Where to put products on a shelf, from top to bottom

Put your best sellers and the products you most want noticed between chest and eye height, heavy and bulky items low, and light or slow lines up high. Then keep each category together and order it the same way every time. Every shelf on a fixture does a different job, because customers see some positions first and reach some more easily.

Why product placement on shelves matters

A shopper in an aisle tends to look straight ahead first, then down, then up. Where a pack sits affects how often it is noticed and how easily it is picked up. The same product can sell differently on two shelves of the same fixture, so placement is a decision worth making on purpose rather than leaving to whoever restocks last.

The guidance below is general retail practice. Treat it as a starting layout, then let your own sales tell you what to move.

Eye level and the shelf below it

"Eye level is buy level" is one of the oldest sayings in retail. It is a rule of thumb, not a measurement. The shelves between about chest and eye height are the easiest to see and reach, so most hands go there first. Use this band for:

• your best sellers, so they are easy to find and quick to restock
• new lines, since nobody is looking for them yet
• products you want customers to compare with the market leader beside them

Reach matters as much as sight. For a sense of what most people can reach, the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design set 15 to 48 inches above the floor as the unobstructed forward reach range for controls and operable parts. Merchandise shelves are not held to that range, but products placed within it can be reached by more of your customers, including people who use a wheelchair.

Where bottom shelf products belong

The lowest shelf suits heavy, bulky and large-pack items. They are safer low down, customers who buy them usually know what they want, and a full base shelf makes the whole fixture look stocked. Bulk sizes of a product shown higher up work here, since a shopper who has found the smaller pack at eye level can look down for the larger one.

Keep the heaviest packs off the floor when the fixture allows it. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety notes that the preferred range for lifting is between knee and waist height, and that lifting above or below it is more hazardous. That applies to your staff refilling the shelf as much as to the customer taking a case home.

Products aimed at children are often placed lower as well, where a child can see them.

What to do with top shelf products

The highest shelf is hard to reach and easy to miss. Use it for:

• light items, including large but light packs such as paper goods
• slower lines that need a home but not a prime position
• familiar brands that customers will look up to find

Avoid anything heavy, fragile or in glass up high. A pack that falls from the highest shelf is a risk to whoever is standing below it.

Vertical or horizontal blocks

There are two common ways to lay a category across a fixture.

With vertical merchandising, each brand or subcategory runs in a column from the highest shelf to the lowest. A customer walking along the aisle passes every brand at eye level, and each brand gets a share of the best shelf.

With horizontal merchandising, each subcategory fills a shelf across the full width of the fixture. A customer reads one shelf for one type of product, such as ground coffee on one shelf and whole bean on the next.

Many stores mix the two: brand columns, with sizes running from small to large left to right inside each column.

A shelf placement strategy in five steps

1. Measure the fixture and every product going on it, so the layout you plan is one that fits.
2. Group the category and choose vertical or horizontal blocks.
3. Fill eye level first with best sellers and new lines.
4. Put heavy and large packs low, and light or slow lines high.
5. Order each block consistently, by brand, by size, or from value to premium, and keep variants side by side so a customer looking for one flavor or shade finds the others.

After a few weeks, check what sells. In headoffis, the heatmap overlay on a planogram tints each placement by units sold, stock on hand or sell-through. Sales are recorded for the whole store rather than one shelf, so read the colors as a guide to which products have earned the best positions.

Using the end of a run

The end of a run faces the main aisle, so it is seen by people who are not shopping that aisle at all. End cap displays work best for seasonal stock, promotions and new lines. Give them fewer products with more facings each, tie them to the category in the aisle behind, and change them on a schedule so regular customers keep looking. Avoid using an end cap to clear overstock that nobody wanted from the main shelf.

If your end caps are shelved, describe each one as its own fixture and plan it like any other.

Merchandising tips for small retail stores

• Pull products to the front edge so the shelf looks full and the next pack is within reach.
• Keep each price tag directly under the product it prices.
• Fill gaps quickly; an empty slot reads as out of stock even when the backroom has more.
• Keep related items near each other, such as batteries near the devices that use them.
• Write the layout down. A good shelf drifts when it exists only in someone's memory.

That last point is where a planogram earns its place. Plan the shelf, approve it, and the store gets a checklist that follows the fixture from the top shelf down and left to right, so it is set the same way every time. Keep the previous approved version: if a new layout does not work, the store can return to it.

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