By Chad on Nov 21, 2016 8:00:00 AM
What if we told you there was a simple way you could increase retail by up to 20% without adding any new product lines, changing your trade promotions, or hiring more salespeople? Interested?
Well not only is it possible, but for those who don’t start adapting to the Industry’s new way of retail you are very likely to get left behind with eroding market share.
The secret is not really a secret, more of a movement. The 20% lost sales has been occurring for decades, but most companies feel helpless in doing anything about it. Missed promotions, wrong placements, out of stocks, out of compliance planograms. All the common retail execution challenges you have been fighting (or ignoring) for years are the answer to finding a quick 20% increase in sales.
The issue in the past is that due to fragmented data, communication, and time lags most companies have been helpless to impact this. By the time they realize execution of a promotion or new set is off, the window to fix it is already over. Or, if working through brokers or trying to get attention of retail buyers to help fix, they feel helpless and with little control to impact.
A movement in the Industry has begun to change this. This problem is not just a supplier problem, but brokers, distributors and retailers all benefit when these issues get resolved.
One reason for this problem not getting fixed in the past is that the measurement system has been very much outdated and underpowered to handle. Companies are solely relying on Scan or shipment data, which tell you what already happened, not what needs to get fixed. Sales and category managers have been stuck with archaic reporting systems. Companies collecting data from their field reps with apps are only getting a partial story with limited ability to impact broader retail opportunity.
The movement in CPG is to rethink the entire approach of data, mobile solution, crowdsourcing, and retail performance and make data actionable and real-time for sales teams. The movement is to look at not just data, but in-store pictures and activity in real-time. The movement relies on not just field teams, but on third party solutions and advanced automation to help ensure fixes occur.
In future blogs we will provide more examples of category leaders putting this into action.
Time to make 2017 the biggest growth year yet. You can do it by simply fixing what is broken!
For customized best practices, examples in your category, or a free audit in one of your key accounts click here.
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