Problems brands face in leveraging technology
Most CPG brands today are not exactly deficient in manpower. Nor are they lacking in the latest technology. What’s missing in today’s FMCG firms is the correct application of technology to guide their manpower. Even large MNC firms often lack the right tools that can successfully leverage the large amounts of data they generate daily to achieve strategic goals.
One area where CPG firms end up wasting an unjustifiable amount of time and misdirected resources is “geo-spatial analysis”. e.g. accurately determining market segmentation by predicting product preferences based on location. The truckloads of sales and location data available to you contains hidden patterns that can be utilized to direct the right products towards the right retail outlets and thus maximize sales.
Problems with manual product selection
Product selections and stocking decisions today are almost always done manually. However, stocking products without data-backed decision making and analysis introduces multiple problems, including:
- Lost sales opportunities: Imagine how many sales opportunities are lost because products are out of stock. With accurate forecasting of future demand by Smart Basket, you won’t lose sales because your products were not available when your customers needed them.
- Inefficiency and lack of accurate ordering: Manual ordering relies on the intuition and memory of retailers and sales staff over data-backed analysis, leading to inefficiency and inaccuracy. This in turn causes either overstocking or understocking.
- Wastage of time and resources: Valuable time and resources are wasted in manual decision-making and back-and-forth discussions. With automatic selection of products, the burden of both sales representatives and distributors/retailers of worrying about stock quantity decreases. Guesswork is eliminated. Everyone can rest easy knowing that products are being stocked correctly and on time – every time.
- Increased holding costs: Overstocking leads to unnecessary holding costs where you have to store stock that you – and your customers – don’t need. Smart Basket knows exactly how much stock of a product is needed, and places orders accurately, leading to no overstocking or wastage, not to mention the cost savings.
- Inadequate market penetration: Maximizing market penetration with manual stock selection is extremely difficult, if not impossible, since your stock levels will almost always be sub-optimal. Keeping products adequately stocked in the right quantities at all times, based on past sales data and smart technology, will ensure that your market penetration is always maximized.
- Decreased customer loyalty and retention: Customers today are spoilt for choice. If they don’t see your product, they will choose another. And if they specifically want your product and don’t see it, and if this happens repeatedly, they will choose another and you will lose a regular customer. There is nothing more irritating for a consumer, and more dangerous for a brand, than not finding a product they specifically need. Customer loyalty is precious. The right way to respect and preserve it is to ensure you don’t give customers an excuse to take it away.
- Missed schemes and promotional opportunities: Smart Basket ensures that all schemes and promotions are correctly applied and accounted for. With automatic and algorithmic restocking, you will never lose out on any applicable schemes. Moreover, a fully stocked product is a visible product. Out of sight is out of mind. There is no better way to promote your product than having it present in front of your target audience’s eyes at all times. With Smart Basket, your products are always in sight – where your customers and potential customers can always see (and buy) them.
- Eliminate inconsistent upselling and cross-selling: Anything done manually will always be inconsistent, inefficient, and inadequate. When stock is refilled with guesswork and without adequate data, understocking may lead to loss of upselling opportunities of the product, or opportunities to sell new, similar products. All this ultimately leads to loss of potential revenue.
FAi: Business-Driven, Automated, AI-enabled
FieldAssist Intelligence or FAi offers personalized product recommendations for each outlet based on intelligent enterprise-ready AI algorithms. Cutting-edge Machine Learning tools analyze past sales data to determine consumer and product preferences based on each outlet and location. This process is fully automated, right down to the appropriate quantity to purchase to obtain the optimum stock levels to maximize sales.
In other words, the system will tell you exactly what products you need to order, and in what quantity, so that you can make the most revenue.
With FAi, sales staff and retailers know exactly how much stock of each product they need to hold in order to maximize sales. The entire process of endlessly ruminating over which product to order and in what quantity – is replaced with just the blind click of a button, with complete confidence that the order quantity placed is as accurate as can be.
Benefits of FAi Smart Basket
- Maximum sales: FAi’s product recommendations are tailored to ensure that outlets are well stocked with the products that their customers prefer – and in the appropriate quantities. This guarantees the maximum possible sales – with no missed revenue opportunities.
- Personalized recommendations: What worked for outlets in one part of the city may not work for others. There may even be variations within outlets in the same city block or area. Recommendations are individualized for each outlet based on the personalized preferences of consumers shopping at that outlet.
- Maximum accuracy and efficiency: With the best possible technology available in the market powering FAi’s enterprise-ready AI engine, retailers can be assured of the most accurate predictions possible. What was earlier intuition-based and merely a manual estimation, is now based on data and number crunching. With maximum accuracy in your product selection and stock quantity, you obtain the maximum possible efficiency in your business processes.
- Saves time and energy: The process is fully automated, with all recommended parameters, such as product SKU and quantity, all lined up and ready. This saves tremendous time and energy that can be better utilized elsewhere.
- No stockouts: With highly accurate recommended quantities, FAi ensures that you always have the appropriate SKU in stock.
- Higher sales productivity: With a substantial increase in lines cut per outlet, sales staff become more productive. They can sell more in less time, and reach their sales targets faster.
The FieldAssist Impact
FAi has already been deployed and is up and running at dozens of customer locations across the globe. Results are seen as soon as the system is up and running. Firms are already witnessing up to a 16% increase in Lines cut per outlet. Sales personnel are covering more outlets, selling more products, and are achieving targets quickly and more efficiently. Moreover, distributors and retailers are also happy with money rotating faster in the wallet. By leveraging data along with the right tools at their disposal, CPG brands can significantly upgrade their market presence and unlock a dynamic level of growth. Contact us for a demo today.About Post Author
