DCS Group extends free category advice on core range site

DCS Group has recently added impartial advice and features for 2024 to help retailers, wholesalers and cash and carry businesses grow their sales and profit in its earlier-launched free to use online website.

The UK’s leading distributor of household, health, beauty, baby, pet care and healthier snacking brands, launched the site in early 2023 and it saw a phenomenal success over the last 12 months.

www.CoreRange.com is an impartial category advice website that is free to use and is designed specifically to help convenience retailers navigate their way through the personal care, babycare, healthcare and medicines, laundry and household, healthier snacking and pet care categories.

The website has seen usage increase significantly in recent months, with traffic last month (February 2024) having trebled in comparison to three months prior, with retailers and wholesalers using the website to help set up their stores for success.

One wholesaler that DCS Group has been working closely with, to help make sure their retailers are stocking the right range in store, is Parfetts. Head of Retail at Parfetts, Steve Moore, said, “We use www.CoreRange.com alongside Unitas Plan for Profit to help define the right range for new stores, giving our retailers the confidence that they can attract loyal shoppers and maximise their sales and profit.”

Key improvements for 2024 include larger ‘XL’ planograms, helping retailers who have more shelf space to stock a core and extended product range in order to maximises their sales. New category advice pages and planograms for the healthier snacking and pet care categories are also now available, broadening the information freely available to retailers.

The refreshed www.CoreRange.com website lists all the latest category and product insights on the website for free, making is easily accessible for busy store owners.

Product range recommendations are impartial and are based on the latest market data and shopper insights. They will be stocked at supplying wholesalers who can also use the recommendations to make sure they have all the best-selling products listed in depot and online.

Matt Stanton, Head of Insight at DCS Group, said: “We have been delighted with the response to www.CoreRange.com. We have built our business on the importance of data and our aim was to make our insight more accessible to convenience store owners and wholesalers so they too can make well-informed decisions to capture lost shopper sales.

“As a convenience retailer, stocking the right products for a store’s customer base is crucial to growing sales. But with so many choices, picking the right SKUs isn’t always easy.

“We originally launched www.CoreRange.com because we wanted to help all UK convenience retailers stock the right range to help grow their sales. In the first 12 months, we have been blown away by the response to the website, proving when insight and data is easily accessible, retailers can grow their business.

“This helped us make the decision to improve and update our advice for 2024. The website now offers insights in more categories and provides a wider range of planograms. As the experts in the sector, we are well positioned to give retailers all the information they need to select a best-selling, efficient core range that is right for their store.

“The seven categories we champion are important and contain essential, high-value products that convenience stores should stock. They drive shoppers into stores, both for planned top-up shops and distress missions.

“When it comes to offering the right mix on shelf, brands are particularly important, as is own label in some categories. What we are doing, is interpreting the insight to help busy store owners make informed decisions.”

Included on www.CoreRange.com is all the information a retailer needs to select a best-selling, efficient and profitable household, pet, health and beauty product range:

• Category insights covering household, health & beauty, baby care, healthier snacking and pet care
• Shopper behaviour insights relevant to all categories across the whole of the convenience channel
• Planograms for small, medium, large and XL stores
• Lists of best-selling and must-stocks SKUs

www.CoreRange.com is optimised for use on mobile devices and tablets, which retailers can carry around and use easily whilst they are in their store. It also looks great on full-size desktop and laptop screens.

www.CoreRange.com supplements the existing DCS Group website, www.dcsgroup.com.