A planogram is a drawing that shows exactly which product goes where on a shop's shelf: on which shelf, in what order and with how many packs facing the shopper. The brand and the retailer agree on it. Every photo of the shelf is then checked against it. The word combines "plan" and "diagram".
Why does placement matter? Shoppers buy more of what they see first. The shelf at eye level sells the most, and the bottom shelf the least. So brands pay retailers, or give them better terms, for good positions and for more facings. A facing is one pack placed front-on to the shopper. The planogram records what was agreed, so that both sides can check it.
Planograms are drawn in software. The software holds each product's size, and each shelf's width and height, so the planner can see whether everything fits. It also uses each product's sales. A product that sells fast gets more facings, so that it runs out less often. Which products a store carries at all is decided earlier, in merchandise planning.
Say a chocolate brand agrees a planogram with a supermarket chain in Chandigarh, for a 1.2-metre shelf section near the billing counter. The section has 20 facings in all. The top shelf, at eye level, holds 8 facings of the brand's 50 g bar. The second shelf holds 4 facings of its 150 g bar and 4 of a gift box. The bottom shelf holds 4 facings of large family packs. In each store, the staff arrange the shelf to match the drawing.
Two weeks later, a sales representative photographs the shelf in one store. Shelf image recognition compares the photo with the planogram, using computer vision. It finds only 5 facings of the 50 g bar on the top shelf, because a rival's bar has taken the other 3 places. Everything else matches. So 17 of the 20 agreed facings are correct, a compliance score of 85%. The representative asks the store manager to restore the agreed layout.
Planograms change often: for each season, for festivals such as Diwali, and when a new product is launched. Stores of different sizes also need different versions. So a large chain can have thousands of planograms. Online marketplaces have no physical shelf, but brands check something similar there: how their products appear in search results and listings, which is called the digital shelf.