Category management

Category management treats a group of related products as a unit for planning and performance review. Buyers consider the category's customer needs, assortment, pricing and stock levels rather than managing every item independently.

A category might be laundry products, footwear or phone accessories, depending on how customers shop and the retailer structures its range. The manager reviews customer needs, product roles, supplier offers, pricing, promotions and stock performance together. This can prevent local decisions on individual products from weakening the overall offer.

For example, adding several similar detergents may increase choice but split demand and crowd out a useful specialist option. Assortment planning addresses the range, while a planogram turns space decisions into a shelf layout. Category management combines these activities with commercial review of the category as a whole.