How disconnected systems are quietly draining your bottom line
Macro space planning isn’t just about drawing floor layouts. It includes store clustering, analytics, collaboration, and more. Yet many retailers still rely on disconnected tools or manual systems, unaware of the hidden costs that are slowly undermining productivity, speed, and margins. From floor planning to store clustering and layout optimization, macro space planners manage some of the most expensive and impactful decisions in retail.
Even as the pressure to do more with less intensifies, many organizations continue to use legacy systems or cobbled-together workarounds. The result? Wasted time, missed insights, and limited adaptability in a rapidly evolving retail environment. Here’s what to look out for, along with insights from industry leaders and important data to keep in mind:
- Manual hours take a toll
Without automation, layout changes, data transfers, and version control become a daily grind. Without structure and automation, teams lose valuable time that could be used to solve strategic problems instead. The need for efficient processes and tools is even more urgent with the rise of omnichannel sales and fast-growing niche categories like functional sodas and wellness-based snacks that demand smarter, faster space allocation to keep pace with shifting consumer demand. These product segments shift rapidly and compete aggressively for space, requiring agile, data-informed decisions to stay ahead of trends.
Instead of wasting countless hours rebuilding static reports, planograms, modulars, and floorplans, retailers enabled with an automated solution can focus on staying ahead of fast-moving trends, important omnichannel strategies, and in-store innovation.
- Siloed systems and disconnected data
The best insights come from connected tools. Crisp’s live data infrastructure helps eliminate blind spots by linking planning teams directly to what’s happening in stores. This kind of real-time connectivity delivers faster, clearer paths from data to decision. Progressive Grocer’s 91st Annual Report supports this shift, with 71% of retailers naming in-store optimization and space planning as their top technology priority. The pressure to bridge data and action is growing. Yet many space management tools still operate in isolation. Without seamless integration across syndicated data, store performance, and inventory, planners are left piecing together an incomplete story. Insights live in one system, floorplans are built in another, and communication gets lost in between.
Legacy systems often trap critical details like sales per square foot or fixture-level ROI, making execution harder than it needs to be. As David Formosa, GM and SVP of Cantactix at Crisp, puts it, planograms are the currency that translates strategy into execution. Without a shared data foundation and a clear line from decision to deployment, even the best strategies can stall. Connecting live sales, shopper traffic, and fixture data within a single planning platform helps teams move faster, stay aligned, and treat floor planning as a true strategic advantage rather than just an operational task.
- Collaboration bottlenecks
Modern space planning is a team sport. Marketing, merchandising, operations, and finance all need visibility into how space is being used and why. But legacy tools often limit visibility and stall teamwork across functions. Standardized processes, shared prioritization, and centralized access are essential to improving coordination.
As highlighted in our recent article Retailer’s Roadmap to Automation, retailers that align space planning with broader planning workflows see stronger collaboration, clearer priorities, and faster decision-making. Smarter tools support this by enabling real-time access to shared data, helping teams stay aligned and reducing delays.
Disconnected systems make it harder for teams to stay aligned and move quickly. The Category Management Association’s Strategic Vendor Management Playbook reinforces this need, emphasizing collaboration tools that connect key departments – especially marketing, merchandising, and store operations. With capabilities like virtual modeling and shared environments, a modern platform makes faster, more informed decisions possible across the organization.
- Reduced agility and responsiveness
Retail environments are changing faster than ever, and if your macro space tools aren’t built for flexibility, it’s nearly impossible to keep pace. From shifting shopper behavior to evolving category dynamics, retailers need the ability to test, learn, and adapt without rebuilding from scratch. In Macro Space Analytics Part Two, Michael Wilkening notes that today’s planners must balance creative problem-solving with data-driven analysis, responding to real-world challenges with both speed and precision. But outdated systems slow that down, locking teams into rigid processes that stifle innovation.
As Dan Desmarais shared in the ARC Space Planning Community post Fixated on Fixtures, “If you’re not building your merchandising tools around the in-store shopper experience, you’re missing the opportunity to make the physical store an asset in the digital journey.” When tools are designed with agility in mind, from modular layouts to performance feedback loops, they enable retailers to create more engaging, adaptive spaces that serve both the shopper and the business. Without that agility, retailers risk not only falling behind and failing to meet their customers where they are.
- Opportunity costs that add up
Ultimately, outdated tools make it harder to optimize the most valuable resource in retail: physical space. If you can’t quickly model GMROI, understand traffic patterns, or test space shifts before implementation, you’re leaving money on the table. When evaluating category tools, organizations should prioritize platforms that offer relational databases, real-time analytics, and automation for store-level planograms. These capabilities allow retailers to compare fixture-level performance across formats, reduce the burden of manual execution, and respond faster to disruption.
In today’s volatile environment, characterized by supply chain bottlenecks, tariff uncertainty, and shifting demand, this kind of agility is critical. As highlighted by Tony Miller, Crisp Director of Sales Engineering, “the ability to quickly reroute goods and adjust shelf space to accommodate changing product availability is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have for resilience.”
What smarter retailers are doing
- Automating layout versioning, clustering, and performance reporting
- Pulling live point-of-sale and traffic data into planning tools
- Aligning macro and micro decisions with common analytics and workflows
- Enabling real-time scenario testing to drive performance
And of course, partnering with experts like Crisp and Cantactix to bring strategy, software, and data together, because doing it solo is so 2008, 2000 and late. (thanks, Fergie).
At its core, the Crisp–Cantactix acquisition is about enabling action through connected, live retail data.
Crisp’s recent acquisition of Cantactix underscores the growing need to connect space planning with real-time data. Together, we aim to close the gap between insights and implementation, helping retailers act faster from recognizing patterns to executing plans. By embedding space planning within a broader data ecosystem, teams can achieve greater speed, visibility, and shelf-level precision. The future of Macro Space hinges on smarter tools and seamless data connectivity. That’s exactly why Crisp acquired Cantactix. With over 16 years of experience in Space Planning and Category Management, we bring deep expertise to Crisp’s next-generation commerce platform – bridging the space between analysis and execution to help retailers move faster, from pattern recognition to plan deployment.
In closing, it’s clear that outdated tools come at a cost. From lost time to missed insights, the impact adds up fast. We hope this gave you a clearer understanding of what’s holding teams back and what’s possible with a strong foundation for category excellence. By integrating strategy, software, and data, they are unlocking new levels of speed, coordination, and measurable results across their retail operations.
📘 Learn more in our Retailers’ Guide to Macro Space Optimization – curated from 22 additions of expert insights!👇👇👇