JOHN NEVENS Managing director, Bridgethorne
Commercial teams within FMCG suppliers are facing an increasing challenge from retailers to make better use of EPOS sales data in order to make more informed, insight-driven business decisions. This means being better able to understand performance, opportunity and risk, quickly through visual, insight-led retail analytics.
Retailers are craving insight-driven suppliers capable of making informed business decisions and offering added value thinking. They want access to suppliers that really understand mutual business performance and this means that suppliers need to find a way of consolidating EPOS data so that it gives them a better understanding of how their products are performing, increasing their level of influence with retailers and enabling them to turn data into insight and then into action.
But this is a challenge that is not made easier for many suppliers due to issues and obstacles that range from time-poor teams and a resource intensive challenge to there being simply too much data and not enough insight being drawn from it. Suppliers with between four and five account managers could be committing more than a week per month simply crunching numbers from different sources, when that data can now be provided in a fraction of the time and in a more easily understood visual format. Although the multiples make their EPOS data available to suppliers, each delivers their data in a different way. Having the data available in incompatible formats merely adds to the complexity of the challenge, which is one of the reasons why suppliers work with Bridgethorne to put all of this data into a format that makes them better able to interpret it.
Retailers want access to suppliers that really understand mutual business performance and this new approach to EPOS data focuses on creating insight by interpreting data visually and highlighting performance trends. Suppliers can now access EPOS data on all their own products in visual-led insight reports that will help their teams ask the right questions of themselves and of retailers. This will help suppliers optimise their resources. As teams will not need to spend time downloading disparate spreadsheets and trying to knit together data and draw insights from it, this will be a much more effective use of time.
The rewards from cracking the codes can be significant. It will increase the time available to commercial teams to spend working with and selling to retailers, reduce time downloading spreadsheets and data that simply don’t add value, whilst arming your teams with evidence-based actions that can help address product issues and make more informed business and customer decisions. This will deliver a better relationship between the supplier and the retailer, help suppliers better understand their own and the retailer’s business, make better business decisions, strengthen sales, improve business relationships and productivity.
Suppliers that turn their data into insight can identify new range and distribution opportunities, evaluate promotions and sales trends, track price impacts, inform new product development, and improve forecasting and availability. This will deliver clear commercial and capability benefits. By improving customer understanding, suppliers can optimise their level of customer interaction, leading to more productive customer meetings, new sales opportunities and insight-led proposals.
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