How mobile technology is being used at store level
Mobile technology plays a pivotal role in today’s store-level sales and planogram execution – making it easier and smarter than ever before.
Today we are surely no strangers to the widespread adoption and assimilation of mobile technology into our lives and especially to our workflows.
The advent of smartphones and tablets has fundamentally changed the way we interact with the world on a day-to-day basis, allowing us to create and consume information in a wholly unprecedented fashion.
Mobile apps such as Grocery IQ, RedLaser and various other barcode scanners and deal finders have made it easier for shoppers to arm themselves with an immense amount of detailed information regarding products, pricing and even local sales.
With all of this and more now available in the palms of their hands, shoppers can more quickly and easily make well-informed purchasing decisions than ever before.
CPG industry professionals certainly have not been ignoring the mobile shift. Retailers and merchandisers are increasingly finding ways to leverage the power of mobile technology to gain deeper insight into shopper behaviour, but are also starting to make clever use of it themselves to augment and improve in-store sales and planogram execution.
One multinational manufacturer has armed its field sales representatives and merchandisers with a tablet-based solution that allows them to audit stores on their product availability and planogram compliance, execute merchandising and in-store promotional activities as well as upselling.
Retailers, manufacturers and consumers alike all stand to benefit tremendously from the freedoms and expediency afforded by mobile technology, though as always, proper implementation is more than half the battle.
CPG professionals who are contemplating the switch to modern mobile platforms for their in-store, field sales and/or executive level reporting solutions should keep the following in mind:
Less is more. The mobile workforce of today needs to have the right information at the right time; less clutter and more insight. Solutions that can to deliver role-based insights in the appropriate context allow users to make better business decisions in the field.
Improve the process without adding to it. The best solutions are those that complement and facilitate the existing business processes, making it easier to act. No one wants to add more steps to their routine; today’s professionals need a solution that adapts to their needs and allows them to streamline their workflow.
The bottom line is mobile is here and it’s kicking off the dawn of a new information age, which is great news for the CPG industry.
In today’s world of data rich organizations a solution that truly cuts through the clutter to provide actionable information to key decision makers will completely change the game.