I have spent a good bit of space over the last two years writing about what I believe to be a fact, and that is that there are no silver bullet applications available to solve the front-to-back inefficiencies in the CPG and Retail compliance arena. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about best of class “point” solutions or about the end to end solution suites. They all promise to conquer compliance issues through some sort of exotic modeling based on POS movement combined with deliveries, or labor based self management task systems.
We have proven over this last year that the most amazing point and end-to-end solutions do generate great results in many areas in the supply chain. They do not however result in better in-store compliance and we have proven that by looking at the significant deviations from plan in new product introductions, displays and POG resets across the largest retailers in the land. Check any of our prior newsletters at where we document many of these studies. http://www.shelfsnap.com/news-events.php.
ShelfSnap was developed to fill the last remaining gap in the in-store intelligence continuum. We are NOT a silver bullet. We are a link…a link that was largely missing prior to now. Others have begun to see us in the same light.
ARCweb’s Logistics Viewpoints is a thought provoking authority on all things supply chain. Their premier analyst, Steve Banker, recently reached out to ShelfSnap and very quickly understood our key role in the demand chain. Inference based estimates about store conditions have been in place for years and have changed nothing of consequence in the condition of products on-shelf, or on display.
According to Steve,
“I see the ShelfSnap solution as providing a practical way for manufacturers and retailers to use planogram data for shelf-level collaboration, or for retailers themselves to have more effective task management at the store. I also see it as improving the alerts generated by existing DSR solutions.”
ShelfSnap couldn’t agree more. Please read the entire article at:
http://logisticsviewpoints.com/2009/12/17/filling-a-void-in-shelf-level-collaboration/. Or give us a once over at ShelfSnap.com.
Supermarket News reported in an early August post that CPG companies “are still making minimum investments in RFID technology to satisfy their retail business partners demands” and are “becoming increasingly skeptical about the benefits this technology offers.” (more…)
Plan, Do, Measure….That is the mantra of the In Store Implementation Share-group, and has been in one, shape or form the tactical basis of every effective management technique for many years. (more…)
I have written extensively about the underlying product information challenges facing the companies attempting to inform consumers about eating more healthy through simplified labeling. (more…)
In an early June rant, I gave my impressions of the recent FMI show. I thought the show represented the changes in collaborative leadership that are beginning to emerge in the CPG and Retail Industries. Clearly both FMI and GMA are in a state of flux about their direction and about the issues in which they wish to be involved. (more…)
Wow! At the May 28th Chicago, DisplaySearch conference, DIGITAL SIGNAGE, THE FUTURE IS OUT-OF-HOME, the buzz was on just how big this vehicle would become and how soon. (more…)
Its encouraging to see the ISI (In-Store Implementation) work group start to talk about in-store implementation and the need for the CPG industry to improve on execution at the store. (more…)
by: John Pryslak, Prime Consulting
While current, accurate and complete product information data is the foundation of any Health & Wellness program, any competitive advantage is NOT contained in the data itself, but rather in how the program (Guiding Stars, ONQI etc.) is designed and communicated to the consumer.
That said, a lack of current, accurate and complete product information data will be the Achilles heel for a retailer’s Health & Wellness program. Imagine a program where individual products are rated against a defined and proprietary set of nutritional criteria and assigned a rating based on how good they are for you (not TOO hard to imagine since several such programs are already in place). The overall nutritional worth of any item is communicated through a shelf tag that essentially tells the consumer if a product is “safe” to eat, or if they should consult their doctor before ingesting.
The health and wellness effort represents an altruistic endeavor on the part of a retailer to help consumers purchase the most nutritionally dense foods for their money. Unfortunately, the reality that underlies this system is flawed since most of the available data used for these systems is not designed for Health & Wellness in general much less any single rating scale.
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3 events this week prompt yet another commentary on the risks of using CPG product information in its current state. (more…)
Ziff Davis Enterprise Researchjust released their survey of IT professionals. Not surprisingly the CIO’s agree on the need to spend feverishly on a number of fronts. Three of the top four business priorities included: providing better service to customers, improving business processes and cutting costs.
The technologies judged to offer the biggest impact included: business intelligence, collaboration and systems/data integration.
Their top technical priorities for implementation? Strategic applications, infrastructure changes and build-out to keep up with business growth and way down at the number 5 of 10 listings was improve the quality of information. (more…)
