Pets at Home is using machine-learning insights to decide how best to organise its store space.
The retailer, ranked Top100 in IRUK Top500 research, is using Symphony Retail AI’s SR store planning and optimisation technology to help decide how to merchandise its stores – including how much space to allocate to pet-related services such as its vets practices and grooming salons.
“We want our stores to be the best pet shops in the world, and we knew that implementing world-class planning technology is important to achieving our goal,” said Mark Wilkinson, head of merchandising and space planning at Pets at Home. “By taking the time to continually optimise our stores, we can ensure we provide the service and convenience our customers have come to expect. We look forward to delighting pet owners when they visit our store locations to shop for their VIP pets.”
Pets at Home chose the new technology because it needed a scalable solution to analyse and improve the performance of space in its 440 stores. The solution gives recommendations for balancing the amount of square footage and shelf space given to different categories of products and to services. This is based on SKU-level performance analysis of previous trading periods. As a result, this could see Pets at Home reducing store display space to increase space for services, as modelled in a proof of concept analysis.
“Success in retail today means adapting in order to stay relevant to customers’ evolving shopping habits,” said Graeme Cooksley, chief executive and president, retail solutions division at Symphony RetailAI. “We are excited that with Symphony RetailAI solutions deployed, Pets at Home will be better able to optimise the store experience and support its continued growth as a result.”
