating competitive line reviews or sourcing new suppliers.

“We are able to take a deep dive into each of our retail clients’ current processes,” says Bennett. “We work to gain an understanding of their go to market strategy, to then apply ECRM’s business process, tools, and technology to save buyers and category manager’s time and reduce redundancy, while providing world class business intelligence.”

ECRM’s Retail Solutions are not a cookie cutter process; the Retail Team works strategically with retailers to determine their objectives and areas of focus in order to achieve maximum value.

ECRM's Product Review Management Program
One of the solutions ECRM has developed, for example, is the Product Review Management Program, during which ECRM works with a category manager to help execute his or her competitive line review at an appropriate Efficient Program Planning Session (EPPS) -- those 60+ face-to-face meetings we host throughout the year. The process includes ensuring that all of the retailer's current suppliers are present for meetings, as well as sourcing new suppliers for these meetings based on qualifications/compliance requirements that are set by the retailer.