Retaining ecommerce sales during a global rebrand

CHALLENGE

A global food manufacturer was undertaking a rebranding activity for their ready-to-eat grains range. The aim was to prevent loss in ecommerce sales during the switch-over.

Together with the e.fundamentals Customer Success Team and the strategic use of the e.fundamentals platform, the brand developed a systematic approach to tracking visibility, content compliance and availability at SKU level pre & post launch to retain product visibility and digital shelf location.

APPROACH

The manufacturer wanted to measure 3 ecommerce fundamentals during the transition:

1. When would SKUs start to appear within retailers (availability)
2. Would the rebranded SKUs rank in the same positions as the originals (visibility)
3. Would retailers implement the manufacturer's gold standard names and images at launch (content compliance)

Each fundamental was addressed using the designated dashboard within the e.fundamentals platform e.g. prior to launch, the manufacturer was able to monitor the average ranking of each outgoing SKU within each retailer using the Easy to Buy fundamental. This data was used during retailer discussions to help ensure that search ranking was not affected when new GTIN were listed.

Critically, the dashboards highlighted areas where retailers had not correctly implemented new product content during the transition. This enabled frontline teams to quickly act and, equipped with the insights, proactively resolve any issues collaborating with the respective retailers using the category insights.

RESULTS

The manufacturer successfully minimized lost ecommerce sales during the rebranding phase using e.fundamentals category insights. More than 70% of retailers supported the rebranding initiative and the aim to retain digital shelf visibility and search rankings.

Working closely with e.fundamentals Customer Success team and systematically using the e.fundamentals platform allowed the manufacturer to monitor performance in real time and react to errors quickly and at scale e.g. non-compliant retailers were highlighted immediately as were search results that didn’t reflect the changes in the switch-over.