First Of Its Kind, CPG Virtual Leadership Roundtable 2022 By Infilect.

30 Aug 2022, Delaware, United States: Some of the finest minds from across the globe gathered to attend the virtual CPG Thought Leaders roundtable by Infilect , a leader in Image Recognition solutions built for CPG brands. Infilect helps sales and marketing leaders improve their in-store brand visibility, optimize trade payouts and boost per-store sales using next-gen Image Recognition technology.?

The panel had retail leaders & visionaries from the CPG industry with a rich, hands-on experience of over decades. Iesha Queen, Vincent Eyimeh, Oyelere Atoyebi, Peter Townsend, Ravi Chaturvedi & Anderson Soares were some of the names present. The session was hosted by Amisha Sethi , V.P of Global Marketing, Infilect Inc. & Mrs. India Worldwide Winner, and was commenced by Mr. Anand Prabhu Subramanian , CEO, Infilect Inc. He shared his vast experience on how Image Recognition and Artificial Intelligence technology can revolutionize retail store sales and emphasized the importance of embracing the “goldmine of real-time retail insights” which Image Recognition AI can deliver.

The panel also touched upon socio-economic issues like how the pandemic affected CPG sales across the U.S, where shoppers were frenzied into panic-buying instead of need-based buying. Its impact was seen on the CPG Supply chain, changing shopping habits, and steep inclusion of technology as a muscle. Iesha Queen , Sales Director, Glanbia Nutritionals, has been in the nutrition industry for more than 15 years, added that sales in the healthcare sector skyrocketed. Anything related to immunity or well-being was doing good in the market. “When we go back to when the pandemic started, in the March of 2020, what we saw from the consumers was a lot of panic buying. There was a lot of stock up of household essential items. Anything such as cleaning supplies, hand sanitizers & even OTC medication. The new normal has impacted the USA CPG product sales and a drastic shift in buying behavior.” The pandemic exposed a lot of weak links in the workflow pipeline - supply chain shortages, raw material shortages, delayed deliveries, and unsatisfied customers were a few among the lot that took a direct hit.

After a lively discussion around consumer psychology, retail execution strategies, and sales, the panel moved to a more tech-oriented nitty-gritty of what happens inside a store. “If we think about this continuum of data that’s been enriched, we’ve literally moved from monthly data on syndicated views to weekly data syndicated views to now daily and often hourly data.”, added Peter Townsend , Managing Partner at Data Sense Inc, Canada-based IT services, data analytics, and retail innovation firm. He also emphasized the importance of real-time data availability as there’s control and visibility of what happens before the goods reach their final destination, i.e, the shelves of a store, there’s very little visibility & control of what happens after that. Hence, he called the retail stores “a black box” without the interference of technology.

A successful retail execution comprises implementing well-crafted sales and marketing strategies, monitoring the competition, and addressing consumer demands Vincent Eyimeh , a sales manager with over 10+ years of selling experience says “FMCG is about consumers making real-time decisions at the point of purchase. And at this point of purchase, there are a lot of competitive brands and a lot of substitutes” Hence, keeping a close eye on the competitor’s retail strategies and simultaneously improvising on one’s own retail execution is the way forward. The retail space is fiercely competitive but despite that, optimal use of the resources at hand increases awareness & boosts per-store sales. To this, Oyelere Atoyebi CDMP, MCIM, UK , Head, Sales Strategy for Promasidor Nigeria Group, said “Revenue is increasing at a higher rate than at which cost is increasing. It is all about how well you can leverage what is available. Like I do say data is not going to solve your problem but data will tell you where exactly the problem is.”

There’s often a clash of opinions about whether or not online businesses would take over brick-and-mortar stores. Ravi Chaturvedi, the first-ever Asian President, and member of the Global Leadership Council of Procter and Gamble (P&G) quoted “Online is a factor which is here to stay and will keep growing but it's gonna be a long time before brick and mortar dies. A very long time.” A firm believer of effectiveness over efficiency, he, with his two decades of experience in the retail industry, asked the panel to first figure out what’s effective through experimentation, and then use technology to sharpen the execution.?"Deciphering what is effective is extremely important before we focus on driving efficiency."

Anderson Canhi?ares Soares , a sales leader & consumer marketing head at a multinational personal care corporation, shared with the roundtable, the things he learned and witnessed in his 20 years of experience. Any sales cycle starts with keeping the consumer demands & demographics in mind.? “Consumer behavior is changing every day and it is very important to capture this information directly from the shoppers or the consumers and from the stores as well.” He also narrated how difficult it is to capture data through traditional channels and a lack of modern, more effective ways of data collation at scale in the U.S. Subsequently, the authorities are now exploring other options to capture information or conduct store audits from crowdsourcing companies and mobile applications.?

The panel unanimously agreed that Image Recognition assisted by AI is the new dawn that will shed light on the most shadowed areas of retail management. It can automatically process data and ensure a perfect execution that’s effective in the long run. Capturing the data in real-time is critical but so is carrying out A/B testing in real-time. Speed with accuracy is the need of the hour. In the near future, we can also see AI-assisted shopping guides in stores to better the customer experience, and inflation tracking by means of Image Recognition.