11 Effective Retail Merchandising Tips for CPG Brands

For consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, the battle for consumer attention often begins and ends at the shelf itself. Even with strong marketing campaigns and quality products, your success depends on how well your products are displayed, priced, and maintained in stores.

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This is where effective retail merchandising becomes essential. The challenge is no longer just about securing retail partnerships; it’s about ensuring your products consistently get the right placement, the right visibility, and the right support at the shelf level.  In fact, 86% of CPG sales in the US come from customers who engage both online and in-store.

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With evolving customer needs and intense competition across categories, a disciplined and data-driven approach to retail merchandising can help CPGs maximise share of shelf, reduce stockouts, and strengthen brand presence.

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Key Takeaways:

• Maximise Shelf Impact: Proper product placement, planogram compliance, and attractive packaging drive visibility and influence purchase decisions.
• Ensure Consistency Across Stores: Standardised guidelines, field team support, and regular audits keep the brand experience uniform.
• Leverage Data for Decisions: Real-time shelf insights, stock tracking, and performance monitoring help prevent stockouts and improve merchandising results.
• Integrate Merchandising Strategies: Align in-store displays with pricing, promotions, and omnichannel campaigns to improve brand presence.

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What is Retail Merchandising for CPG Brands?

Retail merchandising refers to the strategies and practices CPG brands use to present their products in stores to make them easy to find and attractive to customers.

For CPGs, this involves much more than stocking shelves—it’s a structured approach to driving product visibility, placement, and compliance with planograms across all stores.

Here’s why in-store merchandising matters for CPG brands:

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• Maximises Product Visibility: Proper merchandising makes your products stand out on crowded shelves and helps customers choose your brand over competitors.
• Ensures Planogram Compliance: Following planograms and in-store guidelines guarantees that your products are displayed as intended, increasing the likelihood of purchase.
• Supports Promotions and Pricing Accuracy: Effective merchandising helps implement promotions correctly and display accurate prices, boosting campaign success.
• Reduces Stockouts at the Shelf: By tracking on-shelf availability, CPG brands can identify gaps quickly and prevent missed sales opportunities.
• Maintains Brand Consistency: Consistent placement and presentation build brand recognition and trust across all stores.

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11 Effective Retail Merchandising Tips for CPG Brands

Effective retail merchandising can make or break a product’s success on the shelf. The following tips combine practical strategies with actionable insights, helping brands execute consistently across stores while maintaining visibility and compliance.

1. Optimise Shelf Placement for Maximum Visibility

Shelf placement is one of the most influential factors in driving product sales. Products positioned at eye level or on high-traffic shelves gain better visibility. Improper placement, even for top-selling SKUs, can result in lost sales opportunities.

Key actions for brands:

• Ensure high-demand SKUs are positioned in prime locations.
• Use shelf share data to compare visibility against competitors.
• Regularly audit placement to correct deviations from the planogram.

By prioritizing shelf visibility, CPG brands can significantly increase the likelihood of purchase while maintaining a competitive edge.

2. Perfect the Product Assortment Mix

A well-balanced assortment prevents both understocking and overcrowding. While variety attracts customers, too many options can confuse them. Conversely, limited selection may frustrate customers and reduce sales.

Steps for optimal assortment:

• Focus on top-performing SKUs for each category.
• Include niche or seasonal products where relevant.
• Monitor shelf data to adjust assortment based on visibility and stock levels.

Maintaining the right mix ensures the shelf reflects the brand’s strategy. Studies have shown that cross-merchandising can boost sales by up to 20%.

3. Standardise Merchandising Guidelines Across Stores

Consistency reinforces brand identity. Monitoring shelf conditions ensures merchandising guidelines are followed uniformly across all outlets.

Best practices include:

• Develop clear guidelines covering placement, displays, and promotions.
• Train field agents and retail partners on compliance standards.
• Use image recognition tools like ShelfWatch to monitor adherence in real time.

Standardisation helps CPG brands maintain a consistent in-store experience, regardless of location.

4. Focus on Packaging That Stands Out

Packaging plays a key role in influencing purchase decisions. Attractive, informative, and functional packaging can drive attention even before a customer picks up the product.

Considerations for packaging:

• Highlight key benefits and differentiators visually.
• Ensure packaging stands out while fitting neatly within the planogram.
• Track shelf visibility to confirm designs perform as intended.

Well-designed packaging paired with shelf data ensures the product is both seen and selected.

5. Verify Pricing and Promotions Accurately

Correct pricing and promotions are critical. Monitoring on-shelf prices and promotional displays ensures accuracy and prevents missed opportunities.

Strategies include:

• Display prices clearly and accurately on shelves.
• Monitor pricing compliance to avoid discrepancies.
• Align promotions with the planogram for maximum visibility.

Data-driven insights help brands address pricing gaps immediately, maintaining consumer trust and sales effectiveness.

6. Enhance In-Store Displays and Signage

Displays and signage are crucial for highlighting promotions or new launches. Tracking their placement ensures all promotional materials are present and effective.

Execution tips:

• Use end caps, standees, and promotional displays to attract attention.
• Monitor display compliance to ensure all elements are present.
• Refresh signage regularly to align with marketing campaigns.

Properly implemented displays maximize impact and reinforce brand messaging.

7. Maintain Consistency Across Retail Locations

Brand consistency builds trust. Monitoring shelf conditions allows brands to quickly identify stores with deviations and take corrective action.

Approaches for consistency:

• Track planogram compliance across all outlets.
• Identify stores where execution gaps occur and address them promptly.
• Empower field teams with insights to standardise merchandising.

Consistency strengthens brand perception and builds trust.

8. Use Field Teams Efficiently with Shelf Insights

Field agents need accurate, actionable information. Data on stock, placement, and planogram compliance helps teams prioritise stores and SKUs that require attention.

Ways to maximise impact:

• Provide field teams with tools to cover more stores efficiently.
• Supply real-time shelf insights to identify and correct execution errors.
• Focus efforts on high-priority stores or SKUs based on data.

Equipping agents with data ensures time and resources are used where they matter most.

9. Use Data-Driven Shelf Audits for Better Decisions

Traditional audits are often slow and inconsistent, limiting actionable insights. Automated shelf audits powered by image recognition provide accurate and up-to-date data.

Benefits include:

• Detecting planogram deviations and stockouts immediately.
• Tracking the share of shelf space across multiple stores.
• Prioritising corrective actions based on measurable insights.

Data-driven audits allow CPG brands to make informed decisions and maintain superior shelf execution.

10. Incorporate Omnichannel Merchandising

Even with multiple store formats, consistency is critical. Monitoring shelf execution across all stores ensures products are correctly positioned and visible.

Implementation tips:

• Coordinate in-store displays with broader marketing strategies.
• Maintain consistent product positioning across campaigns and stores.
• Use insights from shelf monitoring to guide omnichannel decisions.

Consistent execution across stores strengthens brand perception and drives in-store sales.

11. Continuously Track and Measure Performance

Retail execution is an ongoing process. Tracking key KPIs ensures that improvements are sustainable and gaps are quickly addressed.

Key performance measures:

• On-shelf stock availability for every SKU.
• Share of shelf relative to competitors.
• Planogram compliance for consistent execution.
• Promotional visibility and effectiveness.

Continuous monitoring helps brands respond quickly to deviations, maintain high standards, and optimize merchandising over time.

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How ParallelDots Helps CPG Brands Win at Retail Merchandising?

For CPG brands, executing merchandising strategies at scale is challenging. Variations across stores, frequent stockouts, and execution gaps make it difficult to achieve consistent results. ParallelDots addresses these challenges with advanced image recognition and machine learning techniques that deliver accurate, real-time shelf data.

Here’s how we can support you:

1. Real-Time Shelf Visibility Across Stores
ParallelDots continuously monitors in-store shelves, providing accurate insights into on-shelf stock levels, product placement, and share of shelf. This allows CPG teams to quickly identify gaps, detect underperforming SKUs, and take corrective action before lost sales accumulate.

2. Planogram Compliance Monitoring
Ensuring that products are placed correctly according to set planograms is critical for consistent brand representation. ShelfWatch detects deviations in real time, enabling your field teams to correct placement immediately, maintain merchandising standards, and maximise brand impact across all outlets.

3. Promotion and Pricing Verification
Promotions and pricing directly influence purchasing decisions, but errors in execution can reduce their effectiveness. ParallelDots provides visibility into promotional displays and price accuracy, helping CPG brands ensure that campaigns are implemented as intended. 

4. Actionable Insights for Field Teams
By equipping sales leaders, category managers, and field agents with actionable insights, ShelfWatch streamlines store visits, reduces audit time, and enables smarter, faster decisions. Field teams can prioritise stores that need immediate attention, optimise efforts, and maintain consistent merchandising quality across all locations.

5. Scalable Retail Execution Across Markets
ParallelDots supports large-scale operations, analysing millions of shelf images across numerous markets every month. This scalability ensures that merchandising efforts are consistent, measurable, and aligned with brand strategy, even for global CPG brands operating in hundreds or thousands of stores. 

By integrating ParallelDots' solutions, CPG brands can achieve a comprehensive and data-driven approach to retail merchandising, leading to improved in-store execution and enhanced brand performance.
Consistent in-store execution is tough, but these strategies, especially with real-time data support, can significantly boost your retail performance.

To see how ParallelDots can transform your retail merchandising strategy, request a demo.

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FAQs

1. What is merchandising in a store?

Merchandising in a store means arranging products and tracking shelf conditions so they are easy to find, properly placed, and consistently presented. It includes signage, layout, and promotions to make purchasing simple and support your brand standards.

2. Why is product packaging important in merchandising strategies?

Product packaging is key to catching attention, sharing brand values, and influencing purchases. Good packaging helps your products stand out, reinforces your brand, and improves the in-store experience.

3. How can CPG brands maximize cross-merchandising opportunities?

CPG brands can boost sales by placing related products together based on shelf tracking, improving visibility and encouraging additional purchases. It also strengthens brand perception in-store.

4. How can seasonal and promotional displays boost sales for CPG brands?

Seasonal and promotional displays make products stand out and feel relevant. Monitoring display placement ensures temporary promotions are executed correctly, boosting in-store execution and sales.

5. What tools help optimise merchandising execution?

Technologies such as image recognition, planogram compliance tracking, and real-time shelf monitoring enable CPG brands to track stock levels, placement, and promotional execution efficiently.