The Art and Science of Smart Planogramming

What if your planograms could adapt to each store"s unique inventory and fixtures in real-time? That"s exactly what Optimum Retailing has achieved with Realgramn AI, the first AI-powered store-specific planogramming tool that"s fundamentally changing how retailers approach merchandising. Justine Melman, CMO at Optimum Retailing, joins Customerland to reveal how Realgram AI bridges the persistent gap between merchandising plans and in-store execution. "Stores obviously know what their sales data is. They know what product is selling at each store. That"s not anything new. What they don"t know is why," explains Melman. This crucial insight drives Realgram AI"s approach to what they call "precision merchandising." The traditional planogramming process has always been inefficient – visual merchandisers design planograms, save them as static PDFs, and distribute them to hundreds or thousands of stores with different layouts, fixtures, and inventory levels. Realgram AI transforms this model by allowing merchandisers to create a single planogram that automatically generates unique versions for each store based on their actual inventory and fixture capacities. When inventory changes, the planogram updates in real-time, ensuring store teams always have an executable plan. Beyond improved execution, Realgram AI provides unprecedented retail intelligence by connecting sales performance with specific store zones, fixtures, and product placements. The system"s automated photo compliance uses AI image recognition to verify planogram execution, dramatically reducing the manual labor of compliance checking. Integration capabilities extend to RFID technology for real-time product tracking and digital signage that can respond to customer interactions – imagine displays that automatically update to showcase the blue shoe a customer just picked up instead of the red one featured in the original planogram. Contrary to fears about AI replacing jobs, Melman emphasizes that Realgram AI aims to enhance retail professionals" capabilities: "We"re looking at what we"re offering as a way to make their jobs easier, make them more efficient, make them more profitable, make them more successful."