Management of the Company Product Policies: Traditional Retail and Category Management

The purpose of this work is a comparative analysis of existing approaches to the management of the company’s assortment policy (traditional approach and category management), determining their main differences, advantages and disadvantages, as well as identifying the amount of each of them. The article gives a brief description and definitions of existing approaches to the management of the company’s assortment policy. On the basis of 17 criteria the comparative analysis of approaches allowing to reveal their main differences is carried. According to the survey of 18 category managers of the retailers of the Urals Federal district revealed that at present category management is actively implemented in the commercial networks of the Ural Federal district; it is gradually substituting the traditional approach. However, the trading network of the Ural Federal district did not take the traditional approach or category management, demonstrating the predominance of mixed forms of management of the assortment policy of trade networks. The degree distribution of these approaches in various retailers varies significantly between the research allowed to identify a large potential for further development and growth of the trade networks of the Ural Federal district, which will allow them to get better financial results from the trading activities.