by Akshay D'Souza
December 27, 2018 | 02 min read
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It’s that time of the year when everyone becomes an astrologer! I’ll leave it to the gurus and analysts to throw out predictions; I’m just here to point you towards a couple of the best predictions out there and help you figure out how you can future-proof your consumer brand to align with those predictions.
CB Insights Food & Beverage Trends for 2019
I know you’re looking to the top-right hand – the necessary, here-to-stay changes – and analyzing if you have those capabilities in place; if not, how you can get them.
Let me break that down for you:
Direct-to-Consumer Distribution
Take this one seriously! It’s the start of the journey of moving closer to the consumer. Bizom can help here with our retailer app that allows retailers to place their orders directly with the brand and has it fulfilled in a matter of hours by our partners in the traditional distribution system.
Alternative points of distribution
These help you to take your products to where your customers are rather than them coming to you. Retail outlets in the form of kiosks, vending machines, and canteens/cafes in places like airports, offices, gyms etc. are examples of alternative points of distribution.
However, selling at hundreds of thousands of places at once brings several challenges – how to know what sells, when stock needs to be refilled, and when to clear out expired stock questions that must be answered. A great technology platform is essential here to help brands figure out what to sell, when to sell and where to sell.
BCG’S Unlocking Growth in CPG with AI & Advanced Analytics
Here’s our analysis of some of the must-haves:
Demand forecasting for existing and new products by SKU and region
Most businesses understand the art of forecasting demand for existing products. However, many fail to leverage the science behind measuring true demand for a new product. Little wonder then that about 95% of new products fail.
Here, it helps to have a tool that can plot trends directly from the market. Bizom’s end-to-end retail sales platform does that in two ways:
- Its sales and distribution tools capture accurate, real-time ordering data from across the market and deliver customized drilled-down reports and dashboards that can predict demand with near-perfect accuracy.
- The retailer app (Distiman) helps identify the true market demand as reported directly by retailers and that is so crucial in being able to make successful launches. The app also allows companies to boost their chances of success by directly communicating to retailers information about new product launches and trade promotions for focus SKUs.
ROI measurement for predicting the impact on sales of advertising and promotional spending
Currently, tools to measure ROI on trade spending are effectively non-existent in India. However, imagine if you could audit the effectiveness of important promotions such as:
- Retail storefront signage
- Shelf share (especially when you’ve paid a retailer for it)
- Promoter efficiency
Bizom’s solutions incorporating image recognition, and geo-tagging/fencing help you get insights into some of these and help you maximize ROAS.
Data-powered sales activation
The biggest gift of digitization is data. Using accurate data for identifying the right retail outlets at which to activate the right set of sales actions is crucial to growing market share in today’s hyper-competitive FMCG space.
Bizom’s insights dashboard with its reports drilled down to every region, market and even outlet level offers just that to help you maximize market demand and gain a higher market share.
Optimized product assortments at the individual store level
Tools like Bizom’s ‘Suggested Orders’ help ensure that you know what to sell, where to sell and in what quantity. The tool accounts for all key factors that affect sales at a store level and helps predict the optimal order quantity accurately for individual SKUs. This helps the brand minimize wastage and returns and retailers to stock just the right amount and assortment of products.
To know more about how you can digitally transform your sales & distribution and stay on top of the trends for 2019 and beyond reach out to me at marketing@mobisy.com.
Have a great 2019, people! Cheers!
