Problems and Benefits of Implementation of Category Management at Domestic Enterprises

Categorical management has been gaining great popularity in the world since the 2000s. In the domestic market, categorical management began to gain momentum only in 2015. Its advantages are obvious compared to the traditional management model, however, categorical management is not a universal solution to all problems. The data of enterprises show that only 6 % of enterprises did not have a positive effect from the introduction of categorical management, the rest of the companies had: increased turnover, margins, average check, inventory turnover, increase in the number of customers and total profit. All this indicates that the problems of implementation of categorical management in domestic enterprises should be resisted and solved, because it will help increase their competitiveness.

Among the main tasks of category management are: optimization and formation of the company’s product range, selection and selection of strategies and business models for each of the product categories, the implementation of automation of category management and more. In the era of e-commerce, categorical management is becoming more popular thanks to online stores and social media stores, of which Instagram and Facebook are the most popular. Due to the division of the company’s range into product categories, its time management also becomes more effective. Among the problems of implementation of categorical management at domestic enterprises are: lack of time, financial resources and qualified personnel; insufficient understanding of the mechanism of categorical management by employees, lack of a unified vision of integration into business processes; resistance of personnel to changes; lack of a single clear strategy and automated system; insufficient motivation of top management. There are criteria for the readiness of the enterprise to apply categorical management, namely: mastery of employees in the methodology of categorical management; optimization of organizational structure in accordance with the principles of categorical management, etc. According to these criteria, many domestic enterprises, especially small and medium-sized businesses, are not ready to implement this business category. There are also different concepts of categorical management: impulsive, target, seasonal, routine, competence. All these concepts have their own characteristics according to which the product can be classified. In the future, this facilitates the process of categorical management and not only that, which should serve as an incentive for the introduction of categorical management in domestic enterprises.