The agile approach to holiday category management

Holiday planning is done – now it’s time to measure, respond, and refine. Discover how real-time data empowers smarter decisions for the year ahead.

The most wonderful time of year is also considered the busiest for many industries — but for none more so than retail. Media outlets share predictions for the upcoming holiday shopping season compared to last year’s: Will spending go up? (It has every year since 2009) What are the hottest trends? Which retailers will attract shoppers — in-store or online — and how? 

Category Managers need to ask — and answer — these questions as they plan and execute their seasonal strategies throughout Q4. From the moment meals hit the Thanksgiving dinner table in November, they’re closely measuring performance and uncovering key shopper trends — both to swiftly respond and make adjustments if possible, and to apply the busy season’s learnings to fast-approaching resets.

Meanwhile, internal CPG teams want to know how sales are stacking up and how promotions are performing, and Category Managers are expected to deliver. Retail partners are looking for insights into how the category is growing and how a supplier’s brands and products are contributing — and Category Managers will translate these findings, too.

This busy time of year demands an agile approach, powered by real-time data, to meet these diverse demands and deliver excellence in the new year.

Real-time data is a gift

Not long ago, category teams relied solely on syndicated market reports for seasonal performance indicators, which were often made available weeks after the fact. Then came point-of-sale (POS) data reports that tracked actual sales and inventory levels, but these had to be manually downloaded from various portals and meticulously organized to glean any real insights.

Just like today’s seamless omnichannel experience is unlike anything in retail’s past, so too is the availability of real-time POS, category, and inventory data. Now, this data can be automated and integrated to provide teams across the organization with a continuous flow of intelligence for decision-making. Comprehensive sales, inventory, and even category reports from leading retailers offer Category Managers unprecedented visibility into performance, enabling them to respond faster and more effectively than ever before.

In a time when Cyber Monday is becoming synonymous with Black Friday, with retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and others ramping up online and in-app deal periods along with expanded assortment offerings, real-time data has become indispensable. It allows Category Managers to not only track performance across all channels but to act on emerging trends as they happen, ensuring that products remain available and ready to meet surging demand.

Season’s greetings and line-review meetings

As Category Managers navigate the holiday season, their focus spans three critical time frames — preparation, in-season management, and future planning — each requiring distinct data-driven approaches.

Proactive measures

As always, sales are predicted to rise this holiday season, especially through online, pick-up, and delivery orders. To meet this demand, brands may need additional facings for high-velocity seasonal items, using proven sales data to secure more space. Having those extra facings ensures that enough supply is on hand to fulfill all orders.

Category Managers and their teams must ensure these products are available across multiple channels, as this is critical to moving those additional facings and driving category-wide impact. Showing whether SKUs are ‘Published,’ ‘Eligible,’ ‘Available,’ and ‘Transactable‘ across various online purchase channels, PEAT reporting in Crisp Retail Analytics (CRA) plays a crucial role here, ensuring readiness across the board.

In-season adjustments

Real-time data allows Category Managers to quickly assess the success of holiday strategies. For example, after analyzing how items performed during Thanksgiving, adjustments can be made for Christmas. While major modular changes are unlikely during the season, data can still justify additional endcaps or display space for brands that are dramatically outperforming the category.
Nil-pick reporting in CRA can also be vital here. If products are ordered but found unavailable for digital order fulfillment, these incidents are tracked in real-time, allowing for rapid response. This ensures products remain available across omnichannel platforms, reducing the risk of lost sales due to unfulfilled orders.

Post-holiday planning

The holiday rush coincides with another critical time for Category Managers: line-review season. With real-time data, managers can take insights from Q4 and apply them to category reviews for the following year. While traditional syndicated market reports will still be valuable, more timely resources like category scorecards and data feeds available to category advisors (aka captains) in Crisp Retail Analytics provide a more immediate, comprehensive view of performance and competitive benchmarks. Competitive analysis helps brands understand whom they are gaining or losing share to, and can also uncover new trends to alert their teams about. 

When it’s time to build modulars (MODs), proven data will help secure new facings and regional expansions, ensuring brands are well-positioned for upcoming resets, along with next year’s festive season.

Bringing people together

Category Managers aren’t working in silos — collaboration across teams is key to driving success during the holiday season and beyond. Real-time data becomes the thread that ties all departments together, ensuring everyone is aligned and equipped to respond quickly to the demands of this busy time of year.

• Supply chain teams benefit from real-time retail data by using it to forecast demand and plan inventory more effectively. With accurate, up-to-the-minute insights into sales velocity and stock levels, they can ensure the right products are in the right place, minimizing out-of-stocks and improving on-time, in-full (OTIF) performance.
• Sales and marketing teams rely on retail data to target their efforts and measure the impact of campaigns in real-time. They can quickly adjust holiday promotional strategies based on what’s performing well, ensuring that marketing dollars are spent wisely and sales opportunities are maximized.
• Data science teams play a crucial role in unlocking deeper insights by analyzing and combining multiple data sets, including POS data, syndicated market reports, and even external factors like weather. Their analysis provides a more nuanced understanding of category performance, helping to optimize everything from product assortments to pricing strategies.

A gift that keeps on giving, collaboration fueled by real-time POS and inventory data is what allows Category Managers and their teams to not only meet the demands of the holiday season but to exceed expectations all year long.

It’s not too late to get started, book a demo of Crisp today.