A New Day for Retail Execution
I recently had the privilege of moderating a share group meeting with some of today’s top executives at the CGT Sales & Marketing Summit. The Downstream Data Share group meets quarterly, bringing together some of the industry’s top CPG executives in an open forum to discuss and debate data usage and insightful actions that are needed in the enterprise. Top on the agenda was in-store execution and ensuring that strategy is being executed properly and consistently at the store level. There were so many questions surrounding ensuring accurate execution of promotional displays, achieving new item planogram compliance, and hottest on the list -- how to preempt risks for out-of-stocks. Each year, $800 billion in revenue is lost globally to avoidable issues like out-of-stocks!
The best part of this share group, and perhaps the greatest takeaway for attendees, was the discussion on new solutions to combat these familiar in-store challenges. Proposed solutions involved much collaboration and excitement around technology and how we can utilize data, mobile, social media, crowdsourcing and other emerging technologies to problem solve now and best prepare for the future. My company, RSi, had recently partnered with a local visibility software platform to bring to market a new product we call RSi Intelligent Crowdsouring. We had just recently conducted several pilots on the program so I had a lot to contribute to the discussion on how to achieve real-time visibility into retail execution and addressing problems in the store, and on-the shelf leveraging things like crowdsourced intelligence, mobile alerting and an on-demand workforce.
Our proposed solution to the giant monster of a problem we know as out-of-stocks, is to combine sophisticated retailer downstream data transformed into scientific out-of-stock alerts with local intelligence and serve it to your field and sales operations teams on a mobile device for immediate response, remediation and reporting.
Here's how it works. The RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing application blends RSi’s proprietary algorithms and unmatched on-shelf alerting capabilities with Gigwalk's reach and on-the-ground resources (think of them as a shopper army) to give customers a laser-focused and immediate in-store activation plan. Leveraging Gigwalk's on-demand public network of 550,000 mobile-enabled independent contractors, brands and retailers can gather localized, in-store intelligence which then gets served back to RSi for data transformation and analysis. The RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing application then alerts field teams through, their mobile device, where gaps in the supply chain have been identified or triggers actions at the store level to correct errors in near real-time.
Early pilot testing, which was completed was completed with five major retailers and multiple industry leading suppliers, resulted in an average ROI of eight times the original investment. In some instances, returns as high as 18 percent were achieved in just a few weeks' time.
The promise of big data is being delivered -- converting data into real-time action for business gain. With the continued advancements of technologies, creative resource allocation at the store level and real-time collaboration and data sharing among supply chain partners, we are getting closer to being able to predict and instantly fix on-shelf availability issues to reclaim lost sales -- the ultimate end-goal for retailers and their partners.
About RSi and Gigwalk
Retail Solutions Inc., a leader in big data analytics and real-time intelligence for the consumer products industry, has partnered with Gigwalk, a local visibility software platform changing the way brands and retailers collaborate, to bring-to-market RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing. The new solution provides brands with end-to-end business intelligence that drives sales by delivering real-time, actionable intelligence to field operations for improved in-store retail execution on on-shelf availability.
To learn more about RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing, please visit: http://www.retailsolutions.com/
The best part of this share group, and perhaps the greatest takeaway for attendees, was the discussion on new solutions to combat these familiar in-store challenges. Proposed solutions involved much collaboration and excitement around technology and how we can utilize data, mobile, social media, crowdsourcing and other emerging technologies to problem solve now and best prepare for the future. My company, RSi, had recently partnered with a local visibility software platform to bring to market a new product we call RSi Intelligent Crowdsouring. We had just recently conducted several pilots on the program so I had a lot to contribute to the discussion on how to achieve real-time visibility into retail execution and addressing problems in the store, and on-the shelf leveraging things like crowdsourced intelligence, mobile alerting and an on-demand workforce.
Our proposed solution to the giant monster of a problem we know as out-of-stocks, is to combine sophisticated retailer downstream data transformed into scientific out-of-stock alerts with local intelligence and serve it to your field and sales operations teams on a mobile device for immediate response, remediation and reporting.
Here's how it works. The RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing application blends RSi’s proprietary algorithms and unmatched on-shelf alerting capabilities with Gigwalk's reach and on-the-ground resources (think of them as a shopper army) to give customers a laser-focused and immediate in-store activation plan. Leveraging Gigwalk's on-demand public network of 550,000 mobile-enabled independent contractors, brands and retailers can gather localized, in-store intelligence which then gets served back to RSi for data transformation and analysis. The RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing application then alerts field teams through, their mobile device, where gaps in the supply chain have been identified or triggers actions at the store level to correct errors in near real-time.
Early pilot testing, which was completed was completed with five major retailers and multiple industry leading suppliers, resulted in an average ROI of eight times the original investment. In some instances, returns as high as 18 percent were achieved in just a few weeks' time.
The promise of big data is being delivered -- converting data into real-time action for business gain. With the continued advancements of technologies, creative resource allocation at the store level and real-time collaboration and data sharing among supply chain partners, we are getting closer to being able to predict and instantly fix on-shelf availability issues to reclaim lost sales -- the ultimate end-goal for retailers and their partners.
About RSi and Gigwalk
Retail Solutions Inc., a leader in big data analytics and real-time intelligence for the consumer products industry, has partnered with Gigwalk, a local visibility software platform changing the way brands and retailers collaborate, to bring-to-market RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing. The new solution provides brands with end-to-end business intelligence that drives sales by delivering real-time, actionable intelligence to field operations for improved in-store retail execution on on-shelf availability.
To learn more about RSi Intelligent Crowdsourcing, please visit: http://www.retailsolutions.com/