About Retail Blinks

Retail Blinks is a series of short, simple and practical insights and guidelines for retailers and manufacturers on how to improve business performances with data.

Driving Effective Promotions is a difficult task

And it can be quickly conflictual. Our “3 Layers Approach” can help. Here is how it works.

20 years ago, in Tokyo, sitting in front of the Coca-Cola Japan Team, I was asking them for a huge discount on a purchase price so I could compete with some of our competition’s weekly “Chirashi”.

To my Big surprise, they said “Yes if we can agree on a 3 layers promo plan”

I have since kept these 3 promotion layers as a guideline when building a Promotion Plan

Number Promos, duration and frequency by layers will always vary.

And the “everyone needs to get a Win” will always strangthen sales and collaboration.

Retail Shorts

Retail shorts is a series of practical practice sharing Hypertraders could learn, capture, implement and monitor across the diversity of our Clients.

Hypertrade is a Retail Data Collaboration Platform that provides tech, data and continuous retail experts support to turn your teams into Champions.

The last time a new generation came into play in the retail world, a lot had to change to accommodate to Millennials’ needs. The change wasn’t easy but it came together. Now, the Gen Z are shaking up the market, which means a new wave of change is required.

Gen Z ages can be defined as an overall cohort as 7 to 21year-olds. But for the sake of the world of retail, this article will be focusing on the individuals, within that group, with purchasing power.

Overall, Gen Z have always lived in the internet world and don’t know one without. So their shopping preferences will naturally be located there. Apart from this no-brainer, there are a few things Retailers should know in order attract and seduce Gen Z.

Not so long ago, Category Captainship (the opportunity for a manufacturer to drive a retailer’s category) was a costly activity reserved to the happy few. Because of the resources it required on both sides, very few manufacturers were able to undertake them, and even few retailers were able to manage them.

Today, progress in Big Data is setting up a new deal.

What Resources Category Captainship requires

In the first stage of a Category Captainship project, the main resources required to kick off the project and give it a meaningful direction were Data, Skills and of course People. Data are used to understand the category performances and the shopper behaviors that drive these performances. The skills are the analytical talents required to make some sense out of the collected data to extract the opportunities each category contains. People, of course, include the retailer’s Category Manager, its Data Team, as well as the Manufacturer’s Category Development Team, Insights Team and Key Account Team, who jointly drive the Project.

In the 2nd stage of the Captainship, even more talents were required to translate these opportunities into Activity Plans (range, distribution, price, promotion, displays)  that will positively impact Shoppers Behaviors on the whole category.

In the 3rd stage, just before the execution and monitoring of the Category Plan, it is also not rare – though not always necessary – that the retailer and manufacturer agree on specific new assets.

Then the 4th stage requires constant monitoring, iterations between retailer and manufacturer to adjust and fine tune the Category Plan.

What are the Challenges

Beyond the potential costs of assets, the main challenge of a Category Captainship – for both retailer and supplier – are time and skills. Both are often lacking –  or assigned to other projects – on both sides.

Some of these challenges are:

• Retail analytics
• Category & Shopper analytics
• Data crunching & Management
• Data management

Consequently, only major players have been able so far to run such projects.

And this is a shame in the sense that a Category Captainship is maybe the best collaboration opportunity there is! Manufacturers can share about their deep understanding and expertise in a category, its consumers, trends, as well as its industrial and R&D know-how. And of course, present their brand strategy, new items, communication planning and brand messages they want to communicate to shoppers.

What changes make Category Captainship much easier?

Technology has not solved all the challenges, but it eased quite a few:
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• It has never been easier to get and crunch data: Sales & Shoppers insights are now automatically built
• Data are accessible from anywhere, making monitoring a breeze, from Category Global Performances down to each branch and Channel
• Assortment, Promotion and New Items planning and forecasting models enable easy scenarios and planning
• Range modeling tools enable suppliers to build several optimal assortment and their impact on sales and inventory not only for their Brands, but also for the competition
• Space Planning Tools are able to translate assortment selection in optimized displays Collaborative project management tools enable Teams on each side to drive the project efficiently

It is an important paradigm shift: the whole crunching and analytical  part of Category Captainship projects can now be easily managed and automated!

What Opportunities?

Category Captain Ships can now be viewed under a completely new light. Such projects still require planning and communication abilities – and definitely some vibrant Merchant Spirit !  – but with less resources.

Here are some of the ingredients that will make your next Category Captainship a success:

• Clear and quantified objectives and KPI
• Clear and quantified guidelines from the Retailer (boundaries the manufacturer cannot overstep)
• Simple and precise Timeline with stages and alignment points• Continuous access to Data
• Operational Category & Shopper Management platform shared between retailer and supplier
• Agreed Reporting Templates (that is then automated)

TOOLS WE LOVE

When we help Clients on Category Captainship projects, we like these tools

Collaborative Project Management: Trello
Space Planning: We like IWD and OpenCatman for their simplicity and very affordable price
Category & Shopper Management: Ariane from Hypertrade Of Course!

Happy future Captainships !

Do you need help or advice on how to plan and execute your future Category Captainship Projects?

For months, the world has unfortunately been experiencing an accumulation of unprecedented and simultaneous  social, environmental, economical and human challenges. For retail players, and maybe even more  for medium size and local players in developing markets, current concerns on top of the agenda today  are practical: from how to get products on shelves to how to get customers to spend more.

It makes sense that Business Owners  are much more concerned about how to solve the current, practical issues rather than reshaping their Merchandising or Category Management Teams.

Still, there are 3 reasons – with impact on both short and medium term –  why the current period is actually a favorable time to plan how to leverage the power of data and analytics.

Prepare for the Future

Difficult times always end. And when they end , all hands are on deck to capture growing trends: ordering, negotiating, recruiting, training…. Cutting trees when the fireplace requires wood is rarely a good timing.

As the activity is slowing down, this is actually the best time to map the changes we want to see happening. From data to team assessment to organizational design, from tool selection to criteria of success and ROI, these are the best times to do it. When the trends are back to growth, chances are that everyone will be too busy to satisfy customers to embark on a new project. On the contrary, a strengthened team, well equipped and well trained, will do miracles. And if the trends remain what they are, the gains in efficiency, margin and cash flow will create a better tomorrow.

Doing nothing might turn out to be costlier than a potential wrong choice.

Now is The Right Time

This is often in difficult times that we can evaluate our strengths as well as our limitations. When limitations are  acutely experienced, they also invite us to study them a bit more than usual, quantify how much they cost, and estimate how much further we could advance and progress if they were solved.

This process itself creates a positive dynamic that helps look forward. A limited ERP is the opportunity to move to the Cloud, a limited talent pool is the opportunity to give more space to capabilities development in the future and prioritize knowledge transfer, rising costs of data experts and Tech Specialist is the opportunity to investigate the benefits of expert solutions, etc.

Considering and working on the project will, by itself, create  a few wins. Among them: A clearer understanding of the solution and the practical deliverables  the organization requires, a mapping of the next organization capabilities improvement and prioritized alternatives to current limitations.

And as a few Team members will probably be associated with this project, the  motivation’s “halo effect”  it will generate is a real gift during challenging times.

Now is the right time to consider bringing Category Management to your next level for your Teams and Customers, and be ready for the next – and probably different – waves of growth.

Hypertrade is a category management solution provider that specializes in helping  retail players Teams in developing economies make sense of their data. The value we deliver is as much in the tools we set up as in the knowledge and expertise we transfer to Teams throughout execution.

Since our inception ins 2015, our Innovations have always been driven by suggestions from both Retailers and Manufacturers.We have been developing almost all suggestions so far, and they have proved very valuable for the all parties.Looking a few years back, all these innovations have focused on 3 main points:

• Increase efficiencies

• Accelerate Digital Collaboration and decision making

• Improve understanding of ShoppersFor 2021, we are calling on you again:

what innovations would like to see: Merchandising, Shoppers Analytics, Range & Promotion Planning…thank you to let us know!

After a period with extremely high volumes, several activities will be in the “Pause” mode. How difficult this period might be, the preparation of the post pandemic era might be the opportunity to sharpen some fundamentals, shift Teams’ mindset from survival to revival…and get ready to capture new market shares when the rebound will start.

We are thrilled to announce that HPT Ariane has taken a minority share in Hypertrade consulting.

Both companies have been collaborating since 2015 and this strategic move will enable Retail Customers – Retailers and their Suppliers – to have access to all in 1 solutions for Retail Data Value Creation. Hypertrade Consulting has always been building on its retail expertise and HPT Ariane brings in a wealth of Retail Tech and Big Data expertise. With Customers in Myanmar, Philippines and Malaysia, both companies are now expanding their markets to Middle-East, Africa and Europe

Change is hard for everyone, especially when circumstances increase its level of urgency. Digitalization used to be a nice to have and was already a topic discussed during Boards. Today it has become an imperative. The current pandemic we are all experiencing is only accelerating the urgency for move forward and step into the array of Digital Transformation.

The harsh ultimatum is to make it happen now or face the risk of losing touch with today’s marketplace, its Customers and the competition.

Digitization has 2 main objectives: make the business ready for a more digital world and, maybe the most important one, optimize the existing business.

Large Retail companies are hiring international consulting firms to help them in the transition because they can. But what about the other companies? How should CEOs approach this Digital Transformation Journey? For more information

Defining Digitalization

The Merriam-Webster dictionary tells us that “Digitalization is the process of converting something (information mostly) to digital form”. For the retailer, there are 3 things it can digitalize: Its Data, Its Products Offer and its Communication.

The Digital Journey will not only concern the conversion of information into data, but also the use of technologies to process these data to evolve the business model and drive its performances.

In other words, optimize what already exists.A practical approach to this essential journey requires first to look at what it is, and what it is not.

Myth

Digitalization is Complex

If one tries to reach perfection from the beginning, yes, it is complex, expensive and with little chances of success. But in practice, because retailers are already using certain level of technology (at least for their ERP and POS), they have already established the fundamentals of digitalization: they capture data.

There are a lot of solutions out there that can help retailers on the Road Map and Tech side.

If there is one complexity, it is a management one. And it requires a real Leap of Faith.

Myth

Digitalization Mostly Supports Online Commerce

Not really. In countries like Malaysia, The Philippines, Myanmar or even Thailand, Online Grocery Shopping remains small and very costly. Though it is true that E-commerce requires data and the technology and skills to use them, the main objective of Digitalization is to improve how the organization is working. It is necessary because the amount of data to process now is much bigger than in the past, and decisions are more complex.

Digitalization means we can do much more, much faster, with the same Team. Not only on E-Commerce. On all Sales Channels and all Business Units.

Myth

Technology Will Be a Challenge For The Teams

A Good technology is a technology that is accessible by all, easy to understand and interact with. A well design solution will embed the work of employees and make it easier, and faster. Technology is not a challenge.
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Selling to Teams the idea to work differently is. While the work objectives will remain the same, decision-making processes will change. A progressive and planned approach is required, not so much because of Technology but to give time to Teams to embrace and support the project. The Digitalization Journey is before all a Team’s Adventure.

Truth

Leap of Faith

There is indeed one leap of Faith required for a successful, economical and effective digitalization approach: retailers must agree to have their data put to the Cloud. This will enable them to access amazing cloud-based tools, from Merchandising to CRM to Data Collaboration, at a very low cost, thus avoiding heavy investments.

If the decision is simple from a technical perspective (it is nowadays quite easy to regularly upload selected data on the Cloud), it often corresponds to a major paradigm shift for many Business Owners. The perceived risk of having Trade Secrets on the web is scary. But the risk is only perceived, and even 100% security can not be guaranteed, it is almost a given.
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Even though the data might not have been utilized that well in the past, CEOs understand their value. Shifting to the Cloud can sometimes be perceived as a risk of disclosure, even a loss of control sometimes. Unless the CEO and the Board are willing to invest literally millions in Hardware and hard-to-find and harder-to-keep Talents, the Cloud is the best available option.

Truth

Digitalization Journey is Essentially a Human Adventure

Steve Jobs had this famous quote: “It’s not a faith in technology, it’s a faith in people”. There is one thing even the best Consultants or Service Providers or Colleagues – actually no one – can do for the CEO: Lead.

And everybody knows how difficult that is. From enabling Teams to visualize the benefits the Journey will give them to reducing their fears and turning their resistance to change into a dynamic source of support…This is THE challenge of transforming the organisation.
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Before even thinking about Technology and Data, successful Digital Transformation Journeys have been approached like Change Management Programs. Technology will support people, not replace them. Intense Planning and Brainstorming sessions ahead!

Truth

Benefits Are Real And Immediate

For Teams
More purpose: thanks to immediate access to the results of the decision they took for their categories and how their customers reacted, Teams gain in motivation and ownership.

For Management
Better focus: Faster access to Dashboards that deliver in an instant what took weeks to deliver means priorities are quickly identified and measured.
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For Customers
Improved experience: supported with Data, Teams understand Customers Better, take faster decisions and can allocate more time to execution. Choice, promotions, pricing and availability are improved.

Truth

Strong And Reliable Partnerships Are Needed

In addition to the CEO’s Leadership and Vision, the other ingredients required for a successful digital transformation is Talents and Experience in the industry, the trade craft and technology.

The first thought many Business Owners might have is to have these talents in-house so not only the solutions are 100% tailor made, but the Talents can help the company improve further. Such an approach is even more understandable when the business has been built from scratch, when all the challenges in the past years have been successfully addressed internally. Still, a thorough costs-benefits analysis might help:

• What type of Talents am I ready to retain vs. Talents for hire?
• How fast can we keep up vs. How fast can a provider innovate?
• How much do we already know vs. How much can we learn?
• Where do we want the dependency to play in our advantage?

1. Context

You did a Campaign focusing on a specific objective: it was maybe to invite shoppers whonever or seldom buy a specific type of products, or you wanted to grow overall basket, oryou wanted to invite profile customers try a new concept.Whatever the level of success – hopefully high – one of the great ways to maximize thecampaigns outcome is to leverage, after the campaign, is to understand the differentperspectives of success measurements.

2. Campaign Result : Choose your perspective

Each campaign performances can be measured from different perspectives.

CRM teams might consider selecting several analyses angles based on the Campaigns objectives

3. Sales & Margin & Overall Impact

This is the easiest analyses to get in Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software. All what is need is to access the Campaign Analytics function in the Promotion Menu.

Note that the conversion rate can be calculated only if a specific segment of Loyal Customers has been selected and targeted.

4. Basket Decision Tree

The basket decision Tree measure Shoppers behaviors between 2 periods:
• The number of Customers and transactions
• How much they spend Basket Decision Tree is a great tool to measure the impact of the Campaign by measuring Customer behaviors evolution between the periodsbefore the Campaign and during the Campaignbefore the campaign and at the end of the Campaign before the campaign and after the Campaign

The example below details the behavior change before the campaign and during the campaign.

In this example, we can see that the Campaign is generating an increase in
• Basket Value
• Basket Penetration
• Units per basket
• Average Unit price per basket
The same analysis can be done at the end of the campaign or a few weeks after the campaign.

5. New Customer Acquisitions

Imagine that you have been running a promotion campaign in one of these scenarios:
• You invited shoppers to Switch from Brand A to Brand B
• You invited Shoppers who never buy in a specific category
• You invited Shoppers who never bought in 1 specific channel

In these cases, you will be interested in knowing how many new customers did the Campaign successfully acquired?
You can easily to this using the Switching segmentation tool in Ariane.
In Switching, you start by creating a new customer list. Like in Basket Decision Tree, you will select the previous period to identify all the Customers who did not buy a specific product, or Brand, or category.
In the second period, you will select the Promotion Period.
You will then select the corresponding category and Brand, and just un the report and select New to Market.
And you have immediately the list of customers, their financial weight, and can save it.

6. Customer & Transacions

It is often useful to identify which customers responded positively to a campaign. This customer list (or segment) can be used later on to

• Measure their shopping patterns evolution
• Re-invite them to similar promotion

In the case of a Targeted Campaign, the list of Loyal customers that responded positively to a campaign is directly available from the Customer List button as described below.

This list can then be saved as a segment and used later to measure the

7. Tracking Customer Behavior Change

In certain cases, you might want to know if the customer behaviors during a promotion period continues after the Promotion. For example:

• Do shoppers continue buying this Brand? How many of them do?
• Do shoppers continue to spend in this category?

To what level?There are 2 options available

Option 1: Switching Analysis (again)This option is to count the Number of Customers who changed or maintained the Shopping Behavior developed during the Campaign.

By selection the 1st period as the promotion period and the second period after the promotion (dates of your choice), and uploading your Customer List from the Campaign Analytics you will be able to see:
• Customers who stopped buying
• Customers who continue Buying
• Customers who continue buying, spending more or less

This can be easily done through the Cohort Analysis function and upload your Customer List, select the category / brand of your choice.

Option 2: Cohort AnalysisThis option is to measure the importance of the Customers who maintained their shopping behavior during the Campaign in terms of spending and shopping frequency.
In the Cohort Analysis section, select a period of time after the Campaign, upload your customer list and select the corresponding category / Brand / Product Scope

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has hit businesses hard and continues to do so. Many store owners have had to shut their businesses down for long stretches of time, and others have had to close their doors completely.

As many businesses have found out – sometimes the hard way , the pandemic has demonstrated that new approaches were necessary, so companies manage to not just survive, but thrive.

This is especially true when it comes to business digitalization.Building on our experience working several retailers in SouthEast Asia and the Middle East over the last 9 months, we identified 4 major directions Retailers have taken during their accelerated Digital Transformation.

1. Modernize Merchandising

Throughout the pandemic, among all practical challenges retailers had to address, work from home (WFH) for Head Office Teams became problematic. From getting access to data to the execution of decision-making processes, the absence of digital and out-of-office accessible tools made the work extremely difficult.

During the same time, most teams faced – and still are – a strong increase in their workloads, having to find solutions to a growing list of challenges from sourcing available supply to quickly setting up home deliveries and online services.

By digitalizing their Merchandising Activities (i.e., using web-based tools that crunch ERP Data and use predictive analytics engine to suggest what action need to be taken, item by item), like TRF Retail), retailers almost instantly improved the efficiency of their teams.

Teams could have access to data and suggestions, workflows were enabling to not only smoothen the relationships between Head-Office and Operations Teams, but also management to follow up and coach, while the quality of decisions improved thanks to the support of tactical data and quantification.

Time and distance are no longer an issue for teams. In fact, as the saying goes, necessity has been once again the mother of innovation and change. And the changes implemented during the heat of the crisis are now anchored into the working organization, continuously delivering gains and improved Customer Experience.

Click here for more detailed information on digitalization acceleration since the pandemic.

2. Rationalize Range & Assortment

In theory, any merchant is supposed to constantly work on improving its commercial offer, navigating the Customers / Competition / Technology trends’ triangle. In that view, there is nothing new in rationalizing range and assortment.

And in practice as well, through many retailers are fully aware of the importance of range and assortment, plans and schedules often remained plans and schedule. Everyone got busy with some other priorities.

Since a few months, the drastic changes of Customers Behaviors and the scarcity of supply have been sharing a new light on Ranges and Assortment. Less frequent shopping trips from Customers and decreased variety in their basket accelerated the need for cash and profitability.

Many retailers realized that embarking on a range and assortment rationalization project without expertise and digital tools was close to Mission Impossible.

These who decided to take the bull by the horns not only delivered better results, but also established new working routines to ensure that changes established during the hard time could sustain. Click here to explore what methodology you can apply to make it in your own stores.

3. Re-visit Promo Activities

In a genuine and candid conversation, a CEO shared with us “One major reason why our profitability grew by almost 2 points is simply because we drastically reduced our Promotion activities.” Knowing the importance of Promo in the retail business model, we asked the same questions to almost all the CEO we are working with. And the big majority shared the same facts.

Let’s do some simple calculation: if the supplier promotion support is smaller to the gross margin gain, from a profitability perspective, why so much effort for promotions?

If we now integrate the traffic and spending variable in the equation, the question is then to measure how much traffic and spending have been potentially lost due to the absence – or strong decrease – in published promotion activities.

At the same time, since customer behaviors have – across a majority of markets – reduce their spending to focus on what is essential and increase their savings – it is also fair to say that even if traditional published promotions were back to their previous level, the business benefits would be much smaller.

In other words, it might be time to reduce the time spent for negotiating for fees for published promotion activities – whose largest share will end up financing operations that won’t deliver the expected results – and start investing more in personalized targeted promotions (PTP).

PTPs, which focus on Carded Customers, not only have the benefits of strengthening loyalty, are 100% measurable. Which means they can be improved and sharpened over time.

4. Strengthen Loyal Customers Engagement

PTP is an efficient way to strengthen Customers Loyalty. And with time, it might quickly reveal itself as necessary and still insufficient. There is a lot of other Data Driven actions CRM and Marketing teams can undertake to strengthen loyalty.

On the information level, it is not difficult to inform specific segments of Customers about new services or products that concern them.

On the communication level, it is not very difficult to engage a specific Customer in an online survey.

In the same line as reducing Mass Promotion, the concept here is to leverage data to engage concerned customers in a discussion that matters to them. It is to tell them about you, and it also be for them to tell you about them.

Don’t worry, HPTC can help you with all of that with our Digital Transformation tools, all the while saving time and money.

HPT Consulting is the leading Digital Transformation platform for Retailers in South East Asia.. We help Category Managers Retail Analysts, Sales Manager, and Senior Managers organize, structure, enrich their data, and automate their business processes to take better decisions and actions for their consumers and shoppers.

We are in Myanmar, Philippines and Malaysia.