Case study: CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS

Is Tracking Promotional Data a Pain Point?

Case Study at a Glance

CLIENT

A Global CPG Company

THE PROBLEM

Our client was struggling to uncover inefficiencies in managing the effectiveness of their promotional programs with a major online retailer. With hundreds of thousands of SKUs being sold, there was simply too much data for the product teams assigned to that retailer to manage their promotional budgets. They were relying on Excel spreadsheets to track their promotions in the retailer’s system and were not able to analyze if a given promotion was effective – or even necessary. This often meant that some sales team members just split up their promotion budget across all of their assigned products whether or not it made sense.

While the retailer’s promotions portal did offer some analytics capability, it did not provide the level of reporting or analysis that our client desired – nor did they have the time to do this type of analysis in Microsoft Excel.

It is safe to say that some ‘staple’ products marketed by this manufacturer would sell at full price, yet it was all too easy to set a blanket discount because that was easier than analyzing sales performance.

THE VERTEX SOLUTION

Vertex created a phased set of initiatives to reduce inefficiencies and help the manufacturer to make the most of their promotional budget.

The solution hinged on a digital transformation of the manufacturer’s manually maintained Excel spreadsheets into a format that was easier to analyze and was compatible with the online retailer’s portal. With that phase of the project complete, product analysts are now able to do more informed decision making about their promotions.

RESULTS

Because the product analysts were able to make more informed decisions about where to allocate their promotional dollars, they were able to simultaneously save on promotional costs for some products AND increase the sales on other products through the application of well-timed promotions.

CPG Manufacturer Finds Huge Promotion Efficiencies with Vertex-Designed Analytics Tool

Problem and Background

Our client – a global leader in consumer-packaged goods – markets products across ten major categories, with countless subcategories and variations in packaging, size, fragrance, and so on. Like any large CPG manufacturer, they do a significant part of their business with the largest online retailers, making them an important part of their revenue mix. Promotions – such as online coupons, bundles, and other discounts – are often a necessary part of business to make their products stand out from those of their competitors.

But what promotions? And when? And for how long? Furthermore, does a given product even NEED a promotion to sell well? These are the questions that our client was struggling to answer.

They came to Vertex for a solution that would allow them to process and analyze the huge amounts of pricing and promotional data for their brands. Because they had been downloading data from the online retailer’s promotional portal and trying to analyze it manually, they often missed out on revenue opportunities or spent promotional dollars on products that were already selling strong in the absence of a promotion.

The Vertex Solution

While the project is still ongoing, Vertex was able to take the ‘manual’ processes being performed with Microsoft Excel and digitize them for greater accuracy and efficiency.

Vertex created a phased set of data analytics initiatives utilizing dotnet, an Azure SQL database & Web Server, and Microsoft Power BI to reduce inefficiencies and help the manufacturer to make the most of their promotional budget.

The solution hinged on a digital transformation of the manufacturer’s manually maintained Excel spreadsheets into a format that was easier to analyze and was not only compatible with the online retailer’s portal but allowed the client to make in-flight management of promotions. With that phase of the project complete, product analysts are now able to do more informed decision-making about their promotions.

The Results

With the first phase of the project already completed, our client has already realized efficiency gains and they look forward to the next phases of the project for even more capabilities.

Where they previously relied on manual processing of data files, they now have automated processing of data, reducing errors and increasing productivity. Built-in help in Vertex’s system helps to reduce data entry times and an easy & intuitive user interface has streamlined the entire business process for promotions, allowing more time to focus on analysis.

Furthermore, where the client previously had to maintain multiple spreadsheets by product category, Vertex’s solution has centralized all the data into a single database, making analytics and advanced reporting easier and more efficient.

Who Can Use This?

While Vertex’s solution to work with a major online retailer’s promotional system was originally developed specifically for our Global CPG client, the system would provide operational and analytical efficiencies to any supplier that is selling their products through the largest online marketplaces.