J.M. Smucker leads Target’s pet aisle growth with real-time intelligence

Katie Asleson, Category Manager for dog treat brands like Milk-Bone and Pup-Peroni, employs SOLYS by Crisp to make data-driven decisions that optimize assortments, elevate seasonal offerings, and align omnichannel strategies across Target stores.

With more shoppers than ever treating pets like family, retail pet aisles have become a microcosm of innovation, reflecting many of the same trends seen throughout the grocery store. Unlike the sprawling sections devoted to human food, however, the pet aisle is more compact and therefore requires a precise selection of products to meet the heightened demands of pet parents.

Product manufacturers that can keep pace with these trends, continuously refining their assortment offerings to improve the dynamic pet category’s performance, build favor with top retailers like Target. Those meeting this call today are doing so with real-time point-of-sale intelligence, enabling teams to measure performance, adapt quickly, and make impactful, informed decisions to delight omnichannel shoppers.

Spot-on solution

At J.M. Smucker Co., Katie Asleson is a Target Category Manager for Pet, holding a Category Captain designation specifically for Dog Treats. With this responsibility, Target entrusts Katie to analyze and optimize shelf performance, leveraging her expertise to elevate the entire category.

“Spotting trends with data is something that I love to do,” Katie expresses. “Specifically, it’s rewarding to leverage trends in making informed business decisions that see tangible results.”

With over 10 years of experience as a Target Category Manager (formerly at Del Monte Foods, Inc) and more than 20 years in grocery retail – beginning in the stores themselves – Katie understands the importance of data to inform precise decision-making, both as a supplier and in terms of the overall retail-shopper experience.

Her chosen data partner now for over a decade is SOLYS, Crisp’s premier Target reporting platform, which offers everything from pre-built Monday morning reports to customized report-building capabilities across 5,000 Target-specific metrics.

“SOLYS has always provided me with a greater amount of data – and quickly,” she shares. When analyzing her category, Katie can drill into data by brand, flavor, size, ‘seasonal,’ or ‘everyday,’ across various set time periods and save these reports for easy reference.

“You could spend days, weeks, months on analysis of raw data and still not get the level of visibility we have in SOLYS.”

Driving decisions every day

SOLYS by Crisp is open on Katie’s desktop daily, fueling a range of responsibilities that include weekly reporting, measuring planogram (POG) performance, conducting seasonal recaps, preparing for annual reviews, and conducting numerous deep-dive analyses that sharpen Target’s competitive strategy. Katie’s data-driven executions keep the dog treat category at the forefront of shopper demand, with data guiding every decision:

1. POGs for dogs – “With POGs, there’s a method behind the madness,” Katie explains, as she describes pinpointing products, facings, and ideal shelf placements for dog treats in Target stores. “There are costly planogram solutions out there, but when it comes to making practical, in-store decisions, I find that leveraging POS data works best.” 
   
   The pulse of store-level and item-level performance in SOLYS by Crisp guides Katie’s planogram decisions, both holistically and regionally. By segmenting her reporting, she can identify stores where dental lines (like Milk Bone Brushing Chews) see high sales activity and those where performance is slower. This allows Katie to introduce new dental innovation products in high-performing areas and adjust offerings in stores with less demand, reallocating shelf space to other products as needed.
   

   Seeing these adjustments drive measurable and more profitable growth has paved the way for greater dynamism and collaboration with Target, enabling her team to propose new products and stay competitive. “Sales are improving, but expectations are always rising,” she notes. “Manufacturers today recognize the importance of actively contributing to category growth overall at Target.” 

2. Omnichannel optimization – Orchestrating category strategies across Target’s omnichannel landscape is a relatively new focus for any supplier. Katie, however, feels prepared to tackle it head-on, with deeper omni-analyses already in motion to shape the path forward. Equipped with granular online performance insights from SOLYS, her team can navigate the nuances between in-store, pickup, and online-only orders, tailoring inventory allocations accordingly.
   
   This means striking a careful balance between having adequate items on the shelf for drive-up orders and reserving additional inventory for online-only fulfillment.
   
   
3. Seasonal tales – While everyday products see more consistent in-store activity, seasonal items tell a different story and perform well online. These seasonal offerings – featuring unique pack sizes, shapes, and flavors like pumpkin for fall and gingerbread for winter – add a festive touch that resonates with pet owners. “I know a friend’s pup who does cartwheels for strawberry-dipped Milk Bones every February,” she says, emphasizing the excitement these treats bring. Seasonal innovation in the treats category drives sales, with Halloween seasonal seeing a 65% boost over last year, and creates a sense of novelty and joy that keeps shoppers coming back.
   
   With SOLYS, Katie can quickly compile all of her seasonal performance data and share it with Target, saying, “Here’s your seasonal business in total.” She can also calculate lost sales due to out-of-stocks and make a strong, data-driven case for greater order quantities and more shelf space next year.

Rewarding change

When Katie joined Smucker, as an experienced SOLYS by Crisp user, she quickly conducted in-depth analyses and proposed data-informed changes that have since gained significant traction. For example, since the last category review – and looking ahead to the next one – Katie has introduced expanded training treat offerings, which have soared in popularity. “It’s not just about increasing facings for our high-performers,” she notes, “but about staying attuned to the market and making sure we’re ahead of trends, ready to deliver what shoppers want to see.”

In new product innovation, too, Katie uses real-time insights from Crisp to gauge what’s working and what’s not. “With dog treats, it comes down to the connection between pet and owner. If a product creates a positive experience for both, we see that reflected in our data. It’s something I’m committed to capturing and growing.”