Assortment

Also called: supply or assortment

Assortment is the collection of products offered by a store or supplier.

The assortment is formed by a selection of items that can be purchased and/or delivered from stock or to order.

Scope of assortment

When we talk about a wide assortment, it means that a provider offers a variety of different types of items, from different product groups. Department store V&D is an example of a store with a wide assortment, which includes fashion, jewelry, living, books and electronics.

A business that offers precisely a narrow range of products is also called a specialty store or specialist. Think of a bakery that focuses specifically on selling bread and pastries, or an electronics chain that specializes in computers.

The depth of assortment indicates how much choice there is within a particular product group. You see this strongly in supermarkets, for example. The breadth of the assortment of a small supermarket will almost match that of a larger store, but at the large supermarket you will have multiple varieties and brands of each product to choose from.

The total amount of different products offered is also called the length of the range.

Price level and consistency

In addition to the dimensions of width and depth, height is also often mentioned as a feature of the range. This then refers to pricing.

You can buy bread at both a supermarket and a hot bakery, but at the bakery you usually pay a slightly higher price. By baking his own artisan fresh bread daily, his high assortment stands out on the basis of quality.

Not only is it important which different products make up the assortment, there will always be some consistency.

For example, a supermarket's assortment will consist mainly of a wide variety of food products. A baker's assortment consists of bread and pastries, but it is doubtful that it would be a success if he suddenly started selling bicycles in addition. In contrast, you often see butchers with a small shelf of food products, as this fits well with the reason and time of day that customers enter the store.

Role of products within the assortment

Individual items and product groups may have different roles within the store or sales channel.

Some products sell a lot and thus have a high turnover rate, others less so. High-turnover products are often items for which customers go specifically to a particular store, such as Hema's smoked sausages. Those products are called traffic builders.

Products with lower sales volume often have other functions within the assortment. These products can be an interesting addition to the assortment because of a higher margin. Or because they fulfill an objective to carry a broad and/or deep assortment. A jeweler will not sell his most expensive watch every day, but this can provide additional audience at the window and customers in the store.

Cost of range

Those wishing to offer a very deep or wide assortment will need to generate sufficient sales volume to cover the costs of this large assortment. A larger assortment requires more purchasing, inventory space, shelf space and promotion. This is offset by a higher risk of leaving the seller with unsold or unsellable products.

The rise of e-commerce has changed a lot for the retail industry. Web stores, with their efficient distribution channels, are better at offering certain product groups than traditional stores. For example, many record stores have disappeared from the scene as their specialty offerings have become much easier and cheaper to obtain over the Internet.