Smart Shelf Planning & Assortment Optimization for Retail
Smarter Planograms, Better Assortments, Optimal Inventory, Less Hassle
What is APLN?
APLN is a unique solution that automates the creation of product planograms for retail stores. It uses a cutting-edge optimization approach that simultaneously handles product selection, rule-based placement, and shelf facings (inventory levels).
No more manual product selection or dragging and dropping items onto shelves.
Always up to date. Personalized for every store. Automatically adapts to local demand, equipment, and sales patterns. The solution can be deployed either as a cloud-based service or installed on-premise.
How It Works?
APLN runs directly in the browser—no installation required. Users can generate planograms using advanced optimization algorithms that take into account:
Sales & Assortment Performance
Maximize planogram efficiency by targeting sales, margin, and customer need coverage across diverse shopper missions.
Assortment Rules
Define required or excluded SKUs, and ensure key product types are represented (e.g., "at least one black laundry detergent").
Shelf Constraints
Enforce rules for product placement (e.g., "items over 6 kg only on bottom shelves"), brand-facing limits, and shelf compliance with previous layouts.
Product Flow & Grouping
Group and sort products by brand or price logic (e.g., "left to right, from cheapest to most premium"), reflecting category-specific merchandising principles.
Shelf Inventory
Adjust facings based on delivery schedules and shelf restocking frequency. Account for item dimensions and stacking feasibility.
Brand Blocks
Customize brand block shape and boundaries—horizontal, vertical, or rectangular. Control whether a brand spans across bays or stays within a section.
Key Features
Our platform offers powerful features designed to streamline your shelf planning process.
Assortment & Placement in One Step
No more juggling spreadsheets and placement tools. Our solution handles both at once—fitting the right products within the actual available space.
Smart Shelf Optimization
The algorithm analyzes sales, margins, dimensions, weight, and supplier terms to build high-performing planograms.
Custom Rules & Constraints
Fine-tune the placement logic with rules by category, brand, or product—such as excluding heavy items from top shelves.
Minimalist Manual Editor
Want to tweak the layout? Our lightweight editor makes manual adjustments fast and intuitive.
Problems We Solve
We address key challenges faced by retail professionals in shelf planning & product placement.
- Disconnected assortment and planogram processes, leading to stock gaps or overcrowded shelves
- Lack of store-level adaptation — "one-size-fits-all" layouts that ignore local equipment and demand
- Manual effort and delays in updating planograms, slowing down product rotation and launches
- Inconsistent compliance with planograms due to complexity or lack of relevance
- Difficulty balancing business rules and shelf constraints while maximizing sales potential
Why Choose apln.ai?
Our platform offers unique advantages that set us apart from traditional shelf planning solutions.
One-Step Planning
Automatically selects and places products in a single process—eliminating stock overflow and planning mismatches.
Customizable & Flexible
Easily adapt planograms to brand requirements, space limitations, and product specifics.
Data-Driven Optimization
Use real sales, margins, and contract terms to build layouts that drive performance.
We're not just coders — we speak retail fluently.
Technical & Retail Expertise
Our team combines deep technical expertise with real-world retail experience. We bring together talented developers, data scientists, and former business consultants with 10+ years in retail transformation.
Diverse Retail Experience
We've worked across a wide range of retail formats — from grocery (Magnit, X5, Samberi, Komandor, Magnum), to electronics (M.Video-Eldorado, MTS), to DIY (Leroy Merlin), and more.
Consulting Background
Our background includes hands-on transformation experience at leading firms like EY and BCG, as well as direct roles inside retail organizations — we understand there's no universal best practice.
We've seen many companies solve the same problems in different ways, and we can find the approach that fits your unique needs.
What place APLN fits in your process?
APLN is not only for "fancy" stores
STAGES
No planograms and we don't use them...
We have basic planograms / schematics with periodic updates...
Planograms are very important for CVP
– we have high merchandising standards...
HOW APLN CAN HELP
APLN allows quick assortment selection considering store shelf capacity, ensuring representation of need units and determining optimal inventory levels
APLN automatically updates planograms and selects the best assortment based on placement rules to maximize sales and margins
APLN allows setting up more than 48 placement rules and detailed sorting down to specific shelves, guaranteeing their automatic compliance
Pricing & Licensing
apln.ai is licensed based on custom agreements tailored to each client's scale—factoring in the number of stores, data volume, and level of integration. Optional professional services like onboarding and consulting are also available.
Contact Us for PricingReady to simplify shelf planning?
Let's talk about how apln.ai can transform your retail operations.