Dr. Ecommerce Home


Ask Dr. Ecommerce a question

Q&A Alert
Latest Questions
Archives 2001
Archives 2000
Archives 1999
FAQ
Legal questions
European Institutions
Nat'l & local government
Technologies
Marketing & Selling
Definitions and Philosophy
How do I do it?
Money
General e-commerce

eThesis home
Universities and schools
eThesis best links

About Dr. Ecommerce
Discussion lists
In the news
Dr. Ecommerce speaks out

Board of experts
Legal guide
Statistics

13 Feb 2001, Denmark

Dear Dr. Ecommerce:

What is "Category Management", and how does it relate to e-business?

Dan from DK

Dear Dan from DK:

I asked Axel Bretthauer of Wincor Nixdorf Retail Consulting GmbH's Business Center - Category Management to answer your question. He replies:

"First the official definition for Category Management:

Definition of a Category:
A category is a distinct, managegable group of products/services that consumers perceive to be interrelated and/or substitutable in meeting a consumer need

Definition of Category Management:
Category Management is a retailer/supplier process of
managing categories as strategic business units, producing enhanced business results by focusing on delivering consumer value.

Category Management is also known as Demand Chain Management, that describes togehter with Supply Chain Management the complete ECR (= Efficient Customer/Consumer Response) process defined by the ECR Europe Initiative founded by top- retailers and suppliers.

Delivering consumer value is only possible by knowing and analysing consumer/customer behaviour and their decision trees when looking and deciding for a product. This information can be collected at the point-of-sale in a "bricks-and-mortar"-store. Typically this will be receipt-data produced from an electronic cash register system.

The Category Management process fits perfectly into the eBusiness environment. Retailers and suppliers practicing B2B with electronic data exchange along the value chain in marketplaces as e.g. Transora, Globalnetxchange etc. In a B2C relation between customers/consumers and retailers, customer behaviour and patterns can be easily detected and analysed."

In addition, I note that a quick search on the the term "category management" on the Google search engine reveals more links to category management than you probably want to read!

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce