Christian Dibuono
Retail Layout & Merchandising Consultant
New to Contra
Christian is ready for their next project!
KPIs are measured… but not managed.
Retail teams track numbers every week:
OOS, shrink, compliance, conversion, etc.
But if metrics aren’t tied to action, they’re just noise.
Make KPIs actionable:
Assign an owner
Set trigger points (ex: OOS > 3%)
Use a repeatable checklist to fix
Track...
Planogram mistakes I see constantly (and what to do instead):
Most planograms don’t fail because the software is wrong — they fail because the logic is wrong.
Top mistakes:
❌ Building the shelf around “what fits” instead of what sells
✅ Allocate facings based on velocity (expand...
AI is changing how buyers search — and retail stores must adapt.
Discovery used to happen in 2 places:
• Google search
• In-store browsing
Now there’s a 3rd: AI-powered discovery (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI summaries).
People aren’t typing keywords anymore — they’re asking full...
payhip.com
AI Search is Changing Discovery (AEO): What Retailers Can Learn From It About Clarity Conversion
Retailers spend a lot of time obsessing over what they sell. Pricing. Packaging. Promotions. Assortment. But there’s a second question that matters just as much (and honestly… sometimes more): How easily can customers discover it? Because if shopper.…
This week I completed a 3D concept shelf display for a professional hand-tool assortment.
The focus wasn’t aesthetics alone — it was designing a display that works in a real retail environment.
Key considerations in the concept:
Clear product visibility across SKUs
Logical grouping...
Shelf allocation: why top sellers underperform
Sometimes sales aren’t down because of demand or pricing.
They’re down because the shelf is misallocated.
Common issues I see:
Top sellers underfaced → constant sellouts
Slow movers overfaced → clutter + wasted space
Winners placed too...
