Retailers Find Space for Increased Profits, Inventory Productivity With SAS®

CARY, N.C. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Shelf space is to retailers as location is to realtors. Great locations draw people. Strategically managing valuable display “real estate” improves customer satisfaction, profits and inventory productivity. Using SAS Retail Space Management from the leader in business analytics software and services, retailers like US-based Winn-Dixie Stores and ShopKo, Finnish grocery retailer S Group, and Scandinavian home and leisure store Rusta succeed in the critical space race. The newest version of SAS Retail Space Management software helps retailers optimize precious space and helps retail teams – including vendors and suppliers – collaborate more easily.

“S Group tends to gain the best customer satisfaction scores among Finnish grocery retailers,” said Sanna Timola, Director Space Management and Forecasting at SOK Grocery Trade Chain Management. “To maintain and improve our customer satisfaction, we need to ensure shelf availability continuously. At the same time, we have to improve supply chain productivity. Efficient and precise store-specific space management is a core element to achieve these targets. Implementing SAS Retail Space Management is one of the most important and multifaceted development programs we have ever made a commitment to.”

SAS Retail Space Management is scalable, end-to-end software that supports comprehensive space planning. It encompasses SAS Space Planning and SAS Space Optimization, and its built-in report function allows customers to better understand spatial productivity and track and simplify execution. The store-specific planograms created using SAS Space Optimization create optimal store and fixture space allocations based on the analysis of local market demand, product placement, usage and performance. Sharing and analyzing information was tedious with old space systems, but the most recent enhancements to SAS Retail Space Management streamline the entire process, allowing expanded retail teams to empower collaboration – a much-needed and rarely realized business opportunity.

“S Group achieves better results by applying SAS throughout the value chain,” said Diana McHenry, SAS Global Retail Marketing Manager. “SAS is innovating where retailers desperately need it: optimizing space and mapping it to optimized assortments to deliver greater customer satisfaction and profits.”

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions, SAS helps customers at more than 50,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW^®. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2011 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.