2015 Readers' Choice Survey: Retail Execution
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New to Readers’ Choice this year, retail execution solution providers have seen a lot of activity and investment recently. Ben Stiller, principal, Consumer Products for Deloitte Consulting LLP, explains why this category is getting so much attention as it continues to evolve and transform.
Can you comment on this list?
Stiller: Many point solutions have been developed in the last few years addressing various aspects of retail execution. More comprehensive solutions that integrate enterprise master data, sales organization, customer information, questionnaires, investments, consumer marketing activities, and various sources of big data are still emerging. For this reason, it does not surprise me that the list is quite heterogeneous: 1) traditional niche offerings built to solve specific retail execution issues, 2) new up-and-comers that are expanding from data and analytics offerings into retail execution, and 3) large enterprise customer platforms (SAP, Oracle, Salesforce). SAP at the top speaks to the recognition that retail execution requires tight integration with core operations.This space is no doubt emerging and leaders must not rest on current offerings. Tomorrow’s winners will not only integrate with the core of the business, but will also incorporate new forms of big data and enterprise science to offer more precise, actionable insights.
Why has there been so much attention in this area lately?
Stiller: Retail execution is fundamentally transforming due to a shift in how CG companies go to market. Historically, retail execution was primarily reserved for unique sectors that required specific tracking and guiding capabilities. That is no longer the case. Today, the combination of the consumer’s rapidly evolving expectations, retail format evolution, and new digital technology innovations has sparked a race by CG companies to more directly interact with consumers. Retail execution is now being viewed as a key vehicle in that race.
Financial pressures are requiring CG companies to invest in retail execution capabilities to better manage commercial investments. Field salesforce models and trade spend budgets that were once held as a year-over-year given are now being challenged and redeployed towards direct consumer engagement activities. Retail execution solutions are viewed as a means to most effectively deploy budgeted human and financial resources.
Retail execution is viewed as a new solution for competitive advantage as CG companies look to better engage one-on-one with consumers. The days of these solutions focusing on in-stock, on-deal surveying is a thing of the past. They are now focusing on strategic use cases to act as a cockpit to listen and to engage consumers “in context” during the last mile of purchase in store. Technology innovations such as beacons, sensors, geofencing, and augmented reality applications all create new data exhaust that can be collected, quickly analyzed and used to adjust in-store execution all in the spirit of better interacting “in the moment” and “at the location” with shopping consumers.