Festive season: what are the challenges for FMCG brands and retailers?

The festive season is a strategic time for FMCG brands and retailers. However, this period comes with growing challenges, intensified by the current economic conditions. The consumers are more vigilant in-store to avoid overspending, particularly over the festive period.??

In this context, FMCG brands must intensify their efforts to stand out from the competition and attract consumers. In-store execution must be flawless: stock management, merchandising, promotions, etc. Let’s have a look at these challenges.?

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The importance of promotions during the end-of-year period?

To cope with rising prices and stay within their budgets over the festive period, consumers are looking to promotions and bargains. Good execution of promotions is therefore essential to get the most out of the period. But are promotions always well presented in store? Are the products on promotion still available and well placed near the POS???

Over the past 12 years, Roamler has monitored and analysed in-store promotions across Europe and found low execution scores for promotions. In some cases, the score doesn't even exceed 40%. It is therefore vital for brands to regularly monitor their in-store promotions to maximise their investment. This is known as the 1% rule: by adding 1% to your promotional budget, you can mobilise the Roamler community, which will monitor your promotions in real time across your entire territory. Thanks to this data, you can act quickly on the field and maximise your promotional period.?

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An increased risk of out-of-stock?

Throughout the year, monitoring and correcting out-of-stock situations can represent a real challenge for FMCG brands. This challenge is even more acute at the end of the year, with very busy stores. During this period, out-of-stock situations become more complex to anticipate and manage, as they no longer follow the usual patterns observed during the rest of the year. Out-of-stock rates are generally twice as high for promotional items.??

Here again, crowdsourcing can help FMCG brands to detect products that are close to stock-out, so that they can take immediate corrective action and avoid out-of-stock, which have a major impact not only on sales but also on customer satisfaction.?

Seasonal merchandising, a key differentiator?

During the festive season, brands are competing with each other in terms of creativity and are activating their sales forces in the field to offer the most attractive POS displays in store and catch the eye of consumers. One product category in particular stands out: chocolates. Every year, massive POS displays are installed in the center aisle to promote Christmas chocolates. The expert in this domain is Ferrero. This POS cleverly combines the seasonal nature of the Christmas period, huge displays and a strategic position in the central aisle.??

However, installing and monitoring these massive in-store displays can represent a considerable amount of work for the sales force, especially during the busy end-of-year period. Have the displays negotiated in advance been properly installed? If so, have they been properly supplied with products? During this period, the large number of in-store operations can put pressure on retailers. It is therefore important to monitor the execution of your seasonal merchandising in-store.??

Roamler's Sales & Merch solution can support your field teams with on-demand workforce that can help place promotional material, replenish point-of-sale displays or set price tags.?

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What about online challenges??

In the consumer study carried out by Roamler last December, 70% of consumers surveyed said that they buy their Christmas presents online, and 70% will not complete their online purchase without reading customer reviews. Online reviews are therefore particularly important during the end-of-year period. Having enough customer reviews on these products not only increases credibility, but also influences purchasing decisions.??

Roamler's Ratings & Reviews solution enables brands to quickly collect authentic customer reviews directly from e-commerce platforms. Thanks to a large network of consumers, Roamler guarantees reliable and varied reviews, while ensuring fast and large-scale collection.?

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Our clients trust us for end-of-year challenges?

“Every year, for each Christmas season, we use Roamler to collect health stamps and prices on private labels for smoked salmon, foie gras and all duck meat. The results helped us to understand the evolution of the offer, assortments and prices”.

Marie Santucci, Private Label Product Manager at Labeyrie

Roamler, your ally during the festive season

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