Assortment Planning with AI
What you'll learn
- 1Use AI to build assortment architectures that balance breadth, depth, and productivity
- 2Create data-driven product selection criteria and scorecards
- 3Generate assortment review presentations that justify additions and deletions
The Assortment Paradox
More choice does not always mean more sales. Research consistently shows that excessive assortment creates decision fatigue and reduces purchase rates. The art of assortment planning is finding the optimal balance between enough variety to serve different customer needs and enough focus to make each product productive.
Building an Assortment Architecture
Start with structure before selecting individual products:
"You are a category management expert. Help me build an assortment architecture for the [category] in a [store type] retailer. Define: the role of this category (destination, routine, convenience, or seasonal), the decision tree customers use to shop the category (what do they decide first — brand, price, size, flavor?), the segments and sub-segments needed, target SKU count per segment, and the good/better/best price tier structure. Base the architecture on how customers actually shop, not how the industry traditionally organizes."
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What you'll learn:
- Use AI to build assortment architectures that balance breadth, depth, and productivity
- Create data-driven product selection criteria and scorecards
- Generate assortment review presentations that justify additions and deletions