30% is the average increase in the number of products on Top100 USA retailers in 2021.

But is a high number of products good or bad?

While high number of SKUs can help with -

1. Dealing with out-of-stocks and delays in the supply chain.
2. Consumer needs better answered as you are more likely to hold what consumers want.
3. Driving traffic into the website as you can lower prices when left with stock while others do not.

It’s also a big headache for retailers.

It’s extremely hard to manage it properly and many retailers, also the biggest ones, are now struggling with it. Causing a reduction of ~15%-20%(!) of their profits.

And the main takeover - do “SKU rationalization” once a month:

1. Take items not selling for 60 days months and try a ‘Shock' pricing-strategy (raise price and then significantly drop).
2. Discontinue items not selling for 120 days and no pricing or marketing strategy had helped them.
3. Choose new 50-500 most trending products in the market you do not yet stock instead.

There is great technology around to help you with that.

Much more profitable and higher chances to be right when choosing which new products to bring in and in setting the right pricing or promotion.