There here…one thousand of my little product to send out into the world of Test. I think it came out nicely don’t you?
Each store does it the way they do it, and you have to work within their system. It may be something as simple as establishing an automatic re-order level or you may need to contact the manager each time you want to restock them. They may have times of the day you can be in there, or even specific doors you can bring product through to be checked in and out.
Whatever the process, live with it, and pay very close attention to their rules - Under normal circumstances the store employees would normally be responsible for displays and stock. But this is a TEST – so you have to control the environment yourself.
Each week you should go into the test store and count the number of items sold. This will give you the “weekly sell through” data. Divide that number by the number of days between counts and you have the “daily sell through” data. This data is very important in finding out what the product is likely to do in each retail environment. Remember, our test stores are very diverse. That diversity and the sell through data gives us a look at what our national distribution focus should be, and to some extent what our manufacturing requirements are likely to be.
Test can be a very important part of seeing the future of a product’s performance.
