Frequently asked questions

StoreSpace^® is an innovative platform designed to make retail space planning simpler, saving you time while maximising your revenue.

Built on AutoCAD, StoreSpace^® enables macro space planning, sharing of plans with key stakeholders and the maintenance of consistency across your retail estate.

Imagine taking the roof off a store and viewing it from above. That bird’s-eye view is your macro space.

Macro space planning involves designing the layout of your store, from department positioning to fixture placement and assigning categories to those fixtures. It’s all about optimising the customer journey and ensuring that each category within your store layout is ‘right-sized’ to drive sales and profitability.

Retailers who excel in macro space planning rely on AutoCAD-based technology, such as StoreSpace^®. These tools not only streamline the planning process but can provide valuable insights about existing performance, allowing you to make informed decisions about future layouts.

Micro space planning focuses on positioning the right product ranges and assortments on shelves and ensures there is sufficient product available to meet customer demand.

Influenced by the retailer’s category management strategy and the brand’s merchandising strategies, it also uses knowledge of shopper behaviour to make decisions on where products should be placed. The aim of micro space planning is to optimise product sales and profitability.

A retailer’s micro space plan should be partnered with their macro space plan to ensure that there is the right balance of category space to deliver the retailer’s merchandising strategy.

Micro space planning is about placing the right products on shelves, while macro space planning involves the overall store layout, the customer journey and ensuring that sufficient space is given to each category.

Both are essential for creating a balanced, profitable retail environment.

A planogram, sometimes called a schematic or POG, is essentially a blueprint for how products are arranged on the shelf. It is a visual representation that shows where each item sits and how many facings it gets, ensuring everything is in its place.

Creating a planogram isn’t guesswork. It’s backed by data and a deep understanding of shopper behaviour. There’s a lot that goes into it, from the psychology of product selection to the influence of shelf positioning and the power of brand recognition.

For retailers, planograms are a crucial tool. They make sure every listed product is on display, take into account how often items need restocking and help maintain a consistent shopping experience across all store formats.

StoreSpace® integrates seamlessly with the NIQ Spaceman application to feed planogram and store data along with any accompanying planogram PDF files. This inherent integration is a result of the strategic partnership that StoreSpace® has established with a leading Micro Space thought leader.

An AutoCAD license is not required to use StoreSpace®. We maintain toolsets to accommodate clients with or without existing AutoCAD licenses.

Expert levels of AutoCAD are not required for the use of StoreSpace®. We cater for all user levels within the training and will design training around existing skill sets. Those details are usually determined in the discovery phase of the implementation.

There are two elements to the StoreSpace^® platform. One is AutoCAD-based, allowing planning teams to design retail space using an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and productivity enhancing toolset. It also features a standard block library, which reflects the fixtures and display equipment used across your business. You can map all stores onto the system, create clusters and save model stores for consistency.

The second element is our online portal, where plans can be uploaded for in-store use. It also allows for two-way communication with in-store teams, as well as enabling stakeholders across the business to analyse and report on the space across the retail estate.

Our Customer Success team will help you get started with a comprehensive onboarding programme, in-depth training and ongoing support.

StoreSpace® utilises a model store methodology that allows you to import targets for a specific cluster of stores. Using this import, you can ensure that the store drawing has the appropriate category allocations. Further to this, StoreSpace Insights can give you an understanding of the best possible adjacency combinations by category, based on your estate is performing, allowing for a better shopper experience.

Using the Batch functionality in StoreSpace®, mass planogram change and floorplan uploads can be accommodated.

Planogram change scenarios are one to one, many to one, one to many and many to many.

Floorplan updates are not required each time a planogram changes. There are various tools that can be used to make sure this process is seamless, with one of those the planogram lifecycle tool by NIQ.

The heatmapping function within StoreSpace®, both in the Online and CAD applications, make use of the performance data to show opportunities on the floorplan and where planograms may be over / under-spaced.

Other reports can be executed from the online portal to display the information in a data led view. Further, StoreSpace Insights uses performance data to power many of the reports on offer.

With StoreSpace® there is no longer a need to count equipment on a floorplan manually. With the floorplan connected to the StoreSpace® database, all accurate equipment counts can now be exported directly as a report.

StoreSpace® CAD allows the use of area polylines to accurately measure floorspace and assign ownership to measure floorspace contribution. The data can then be exported from StoreSpaceOnline as a report.

With a StoreSpace® subscription, store level associates can access the StoreSpaceOnline portal. With this access, stores can view the planograms that are assigned to them, documents intended for the store and the full store layout.

The store level access can be granularly configured by the corporate administration team.

It isn’t only store level associates that can be granted access to StoreSpace® but also members of the corporate community. Like with store level associates, roles for various members of the user community can be configured as part of the discovery process.

Planograms are always changing as range naturally flows through the merchandising process. Often it’s difficult to ensure that stores have accurate communication on which planograms are being updated.

With the integration between StoreSpace® and NIQ, those changes are logged and stores are automatically made aware that they have a task in the system to implement the planogram. Once the planogram is implemented, stores can accept the change OR feedback that the planogram couldn’t be implemented and why – ensuring 360° communication.

The implementation program is flexible depending on your resource and availability. Our implementation team will ensure that the program is designed around your existing commitments. In general terms, the timeline can take between 8-12 weeks to complete.

At StoreSpace® we ensure that there is continuity from the sales process to delivery to ensure that application knowledge is consistent.

Following the implementation, we engage with you on our Hypercare phase to ensure that any questions / tasks covered in training can be re-covered when needed.

Our subsequent monthly calls are designed to set and track objectives, detail action items and make sure that you are getting the most from your investment.

The price of a StoreSpace^® licence depends on several factors, including your store count and the number of people using the platform. Get in touch to find out more.

The Lite version of StoreSpace® has been developed for low cost and diminished functionality implementations vs the Enterprise edition which has the full range of access.

Retailers intending to purchase StoreSpace® with less than 250 stores in their estate can purchase StoreSpace Lite as an option. If however, StoreSpace Store Insights is a requirement, then StoreSpace Lite is not an option.

Our world class Support team’s tool of choice to manage the Support function is Freshdesk. A “How to” guide of how we work with you post implementation is covered during the Hypercare phase when the team are introduced.

At StoreSpace Insights, we ensure that your first line Support consultant works with you until the ticket is complete.

Developed to provide an enhanced level of reporting, StoreSpace Store Insights delivers your store planners with even more detail in a responsive, intuitive platform. Based on Power BI, the software features easy-to-read graphs, heatmaps and tables.