Going From Square Inch Analysis to Setting the Number of Pages for Your Catalog

The next step is to group the items into product categories so you can see which categories rank highest and lowest in terms of sales and profitability.

How can you translate the square inch analysis into planning the number of pages for your next catalog? Catalogers group their products into categories and rank the categories from most profitable to least profitable. The first decision is whether to keep the pages that are unprofitable. The next decision is whether to increase the number of pages that are profitable. Expanding or contracting the number of pages to fit the profitable merchandise is the shorthand method to set the number of pages for a future catalog. A summary of the product pages is simple (again, the columns in your report should be in this order): product category, number of pages, category sales, category profit, planned pages for category in next catalog.