Category
Assortment is a point of view
A category is not a catalogue. It is a point of view about what a customer should find, and why those pieces belong together.
The work of category management is often described as a set of numbers: sell-through, margin, weeks of cover. Those numbers matter. They are not the whole job.
A category is a point of view. It decides which brands sit beside each other, which story a customer meets first, and which products are allowed to take up space. That decision is commercial and editorial at the same time.
What the edit has to do
- Give every brand a clear role in the mix
- Be explainable in one sentence
- Let a promotion support the brand, not only the week
The quiet part of the work is saying no. A tighter edit usually sells more, because the customer can see what the category believes in.