What’s next in e-commerce? How to bring category strategy to life on the digital shelf

Until last year, CPG’s strategy meetings would typically review sales and marketing data to define how to boost sales in-store. Today, brand leaders need to understand how to grow sales on the digital shelf. Most brands miss a crucial opportunity: knowing how to bring category management and strategy to life on retailer.com using digital shelf analytics. 

To tackle the question and highlight the opportunities within mastering category management online, we hosted a webinar with The Emerson Group in partnership with Progressive Grocer Play to Win: Transforming CPG Performance with Category Focused Digital Shelf Analytics

Watch the video to learn:

1. Key industry changes and emerging areas for growth on retailer.com
2. Why understanding retail search will help drive sales on the digital shelf
3. Which capabilities are critical to winning in the omnichannel
4. How to design e-commerce growth focused roadmaps
5. Concrete actions for how to win online today, mid and long term

Below, we've summarized a couple of highlights. Watch the video and download the presentation to get a 360 view on how to transfer your existing category growth strategy onto the digital shelf.

How to optimize your products for the digital shelf

Mercatus research predicts eGrocery to reach 21.5% of total grocery sales by 2025. So, brands looking to secure their future growth need to get a handle on retail search  — i.e. the tactics to make core SKUs show up high in retailer’s search results. John Maltman, CEO at e.fundamentals, comments,

“Search is going to become critical. I predict that retailer’s search engines are going to evolve quickly because they’ll become an important part of offering a great shopper experience.”

Glancing at search results from a category perspective, John CEO at e.fundamentals explains the differences within retailers and especially the opportunities within the segment of premiumization based on our recent analysis.  

Want to find out more about the details for improving your search rankings on retailer.com? You can watch the video and download the full presentation or get in touch with us here

Besides optimizing your search performance, it’s important to focus on SKU availability, understanding retailer promotions online and how they differ from in-store activity, and what profitable assortment planning means in today's shopping environment. 

We'll cover more hands-on tactics for what CPGs can do mid to long term in the webinar. Watch the video to understand the importance of digital shelf analytics, agile mindset and team structures. Lastly, it's our belief that CPGs will win in the long run when adopting a test & learn mentality and "develop a tolerance to fail", as John Maltman put it.

Looking ahead, we asked our partner Anu from The Emerson Group what she sees as the biggest opportunity for suppliers in 2021, 

“Shift to where the shoppers are. It sounds obvious, but take a look at where you have non-value-added investment e.g. are you still doing coupons in newspapers and move any disproportionate spend to where the growth is.” Anu Bliss, General Manager Digital Commerce, The Emerson Group 

How to drive growth on the digital shelf

Building competitive advantage online now is essential for creating a multiplier effect in the future. Implications are in all areas and functions of business. It’s no longer viable to rely on an e-commerce manager alone to drive growth. Today, sales and marketing need to be aligned in using the insights needed to become category leaders on the digital shelf. 

Ready to fine tune your e-commerce strategy or need support on getting started? We help brands worldwide to analyze, measure and optimize their Digital Shelf performance. Get in touch to find out about our game-changing e-commerce analytics support.