Role Of A Category Captain: Retail Management

By Author: Tanvi Wadhwa
Total Articles: 30
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Before understanding the role of a category captain, it is important to understand the mean of category. The simplest definition of a category would be “a group of mutually substitutable items.” For example, I can choose between Close-up or Colgate toothpaste to do the same job. Both products come under the same category since they are substitutable.

Category Management is often referred to as “cat-man.” Like minded products are put into product groups called “categories.” A few examples for categories would be shoes, cosmetics, liquids, washing powder etcetera.

There’s a strong relationship between a supplier and a retailer. Suppliers are expected to propose actions on a regular pace like promotions, offers etc. These offers should generate shopper’s satisfaction. The relationship between a supplier and a retailer is very crucial and it becomes difficult for both to maintain hence a retailer appoints category captains for each category in order to maintain a healthy communication between both. The category captain builds the category and takes all responsibilities for further communication.

As ...
... studies suggest, a category captain has to be mature and wise in nature in order to lead his category. He should be able to look beyond brands and should focus on building the category. The focus should always be the growth of the entire category as one; this also affects the category captain’s growth in the sector.

A Category captain is believed to have the closest and most regular contact with the retailer. The responsibility is to invest a lot of time, effort and often money in the strategic development of the category. A category captain performs demand-enhancing services such as shelf-arrangements, design and management of in-store displays.

Currently in the Indian Retail Market, the role of category captains and category management is not very defined but since Retail is booming like never before with big retail chains like Walmart landing in the Retail Industry, the existing professionals are expecting a lot of changes in the sector. Indian retailers are looking to form interesting patterns to follow and operate similar functions in smaller cities and towns as well. There will be some modifications according to Indian retail sector. The basic step would
be defining the roles clearly and selecting the target audience.

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Tanvi Wadhwa is the feature writer at EduKart.com. EduKart.com, India’s leading online education portal, delivers industry relevant courses in the areas of Retail Management Courses, Financial Management, Digital Marketing Courses, Programming Languages and Project Management. Tanvi Wadhwa has previously written articles on Digital Marketing, Retail Management, Financial Management, Project Management, Programming Languages and etc.