Here’s one of the optional analytics that I might add to a Top 12 project … I call it the “Viable Assortment”.
- Viable Assortment = The Number of Items/Styles You Sell That Generate Enough Volume To Be In The Top 90% of Your Sales Assortment (Annually).
The items in the bottom ten percent of your assortment are just rubble … stuff that is being cleared out, stuff you sold three years ago and 17 customers still love it.
The items in the top 90% of your assortment are your “Viable Assortment”. It’s what customers care about.
Here’s a company that is failing. Here is their “Viable Assortment”.
- End of 2025: 1,206 Items, Price = $18.20, Average Sales/Item = $15,520.
- End of 2024: 1,158 Items, Price = $15.21, Average Sales/Item = $19,892.
- End of 2023: 1,335 Items, Price = $15.72, Average Sales/Item = $18,471.
- End of 2022: 1,573 Items, Price = $16.34, Average Sales/Item = $16,273.
Weeeeeeee!
Among the Viable Assortment, this brand jacked up prices (or introduced expensive items … hint hint), driving down Sales/Item in the process. And compared to three years ago, we see that the Viable Assortment is 20% SMALLER than it is today. Bad. Not smart. That’s 370 fewer items generating at least $15,520 less … that’s $5.7 million that evaporated due to a smaller Viable Assortment.
Do you measure your Viable Assortment?
It can be part of the “bonus analysis” that is included in the Top 12 Project … contact me now ([email protected]) to take advantage of the introductory offer for prior clients and blog subscribers … offer ends August 15.
