New cloud-native solution designed to streamline space planning processes, simplify planogram management, and increase strategic decision-making

RELEX Solutions today introduces a new, modern approach to category reviews with RELEX Space for Category Management. Built within a cloud-native interface, RELEX Space empowers retailers to optimize merchandising plans to deliver the right products at the right time and place, meeting consumer demand, while maximizing sales and profitability.

RELEX Space for Category Management strategically optimizes shelf space allocation and provides insights into category adjacencies, ensuring that popular categories have enough space to meet customer demand. Automating and optimizing planogram updates using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) reduces time-consuming manual processes and enables retailers to reflect current sales trends, customer preferences, and seasonal variations. RELEX Space for Category Management also fosters cross-functional collaboration, allowing supply chain and merchandising teams to plan and develop the category management strategy, and make decisions seamlessly. By connecting and leveraging space, labor, inventory, and forecast data, planners can assess the true cost to serve and how to grow revenue.

“Retailers often struggle with the sheer volume of sales, inventory, and customer behavior data required for effective category management and space planning. Couple that with needing to determine optimal shelf space allocation for each category to maximize sales and profitability, and you have a complex challenge to solve," said Tommi Ylinen, Chief Product Officer at RELEX Solutions. “Our new capabilities address these challenges through a unified approach, which helps to improve inventory and on-shelf availability through data-driven decision-making, while boosting sales and meeting consumer demand.”

New capabilities include:

• A cloud-native solution that allows for easy deployment of new features and updates without lengthy downtime or complex migration processes, reducing the total cost of ownership for customers.
• An intuitive user interface that simplifies planogram and floor plan management for space planners, allowing retailers to focus more on strategic decision-making.
• An improved workflow selection and management process to support user adoption.
• A sandbox environment so planners can conduct multiple category or location reviews simultaneously.
• A more automated process for reviewing and publishing planograms, reducing the risk of errors and driving greater efficiency.

RELEX Space for Category Management also seamlessly integrates with the RELEX forecasting and replenishment solutions, creating a unified environment that improves data-driven decision-making across the supply chain. By integrating the forecasting, replenishment, assortment, and space management functions, data can be shared and updated in near real-time, ensuring inventory levels are optimized and shelf space allocation aligns with demand forecasts. This seamless integration shifts category managers from operational to proactive, enabling them to respond swiftly to market demands and maximize business outcomes.

“We are very happy with the new capabilities being announced today, aimed at optimizing retail space and product assortments more effectively," said Andy Rigby, Chief Operating Officer, East of England Co-op. “New innovations like the safe 'sandbox' environment for testing new planograms and the ability to manage multiple simultaneous category or location reviews give us greater flexibility and control. These features enable us to develop more precise and tailored category management strategies, supporting our goal of improving sales and customer satisfaction.”

About RELEX

RELEX Solutions provides a unified supply chain and retail planning platform that aligns and optimizes demand, merchandising, supply chain, operations, and production planning across the end-to-end value chain. We help retailers, manufacturers, and consumer goods companies like ADUSA, AutoZone, Coles, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, M&S Food, PetSmart, and The Home Depot drive profitable growth across all sales and distribution channels, leading to higher product availability, increased sales, and improved sustainability. Learn more at: https://www.relexsolutions.com/customers/

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