POI Pulse December 17, 2018

The presentations from the recently concluded POI Fall Annual Summit in Dallas, TX are available to POI Members here

POI 2019 State of the Industry Report – Early Insights Part 2:

Pam Brown, POI’s Chief Commercial Officer, presented a few early industry insights at the November Summit in Dallas. The annual POI Industry report is based on 103 company respondents and will help you benchmark your company’s Trade Planning and Retail execution capabilities and roadmap against your peer set. Below are a few key headlines that will entice you to read the full report when released in January 2019:

1)     82% of respondents are having challenges managing and reporting modern trade. Many of today’s systems have the ability to manage all types of trade and predict and shape promotion demand, resulting in lower inventory costs and increased revenue. One way you can research vendor capabilities is to visit the POI site and review the 2018 Vendor Panorama. POI reviewed 23 different TPX technology vendors and their capabilities. This POI resource will help you determine which vendors to incorporate into your upcoming RFI’s based on your company’s business needs and requirements.

2)     Almost 46% of respondents are advancing their company practices and diving deeper into optimized promotion, pricing and pack growth analysis, and 27% of the companies will add tools and or analytical capabilities to specifically support new Revenue Growth Management (RGM) processes.

3)     73% of manufacturers have challenges with retailers freely sharing key data (POS, Daily, Shopper etc.). With the CPG ecosystem changing and Omni-channel shopping accelerating, it’s time for retailers and manufacturers to partner and develop new data strategies to win together.

4)     Low Hanging Fruit: When respondents were asked if their company’s TPx solution is integrated to their retail execution solution, over 65% of companies don’t connect these systems. To shed light on the importance of this connection, if you change a first ship date or merchandising activity in TPx, in 65% of the companies, the promotion changes will not automatically get pushed to the retail execution solution or teams. Execution is everything. This should be a top priority for Sales and IT organizations that lack this TPx/RetailX connection.

5)     Worth repeating here -Breaking misperceptions: The majority of respondents felt it was over 2 years before Artificial Intelligence (AI) would impact CPG planning. The reality is that AI is already represented well with a few of the vendors in the POI TPx Vendor Panorama. AI advances a company’s “prescriptive planning” ability by using data to propose promotions, timeframes, discounts, pricing etc. for the teams to evaluate. Deductions management efficiency can also be driven with AI. CPG AI planning capabilities are here today.

POI Celebrates 10 Years!

Exactly Ten years ago, a handful of highly dedicated professionals, founding members and sponsors, plus industry leaders decided to join me in founding the Promotion Optimization Institute (POI) in the heart of The Great Recession to advance the practices of Trade Marketing, Merchandising, and Trading Partner Collaboration.

Since then, our now globally distributed community has grown to exceed 7,100 individuals who represent some of the world’s greatest Brands, Banners, and talent in Retail and CPG Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, Merchandising, and Information Technology focused on continuous improvement and innovation.

We are thankful to everyone who has contributed their time, energy and resources to help the POI achieve so many successes, both internally and externally.

Through your commitment, the POI continues to be the standard-bearer for advancing RGM, and promotion excellence within FMCG and Retail. We appreciate your ongoing support by sharing our story with your friends, and co-workers, to attend a POI Summit, and consider becoming a member of the POI.

Plan now to attend the POI Spring Event & Leadership Summit, April 3-5 2019, Chicago, IL., POI European Summit in Rotterdam, NL, and the POI Canadian Summit, Toronto, ON

With so much to look forward to in the coming decade, we appreciate your help in keeping the POI a relevant, vibrant, and active community, and we sincerely invite you to share your thoughts with us by dropping us a note at mkantor@p-o-i.org, or pambrown@p-o-i.org

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays’ from all of us at the Promotion Optimization Institute! 

Industry News

Presentations from the Recently Concluded POI Retail Execution Summit are available to POI Members

Rob May, Director, Edgewell – “The 2018 POI Fall Annual Summit was the best summit yet. Great content, high energy, collaborative and educational. I will be sending others to future POI Summits so they can benefit as much as I have. Good combination of research/ theoretical and experience/practical.”

 

Presentations from the Recently Concluded POI Fall Annual Summit in Dallas, TX are available to POI Members here.

Starbucks Creates Unified Virtual Store

Source: (The Drum December 14, 2018)

For customers, having one place to find Starbucks services is an improved experience but, for Starbucks, it allows the brand to better track its success with sales via a single access point. These services include, Starbucks’ digital offerings such as “Starbucks Delivers,” “Say it with Starbucks” social gifting and merchandise available from Starbucks’ Tmall flagship store, as well as Starbucks Rewards. Learn more

Walmart’s $16 Billion Bet to Take on Amazon

Source: (CNBC December 12, 2018)

And the American retail giant is still convinced by Flipkart’s data analytics and tech expertise and is planning to globally deploy its know-how into progressive web applications that they hope will provide a seamless shopping experience. Learn more

Hershey Holiday “Bells” Social Media Campaign

Source: (The Drum December 11, 2018)

The ‘Bells’ spot runs on TV and online (sites like Hulu) through Christmas. The ‘Bells’ social experience is hosted on playthekisses.com, supported with an Instagram Story and in-feed Facebook and Instagram posts to drive audiences to the site. Learn more

POI 2018 TPx Panorama Released – Announces Best in Class!

Source: (POI Pam Brown 2018)

“Consumer buying behavior and the market landscape have dramatically changed in the last few years, which is further fueling a necessary but profound paradigm shift in the CPG ecosystem that calls for manufacturers and retailers to understand not only the consumer but pricing, trade deals, and digital marketing offers in today’s retail marketplace,” said Pam Brown, Chief Commercial Officer of the POI.  Learn more, and access the report here

Ulta’s eCommerce Winning Streak

Source: (DSN December 10, 2018)

Net sales increased 16.2% to $1.56 billion, in line with estimates. Total same-store sales increased 7.8%, driven by new store growth along with 5.3% transaction growth and 2.5% growth in average ticket. E-commerce sales spiked 42.5% to $170.7 million, representing nearly 11% of total company revenue.

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Sam’s Club Now: Personalization In Retail
Source: (Forbes December 14, 2018)

In the Dallas-based store, the company will test out new concepts like mobile checkout, a camera system for inventory management, electronic shelf labels, wayfinding technology for in-store navigation, augmented reality and artificial intelligence-infused shopping. Learn more

Amazon Ends Instacart Partnership with Whole Foods
Source: (The Verge December 13, 2018)

The tension between Instacart and Amazon has been brewing since the acquisition. Last month, it was reported by Business Insider that it was cheaper to order Whole Foods delivery through Instacart than Amazon, after Instacart quietly lowered its annual fee to $99 to compete with Amazon Prime’s $119 annual membership.

Learn more