We are once again pleased to offer this analysis of the global Retail Execution marketplace. It comes at an absolutely critical time because our 2019 POI Survey and research on the State of TPx and Retail Execution indicate that: (Source & for the full report: POI State of the Industry Report February 2019) http://bit.ly/POI_2018_IndustrySurveyOverall satisfaction with the ability to execute at store level increased 21.1% from the prior year. The “somewhat agree” respondents were fairly flat year-over-year, but the largest gain is seen in the “agree” category. The group leapt from 15.2% agreeing in 2018 to 38.4% in 2019. 91.2% of respondents (1.2% increase vs. 2018) say they have challenges moving capabilities from transactional to analytical.

Many Retail Execution solutions being used today do not enable field-based users to make required decisions at the store level. Only 28.5% (up 12%) agree/strongly agree that they have the tools they need to make appropriate decisions. While the number grew in 2019 and turned around a negative two-year trend, this is a critical gap for retail execution teams. Some of this is due to a lack of off-line capabilities. Only 39.7% of respondents (up 4.7% from 2018) say that their off-line needs are being met, which leaves 60.2% of execution teams struggling. This too is an important functionality gap to close. Among office-based users, only 32.9% agree/strongly agree (up 10.9%) that their analytical needs are being met. Retail analytics is foundational to providing insights around the execution reality in the field. HQ personnel need analytical insights to compete with pricing, go to market strategies, shopper marketing intel, etc. A lack of analytics also impedes retail team leaders from generating region insights and managing field-based personnel.

Market requirements have changed in the last 3 years, hence the need to continue focusing on the requirements that follow to address ongoing opportunities. We note the following trends as it relates to the solution marketplace:

-Lack of a small set of dominant players. There are several small players with Retail Execution revenues of less than $20 Million USD that rival the global or enterprise players. More solution options exist than ever before. There has not been any significant consolidation among vendors in the last few years. In this RetX Panorama, we evaluated 21 solutions from 19 vendors.

-We still do not see any efforts around developing home-grown solutions and have not for several years. The market is relatively mature and the various vendors offer: solutions-plus-services such as asset management, monthly pay-by-user arrangements as opposed to lump sums up front, best practices baked in from years of experience with multiple manufacturers, and more attractive upgrade paths.

-Analytics and the ability to help a salesperson make informed decisions at the point of sale continue to be key differentiators between vendor solutions and also with Sales Rep execution in the field.

-Gamification will take on new importance with the addition of AI. The solution recommendations can be linked to “the potential” a sales rep can achieve by executing certain tasks.

-Dynamic image recognition for smart image capturing of planograms, share of shelf and pricing, AI/ML, RAO, gamification, digital content management and other capabilities are moving from future product vision to becoming base standard in the RetX space based on market demand. Next, we relay the evaluation criteria we used when evaluating the vendors, so that you understand the basis for the analysis.

Best-in-Class Distinctions within the functional set described in the report. We at POI believe there are a set of significant differentiators that merit being mentioned as a group. We have touched on some of them already, but as we work to strengthen this market by encouraging their adoption, we wish to highlight the following vendors as being “POI

We are pleased to highlight these distinctions to draw attention to how critical these capabilities are, both to CG manufacturers and solution providers. However, we caution users against assuming that “Best-in-Class” is automatically the best fit for them. In a world of good, better-best, the “good” may be good enough, but it is always instructive to know what the “best” has to offer in order to evaluate how it can create competitive advantage.

The report including POI Best in Class distinctions will be available on the POI Website this week at https://poinstitute.com/about/poi-publications/ 

For an advanced copy, please write Michael Kantor, POI, CEO at mkantor@p-o-i.org