Planogramming Automation for Retail Chains: Manual vs Automated Layout

Last updated: September 18, 2026 

Planograms help retailers coordinate the placement of products to maximize their visual appeal and drive sales. In this article, we'll look at how manual planogram creation compares to automated layout, and where planogramming automation actually saves retail chains time and money.

Merchandising plays a central role in increasing product visibility on shelves and driving sales through attractive layouts.

What Manual Planogram Creation Looks Like

Building Planograms in Excel and PowerPoint

Adherents of the traditional approach remember the days when planograms were created only manually in Excel or PowerPoint. In Excel, the merchandiser created a planogram as a table with a list of products, taking into account the order of the shelves and the number of products on each shelf. In PowerPoint, the merchandiser visualized the planogram manually, adding image after image. This process is long and inconvenient, especially when planograms are needed for different types of equipment across numerous stores.

Excel in particular is a poor fit for planogram management: it lacks the flexibility to incorporate product images and keep layouts up to date, and it's safe to say its developers never imagined spreadsheets being used this way.

After the time spent manually creating a planogram, the merchandiser makes every decision about the layout alone. They must juggle a large amount of information at once, including product size, quantity, and pricing, while accounting for product categories and the number of facings for each item. Products also need to be placed according to demand, characteristics, and which items are usually sold together, following the merchandising rules and layout scheme adopted across the chain. Then comes monitoring execution in stores, analyzing sales, and adjusting the layout. Doing all of this manually takes considerable effort, time, and staff resources.

Sharing Planograms Through Messaging Apps

Retailers who don't use planogramming software often turn to another manual workaround: sharing planograms and assigning tasks through messaging apps like Telegram, Viber, or WhatsApp. It's convenient on the surface, but it comes with real drawbacks. Sending planograms this way makes it hard to monitor, structure, and archive planogram-related information and statuses. It gets worse when a chain needs to send dozens or hundreds of planograms at once, something standard messengers simply aren't built to handle.

Manual processes, standalone planogram builders, and messengers don't cover every stage of planogramming. Retail processes end up separated and out of sync, and retailers still have to organize physical inspections of the layout in stores, which takes time. The lack of proper control leads to problems with inventory tracking, product availability, layout compliance, and communication between HQ and stores.

Design-Only Planogram Software: A Partial Solution

Some retailers rely on specialized design software such as SmartDraw, Scorpion, or JDA for planogram creation. These tools mainly simplify the planogram design itself and product placement, but they typically lack integrated functionality for sharing planograms with stores, verifying layout compliance, or assessing planogram effectiveness. In other words, they solve one part of the process and leave the rest, distribution, execution tracking, and analytics, to manual work or other tools.

How Planogram Automation Works

Automated Layout Settings and Rules

Retailers set up an automated planogramming process to save merchandisers' time and speed up the process of creating, executing, and analyzing planograms. Special programs for planograms let you build a layout in a few clicks while applying automated settings at the same time:

• customize the parameters of the product layout, including depth and height, the number of facings, packaging, and compression;
• customize layout parameters for several products at once;
• group and sort products, and set limits on the number of facings;
• generate a sales-based layout using turnover ratio, number of sales, profit, and number of receipts;
• set planned display percentages for brands, categories, and suppliers.

PlanoHero Features for Planogramming Automation

PlanoHero is a full planogramming automation service, one of Datawiz's products, built to cover the entire process rather than just the design step. Its core features include:

• creating a store plan;
• a commercial equipment builder;
• planogram creation with drag-and-drop placement;
• layout rules generation with the help of AI;
• sharing planograms with stores;
• control over planogram execution through photo reports;
• access to planograms via the PlanoHero mobile app;
• analytics of in-store sales.

AI-Generated Layout Rules in PlanoHero

Merchandisers can place products using their own layout rules, and once a rule for grouping products is created, it can be applied automatically to other planograms across different stores in the chain. PlanoHero also lets merchandisers generate a layout rule using artificial intelligence: instead of building the rule manually, they define the conditions and get the desired layout on the planogram right away.

When a merchandiser places products on a planogram manually, accounting for categories, sub-categories, brands, or suppliers, it can take several hours. With a program for automating planograms, the same task takes a few minutes, including setting up all the layout and merchandising rules.

Sending and Monitoring Planograms After Automation

Once a planogram is built, distributing it is the next bottleneck automation solves. PlanoHero lets a retailer send planograms to every store at once in a few clicks. In the web version, merchandisers create planogram tasks for store managers and send them out directly, and managers can receive new planograms either in the web version or through the PlanoHero mobile app.

PlanoHero Mobile App for Store Managers

The PlanoHero app builds a direct line of communication between the central office and stores, making it easier for teams on both sides to interact. Store managers get notified of new planograms right in the app, so they no longer need to print anything out to execute the layout.

With the app, managers can:

• view planograms and their configurations;
• place products on the shelves according to the planogram directly from the app;
• create and send photo reports to the central office;
• track the status of planogram execution and any revisions in real time;
• view the layout in augmented reality (AR);
• track execution time with a built-in time tracker.

Manual vs Automated Planogramming: Key Drawbacks and Benefits

Drawbacks of Manual Planogram Creation

• time-consuming to create planograms, especially with a large product range and many stores;
• high probability of errors, especially when factoring in product sizes, sales, stock levels, demand, and seasonality;
• inability to analyze large amounts of data or respond quickly to changes in demand or other factors;
• requires constant monitoring and manual changes to keep the layout effective.

Benefits of Automated Layout

• ability to account for multiple factors automatically when arranging goods;
• built-in tools to analyze planogram effectiveness and respond quickly to changes in demand or trends;
• ability to adapt to changes in real time without losing efficiency;
• centralized communication between HQ and stores, replacing scattered messages and manual check-ins;
• use of artificial intelligence to generate custom planogram layouts and layout rules.

Choosing the Right Planogram Automation Program

Automation of the layout proves more effective for store chains than manual methods. Modern planogramming automation lets stores respond faster to changes in market conditions, make better use of available space, and increase sales.

The best planogram automation programs manage merchandising across the entire chain and let you:

• automate space planning, including store plans and equipment, and generate planograms by product category and specific store;
• develop and plan planograms in advance for expected seasonal, marketing, and assortment changes;
• keep the head office and retail stores in sync;
• maintain transparency on planogram task status at every store, at any time;
• control and analyze the layout across stores.

PlanoHero is an effective retail solution that simplifies store processes and automates planogram creation from start to finish. With the right planogram software, retail chains can build effective planograms, streamline planogram management, and improve merchandising efficiency across every store in the network.