Shopko looks into store space, market baskets

Green Bay, Wis. – Shopko Stores is looking more closely into how it uses store space. It’s also looking more deeply into customer’s market baskets.



The retailer has renewed its license of APT’s Test & Learn and Market Basket Analyzer software for another three years.



Additionally, Shopko has decided to license APT’s Space Planning Optimizer software. Using APT space planning software, Shopko was able to quantify incremental margin opportunities from modest space changes. The software also prioritized the stores where the retailer would generate the largest impact from space changes. Another benefit recognized was that the software helped identify new store clustering opportunities, as well as optimized pre-determined store clusters.



“Shopko is making efforts to continue to localize and tailor our assortment for our customers,” said Russ Steinhorst, Shopko’s CFO. “We recognized the opportunity to leverage APT’s Space Planning Optimizer as a way to accelerate and advance our capabilities to achieve our goals of having more tailored assortments and customer shopping experiences in our different markets,”



In addition to licensing APT’s Space Planning Optimizer software, Shopko is extending its Test & Learn and Market Basket Analyzer licenses. Test & Learn helps Shopko evaluate and design key strategic and operational initiatives, while Market Basket Analyzer software helps the retailer automatically synthesize transaction-level data to rapidly identify which items to promote, which to bundle, which to cut, and more.



“Whether informing SKU rationalization decisions, designing promotional bundles, or determining which products are true traffic drivers, we use Market Basket Analyzer to get a more holistic picture of each item, including the typical purchase behavior and customer loyalty associated with that item,” said Tom Abbott, senior VP at Shopko. “We are very excited to continue our relationship with APT and to leverage Test & Learn and Market Basket Analyzer to quantify and optimize the customer value of our strategic decisions and initiatives.”