Smart Australian consumer goods companies are looking beyond the main supermarket chains to grow their business in what is a stagnating and challenging grocery market.
Doing business with the supermarket giants for many suppliers is the pinnacle of success but comes hand in hand with key challenges – whether it be covering the cost of expensive in store promotions and discounts, or constantly fighting to protect shelf space from cheaper imports and private labels.
Although having your brands represented in these mainstream channels is important you can also look elsewhere to meet your sales targets.
There are more than 230,000 retail outlets in Australia. By developing new channels with a raft of these smaller retailers you can reduce your risk and the high cost of doing business.
There are new sales opportunities to be found in the growing convenience store market, pharmacies, petrol stations, liquor stores, and discount and specialty stores.
The hotel, restaurant, and café channel (HoReCa) also represents a big opportunity for FMCG brands with 24,000 outlets across the country.
Your field teams will need to adopt a different sales approach and a new way of working – building one on one relationships with individual store managers and owners, and the ability to visit a greater number of outlets.
This may seem unachievable with your current resources, but intelligent data is available to help you identify virtually every outlet in Australia along with the sales potential of each one.
Combine this with tools to strategically construct and manage efficient sales territories and you can easily choose which stores to visit based on potential sales uplift and the best route to get there. This smart resource allocation will guarantee you a better return on the investments you are already making today.
You can work a territory harder with a better understanding of its market potential, prioritise rep activity targeting the biggest opportunities first, enhance field activity planning creating a more efficient field sales team and allocate human and financial resources to achieve the great ROI.
By employing these smart strategies you will be able to take full advantage of opportunities for major growth in the $114 billion Australian food and grocery sector.
Consider non-traditional channels and new technology and grow your sales beyond the traditional supermarket channel.
Kerrie-Anne Turner is VP Asia Pacific and MD Australia at StayinFront.
