For many years, Category Managers have had the responsibility to grow category value. Is this role still valid? What's next in the Digital era?

Category Managers are in an excellent position to lead the Digital transformation of eCommerce! But most of the companies and category managers are missing this!

eCommerce is about Shopper Experience and Value Creation , Shopper navigation, rebound, conversion rate, number of pages visited, units bought per session, conversion rate optimization...

Category Management is about Shopper Experience and Value Creation , Shopper navigation, % of customers leaving the aisle without purchasing, number of categories purchased per shopping trip, units bought, closure rate...

On either side of the table, supplier or retailer, the category manager covered different stages, following the classic Category Management 8-step cycle developed by the Partnering Group : i) Define the category, ii) Define the role of the category within the retailer, iii) Assess the current performance, iv) Set objectives and targets for the category, v) Devise an overall Strategy, vi) Devise specific tactics, vii) Implementation and viii) back to step 1.

This triggered data gathering, analysis of structured data (very frequently not very complete...), comparison of retailer performance vs channel, regional or national datasets and, finally, an assortment recommendation and a planogram. This last, hopefully developed for each cluster or type of store.

Today, the available data, or the possibility to gather this data, is infinite. The problem is that the new data analysis capabilities in the field of eCommerce and Digital is not traveling to Category Management in most of the companies. And this is a huge mistake.

With eCommerce growing at a fast speed, brick & mortar business still accounts for more than 90% of the business in most of FMCG. And this part of the business is not leveraging this new analytical capabilities.

Category Managers have the right thinking. Category Managers are all about Category Growth and Category Centricity. But if they do not move fast, they will miss the train of Digital Transformation and the Digital Business will miss an excellent group of professionals.