Planogram Templates

assignment Templates are an advanced feature that allows you to automatically generate planograms based on a fixed set of rules. A Template consists of one or more Template Rules, which can be applied to spatial regions in a planogram. Based on a set of given criteria, products are laid out automatically on the fixtures within the region.

This is useful for:

• Saving time that would otherwise be spent manually creating layouts
• Updating planograms based on new data (i.e. Quarterly Sales) with a single click
• Experimenting with different layout strategies quickly (i.e. filling shelves vertically vs. horizontally)

Defining a Template

To get started, navigate to File → New → Template. The following dialog will appear, allowing you to define template rules:

Template Editor dialog

At the top of the dialog, you can use the  button to create rules, and the  button to rename a rule. The color picker will determine the color of regions associated with this rule.

For each template rule, there are four major criteria that you can edit:

Select From

• Via filter_alt Filters, as in the example above. Similar to catalog filters, you can specify one or more catalog item fields or Store Data fields to compare against.
• Via list_alt Item Lists. Similar to catalog filtering, you can upload a CSV or XLSX file with a list of SKUs to include in this rule's regions.
• Via shopping_basket Assortment. This option allows you to use a custom shopping_basket Assortment file to determine items to fill this rule's regions.

Optimize By

In many cases, the items identified by Select From will occupy too much space to fit into the regions you have specified. Optimize By determines which items will be dropped when there is insufficient space.

You can specify a data field or calculation for this criteria, as well as selecting ascending or descending. If you select ascending, the items with the highest values will be dropped. If you select descending, the items with the lowest values will be dropped.

In the example above, this template rule will drop items with low values for best_selling, ensuring high-selling items are placed into planograms.

Cluster By

Cluster By determines how products are logically grouped -- for example, items in the same Category, or of the same Brand.

It is common to use Category, SubCategory, or SubSubCategory fields for this option, to ensure that items within a similar category will appear near to each other in the resulting displays.

Sort By

Within each cluster, Sort By determines the order in which products will be placed on the region.

Advanced Options

You can open the Advanced tab on the right to access several optional properties of a Template Rule.

Advanced Template Rule options, including item spacing, fixture type, and eye level options.

These are described below:

• Horizontal and Vertical Spacing specifies the minimum required amount of space between each product, in your site's units.
• Fixture Type determines which type of fixture items in the rule will be placed onto. By default, rules will target Shelves, but this can be changed to use Racks or Hanging Bars.

  GoPlanogram does not currently support applying a single rule to multiple fixture types.

• If Enable Eye Level is selected, items with a better Optimize By value will be placed nearest to the specified eye level, instead of top-to-bottom. This defaults to 5'8'', converted to your site's units.

Applying a Template

Once you have created a Template and saved it, it will appear in the Templates panel on the left. The video below shows the application of a simple Template to a simple planogram with 2 bays:

Each time you apply template rules via app_registrationApply Template, the regions will first be cleared, to avoid overlaps. You can use the app_registrationApply Rule button next to each rule to redraw only the regions that use that rule.

To view your planogram without Regions, for example for reporting, you can use the Hide Regions checkbox.

When a Region is selected, you can drag the handles to resize it. Note that Regions may not overlap with each other within a planogram.

With a Region selected, the Inspector view will show you specific information:

Inspector view for a Region.

This view shows you the dimensions and area of the region, and information on how much of the region's Select From criteria has been used:

• Region Utilization shows you the percentage of items that have been laid out in this region.
• Rule Utilization shows you the percentage of items that have been laid out in all regions using this rule.
• Unused Items shows you a table of all items that have not been laid out in any region yet. You can also download this list.