Nielsen has announced the launch of Mobile Shelf Planner, an innovative cloud-based tool that will enable FMCG manufacturers and retailers to create, adjust and execute planograms in real time.

According to global industry body, the Category Management Association (CMA), the typical in-store shelf assortment is missing 28% of the items approved in HQ planograms and that 50% of approved planograms are not implemented according to their agreed configuration.

Nielsen claims its new live planogram service, Mobile Shelf Planner, will allow suppliers and retailers to easily adjust their shelf strategy based on what’s happening in the store – by teams located within company headquarters and in the store. Powered by a tablet or smartphone, the technology aims to help firms discover and deploy the right mix of products on the shelf to grow sales more effectively.

“Historically, shelf planners at a company’s HQ would create a static planogram which were emailed or posted to the store or intranet to be printed out and implemented by teams within the store,” said Simon Trott, Nielsen’s assortment & space optimisation leader.

“The trouble with this process is it’s very ‘one-way’ and extremely inefficient to adapt based on actual sales in the local store, particularly as static plans are often used for between 3-24 months. With Mobile Shelf Planner, you will have access to an easy to use planogram creation and publishing tool, which enables you to create planograms faster and more easily.”

Christian Kleissner, Global Category Director Petcare at Mars, commented: “For Mars Pet, having an integrated planogram solution is critical, as this helps us increase efficiency and effectiveness of the planogram. It also allows us to make changes and fine-tune our strategy based on both assortment optimisation and space allocation, to ensure we build maximum shopper demand.”