The world of supply chain is constantly evolving, and Category Management is no exception. We have always lived on the boundary between art and science, and there are a lot of exciting new technological advancements on the horizon now more than ever before. We’ve compiled a list with all the buzzwords, solutions, and concepts we need to know as we begin 2024.
- 3D Store Modeling: Virtual reality visualization software that allows you to view and edit planograms and floor plans in an immersive 3D rendered environment.
- AI & ML: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning — Companies are now implementing algorithms for pricing, demand forecasting, and inventory management.
- BOPIS: Buy Online, Pickup In Store — Allows consumers to shop and place orders online and then pick up their purchases in store, often within the same day.
- CMS Release Review: Our annual summary of the newest version of Blue Yonder’s Category Management Suite release. Check out past releases or subscribe to our educational emails to stay informed.
- Cognitive Space Management: Blue Yonder’s vision for the future of Category Management. A cloud-native, microservices-based application that reinvents supply chain planning. Stay tuned for more info!
- Data-Driven Store Layouts: Using advanced analytics for optimizing store layouts based on customer behavior within Space and Floor Planning.
- Dynamic Assortment Planning: Adapting product assortments based on real-time data, changing market trends, and customer preferences. Learn more here.
- Electronic or Digital Shelf Labels: Electronic shelf labels (ESL) or Digital Shelf Labels (DSL) are small, battery-powered displays that present product and pricing information at the shelf edge, replacing paper labels. Learn more here.
- Extended Reality (XR): Extended Reality encompasses augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). Extended Reality is set to play a fundamental role in the metaverse and is on its way to becoming an integral supply chain tool.
- Generative AI: Uses different sets of data to learn patterns and create content with predictive patterns. Orchestrator, a new tool in Blue Yonder’s cognitive solutions suite dramatically simplifies Supply Chain Management with advanced artificial intelligence.
- NPD: National Purchase Diary — NPD measures how consumers shop across all channels, sourcing data from both retailers and consumers to quantify sales, share, distribution, and velocity.
- Object Hierarchy: To keep track of how objects relate to each other in a Blue Yonder Space Planning planogram, they are organized into a hierarchy. Learn more here.
- Phygital Convergence: Combining the physical and digital realms offers enormous innovation, efficiency, and customer engagement potential. Digitized touchpoints, IoT inventory management, and augmented reality are transforming retail.
- Pick-to-Light: Pick to light (or PTL) is an order picking technology for warehouses, distribution centers, and retail stores that utilizes lights and LEDs on racks or shelves to indicate pick locations and guide order pickers through their work.
- Product Image Capture: Photo recognition is being used to track inventory in real-time and improve omnichannel fulfillment insights into inventory and customer behavior. SKU-level insights can be delivered using product images captured by field teams or robots.
- Prototype Floorplans: Fully fixtured layouts for accurate reporting and strategic decision-making. Prototype Floorplans group your stores based on common traits like square footage, volume, store type, product tier, or climate.
- SaaS: Software as a Service allows users to connect to and use cloud-based apps over the Internet. New Category Management implementations take place in the Blue Yonder SaaS environment.
- Sentiment Analysis: With advances in AI and machine learning, sentiment analysis decodes complex emotional cues in textual data, offering deep insights into public opinion.
- Shopper Modalities: Tendencies we display as consumers and how we shop. They impact the types of products we prefer, how we make decisions, the time we spend in the buying cycle and our shopping methods.
- Snowflake: In 2023, Blue Yonder announced their plan to migrate their database-enabled solution management to Snowflake. Learn more about the move here.
- SOS: Share of Shelf — Share of Shelf is a metric used to evaluate the prominence of a product on store shelves. It represents the percentage of shelf space occupied by a particular brand or product within a category.
- Sustainable & Ethical Sourcing: Incorporating environmentally friendly and socially responsible practices in product sourcing and Supply Chain Management.
- Walmart Luminate: Walmart Luminate is the latest reporting system for Walmart suppliers that provides robust sales data as well as customer shopping insights. Learn more here.
- Workflow Automations: Tools like MissionControl help retailers and suppliers automate Space and Floor Planning tasks. It allows you to import data, adjust facings, add items to floating shelves, stitch planograms, allocate fixtures and so much more.
Congratulations, you made it to the end! Were some or all of these terms new to you? Don’t fret! We are here to help. Contact us today for additional educational opportunities and consulting.