Morrisons will begin using a merchandising system from Galleria next year to automate the creation of merchandising plans. Currently the supermarket chain creates these plans manually.

The system will connect its assortment and space planning business processes, and contain store-specific fixture, space and product performance data.

Morrisons will be able to create merchandise plans that optimise the range and inventory at the store level and fit the exact space available. It will also be able to define each category at the enterprise, cluster or store-specific level.

Morrisons merchandising director Amanda Lomax explained that an increasing mix of stores and customer segments were behind the decision to invest in the system.

She said: “As we continue to grow, our goal is to provide our stores with high quality merchandising plans in order to ensure our customers get great value, fresh products and a pleasant shopping experience. Galleria’s solution provides us with the necessary tools to optimise our range across a more diverse store portfolio and customer demographics than we had previously. Galleria will allow us to achieve this at the store level in a prompt, efficient manner in order to meet our customer’s needs.”