Patent ID: 7440903

Claim:
A retail system for evaluating and recommending planograms, the system comprising: a communications network; a central computing system configured to receive and to transmit a plurality of planograms, each planogram being associated with one retail store of a plurality of retail stores and each being associated with a plurality of products to be displayed for sale at the associated retail store, and each planogram including data indicating threshold quantities of each product of the associated plurality of products; a plurality of retail computing systems, each at a corresponding one of the plurality of retail stores, each retail computing system being configured to receive, via the communications network, planograms associated with the corresponding retail store and inventory information indicating in-stock quantities of the plurality of products associated with each planogram, and each retail computing system also being configured to determine and provide a readiness rating value for each planogram prior to implementation of the planogram, the readiness rating value being based on a comparison of the threshold quantities and in-stock quantities of each product associated with the planogram prior to implementation of the planogram, and being indicative of whether the planogram is ready to be implemented; wherein the readiness rating value comprises a percentage of the sum of the threshold quantities of each product of the planogram that are indicated as being in-stock; wherein each retail computing system is configured to provide an implementation recommendation for each planogram associated with the corresponding retail store, wherein each implementation recommendation is based on the corresponding readiness rating value; and wherein each implementation recommendation indicates whether the corresponding planogram is ready to be implemented or whether implementation of the corresponding planogram should be delayed.