Category Management is used in retail as part of the product mix policy and is a strategic business unit managing product clusters. Their goal is react efficiently to consumer demand (Efficient Consumer Response). Categories are seen as business units and are marketed as a whole, instead of single products or brands. In Category Management, industry and retail, meaning the producer and the seller, are working closely together. Fundamental data for Category Management, CM in short, is qualitative and quantitative market research. Based on consumer demand products are clustered by their usage or by search behaviour of customers.

Category Management is often described as the counterpart of Supply Chain Management. While Supply Chain Management controls all the streams of the value-added process in production – from raw materials to the end product – Category Management is focused on the end consumer. The goal of CM is providing the right offer of the right assortment of goods at the ideal place at the right time in the most fitting amount.

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