Retail execution strategies to create the Perfect Store

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Achieving the "Perfect Store" is essential to providing the best shopping experience for your customers.  For consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers, winning the “three R’s” means having the Right product in the Right place at the Right time to meet your customers’ needs. To achieve this goal, aligning retail strategy with in-store execution is vitally important. The Perfect Store concept is not just an abstract objective, but a tangible strategy that can significantly impact your bottom line.

Getting shoppers to choose your brand for trial and repeat purchases depends on variables like shelf placement, pricing, promotions and collaboration with retailers. To succeed in this competitive market, you need the right tools and insights to monitor retail performance. Without timely data, it can be difficult to make informed decisions, resulting in missed opportunities to drive sales, grow margin and stay ahead of the competition.

By leveraging the right technologies, you can address common challenges like inventory management problems and compliance issues. With real-time data, you are able to design strategies that can lead to better shopping experiences, improved customer satisfaction and ultimately, increased sales and profit. Investing in the right retail execution technologies can help you achieve your Perfect Store strategy and win at shelf.

80%

of CPG companies say they do not have the right tools to support pricing, trade allocations or GTM strategies

68%

of CPG companies say they struggle with promotions executed in-store

48%

respond they are lacking retail execution technology

^{Source: POI 2024 State of the Industry Report}

Common challenges to achieving the Perfect Store

Field sales efficiency

Field sales teams are key to executing your Perfect Store strategy. They are on the ground in retail stores every day and can provide actionable feedback on compliance with promotional tactics. However, without the right retail execution field tools to easily communicate with your salesforce, you risk missing out on valuable insights. Efficient field sales teams can ensure that promotional displays are set up correctly, stock levels are maintained and any issues are promptly addressed.

Product availability and inventory management

Ensuring product availability is a challenge when dealing with many retailers that often have different inventory management systems. Inaccurate inventory data can lead to supply disruptions, lost sales and increased costs. Effective inventory management is essential to ensure that products are available when customers want them. This involves not only keeping track of stock levels but also predicting future demand and managing supply chain logistics.

Compliance with retailer requirements

As a CPG manufacturer, you need to comply with various retailer requirements to maintain good relationships and secure shelf space in stores. Failure to meet these requirements can lead to penalties, fines and even loss of contracts with retailers. This includes meeting packaging and labeling standards, providing accurate product information and adhering to pricing and promotion agreements. Compliance is not just about avoiding penalties; it’s about building trust and reliability with retail partners.

Lack of visibility into on-shelf product performance

Visibility into on-shelf product performance is essential for CPG manufacturers to understand consumer behaviors. By properly identifying areas for improvement, manufacturers can adjust marketing and promotional strategies to meet consumers' needs. Real-time visibility allows you to track which products are performing well and which are not, enabling you to make more informed decisions about product assortment, planogram designs and promotional efforts.

Insufficient data and analytics

Without robust data and measurement capabilities, manufacturers will struggle to understand which products are selling well and which SKUs have slower velocities. This can lead to inventory management issues, which degrade the Perfect Store experience. Additionally, a lack of data makes it difficult to identify emerging trends and shifting consumer preferences, leaving some manufacturers behind better-equipped competitors. 

Benefits of realizing your Perfect Store strategy

A well-executed Perfect Store strategy helps customers find the right product, in the right place, at the right time, delivering a better shopping experience. By ensuring that products are always available, shelf sets are organized properly and promotional displays are set up correctly, you can create a more positive in store experience that keeps customers coming back.

Retail execution solutions can empower sales reps by providing clear guidance on the key drivers for maximizing product availability, visibility, and compliance through well-defined targets. By streamlining shelf audits and digitizing the collected data for analysis, companies can optimize resources more efficiently while unlocking new opportunities to boost sales and accelerate revenue growth. This is the power of the "Perfect Store".  

Enhance collaboration with retailers

Effective collaboration with retailers is crucial for your success. Mobile retail execution software facilitates better communication and collaboration, helping manufacturers and retailers work towards common goals. Improved collaboration can lead to better shelf placement, more effective promotions and ultimately, increased sales.

Improve communication with field sales teams

Field sales teams are on the front line everyday and see how retail execution works in practice, so frequent communication is essential to their success. With retail execution technology, you can manage sales reps’ activities on the go, get feedback on retail strategy compliance and collect data to improve future promotions. 

Create ideal customer experiences

Understanding how shoppers respond to changes in pricing, merchandising and shelf placement as they happen enables you to foster better customer experiences. By providing enhanced visibility to in-store touchpoints, retail execution software can help sales teams validate product assortment, assess stock levels and take immediate corrective action to deliver a smoother shopper journey in store.

Optimize inventory management

With advanced analytics for inventory management manufacturers can reduce out of stocks, prevent lost sales and improve customer satisfaction. By identifying slow-moving products and diagnosing the root cause, field sales teams can quickly make the appropriate adjustments. Simplifying retail execution processes frees up sales and shopper marketing teams to focus on the strongest opportunities for growth. 

How to implement your Perfect Store strategy

Achieving your Perfect Store strategy involves a combination of cross-functional planning, efficient execution and continuous monitoring. Here are some steps to help you get there:

Audit your current processes

Begin by evaluating your current retail execution processes. Identify areas to improve field sales efficiency, visibility to product performance and data collection. Conduct a thorough audit to learn where you stand and see what improvements you can make. This step is crucial for setting a solid foundation for your Perfect Store strategy.

Implement advanced analytics

Use advanced analytics to gain deeper insights into product performance, customer behavior and market trends. Advanced analytics provide predictive insights, helping you anticipate market changes and adjust your strategies accordingly. By leveraging data, you can optimize your product mix, pricing strategies and promotional efforts to meet consumer demands.

Regularly evaluate and adjust your strategy

The Perfect Store experience of today is not the same as the Perfect Store experience of tomorrow. Retailer requirements can change, shopper preferences will evolve, new products can disrupt established categories and technology is always advancing. If you’re able to create a Perfect Store experience for your shoppers you must also maintain it with ongoing measurement and adjustments.

The role of technology in consumer goods retail execution

Retail execution technology plays a pivotal role in creating the modern Perfect Store experience. From mobile apps that allow field sales teams to report in real time, to advanced analytics platforms that provide insights into consumer behavior, technology is at the heart of effective retail execution. Investing in the right sales force automation solutions can streamline operations, reduce costs and improve overall efficiency.

Future trends in retail execution

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the tools and strategies used in retail execution. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are already revolutionizing the way we collect and process data. These technologies can provide even deeper insights into consumer behavior, allowing for more precise and effective retail strategies. Staying ahead of these trends will be crucial for you to maintain a competitive edge. Here are some ways retail execution tools can help optimize your processes from planning to implementation and post-event analysis.

Retail execution management tools to create the Perfect Store

TELUS Retail Execution is one of the most essential tools to help CPG manufacturers better optimize their in-store strategies, quickly react to change and improve product performance. With ever-increasing accuracy, our solutions help manufacturers monitor retailer compliance, manage inventories and execute promotional tactics.

TELUS Consumer Goods leverages advanced technologies to provide the tools you need to better streamline field operations, facilitate communication and gather real-time data, all of which are essential to achieving your Perfect Store strategy. Key components of TELUS Retail Execution include:

Retail execution summary

In conclusion, the competitive landscape of the CPG industry requires you to be agile, insight-driven and collaborative. By leveraging real-time data, improving communication with field sales teams and enhancing collaboration with retailers, you can optimize your retail strategies and cultivate a Perfect Store experience for your customers. This may lead to increased sales and revenue, optimized marketing and promotions, efficient inventory management and ultimately, greater customer satisfaction.

Retail execution software provides the tools and insights to verify that planograms, trade promotions and shopper marketing tactics are brought to life as planned. By integrating trade promotion systems with retail execution tools, manufacturers may achieve Margin Growth Realization and improve business performance.

For more information on how to solve your in-store challenges, explore TELUS Retail Execution solutions.

Read POI's evaluation of TELUS Consumer Goods

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