Retail Strategy Group released its 2022 Merchandising Benchmark Report earlier today. The release was via its monthly newsletter, The Merchant Life.

The report was produced in partnership with Retail Research Systems and is sponsored by Cloudera.

Raj Dhiman, Co-Founder of Retail Strategy Group says that understanding the merchandising function of retail is critical. Not only from an operational point of view but also from the perspective of leadership.

"There is a merchandising imperative required today as retailers seek out new CEOs. Strong merchants understand customers, generate demand, and curate product assortments to drive profitability. More of this is needed in the leadership ranks." says Raj.

"So, having a deeper understanding of merchandising is important. Our benchmark report helps in this regard."

Key highlights of the report include:

1. There is a disconnect between merchandising strategy and in-store execution. This ranks within the top three challenges identified by retailers. This is an issue of growing concern since at least 2019.

2. Name any inventory challenge you want, retailers have them. To underscore the importance, 11% of respondents in 2019 said getting an accurate picture of their inventory is an issue. That jumped to 52% in this report.

3. Retailers identified areas of important merchandising technology. These include automated replenishment, optimizing promotions/markdowns, and integrated customer data within merch planning.

There is one more finding of interest. 5% of respondents agreed that being too slow in getting products to market is a challenge. But, 34% say their competitors bring products faster to market than they can. Also, 29% struggle to differentiate from competitors when primary consumer drivers are price and availability.

To which Liza Amlani, Principal of Retail Strategy Group, remarked "Accelerating speed to market is THE underrated topic of conversation for retailers. Even though it's not expressed directly, retailers know this is a crucial area of process improvement."

To get a copy of the full report, click here.