# Combine

Shows which plans appear together in stores and how often, so macro space analysis can be targeted, and how to export the store lists.

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Combine can be found in the navigation panel, under Coplan and Reports, where the page is titled Plan Combinations. Combine allows you to understand what plans appear together in stores and how often, so that macro space analysis can become more targeted and strategic based on cross-category commonalities as well as anomalies.

Select one or more subsections in **Subsections**. Combine starts on the latest week: choose another in **Date**. Where your data covers more than one area, **Locations** narrows the stores. Once selected, the table will populate with all the different live combinations ordered by number of stores.

The bars next to each plan ID show the number of bays in that plan: one bar for each bay. Select a plan ID to open that plan in Explore. Where the stores in a combination have no plan for one of your subsections, a grey label in that plan’s place names the subsection that has no plan.

The **Bays** column is the cumulative number of bays across the plans in the combination.

Click a column header to sort by that column, and again to reverse the order.

The order of the plan IDs does not reflect where the plans sit in store.

To view the store list for a combination, select its row. Select a store to open it in Explore.

Select **Export Data** then **Excel Spreadsheet** to download the combinations to Excel to extract individual store lists, where you can input other data points for analysis, such as sales. **CSV Files** downloads the same data as one file for each sheet.

| Sheet                      | What it holds                                                |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `Configuration`            | The date and subsections you chose, and the report’s address |
| `Combinations`             | One row for each combination, with its stores and bays       |
| `Combinations_With_Stores` | One row for each store in each combination                   |

## Key uses

1. Easily understand what plans exist in store together from any chosen categories, such as tea and coffee
2. Identify the most popular combinations and the number of stores they are in
3. Understand the cumulative bay size across the different combinations as well as the individual plan sizes
4. Export the combinations to Excel to extract individual store lists and input any other data points for analysis, such as sales

## Questions Combine can help answer

1. How is the total shelf space divided up among all soft drinks categories, for example, across the total main estate?
2. Are there any categories currently over- or under-spaced based on performance metrics, such as sales per bay?
3. If a parent category needs more space due to new product introductions, which category should lose space?