FMCG manufacturers and retailers understand the importance of collaboration, but it has historically been difficult to implement a consistent approach. Years of functional and vertical silos, limited views of data and power dynamics have impacted these relationships and their collective growth.
Advances in technology have made it easier to securely integrate data sets from retailers, FMCG suppliers and third-parties to create transparent platforms that can identify win/win opportunities and customer-centric strategies. Companies that leverage this technology can access a singular view of market challenges and opportunities, and other information that together allows them to create more positive customer experiences, strengthen customer loyalty and grow customer lifetime value.
Advanced collaborative technology platforms, like the IRI Retail Collaborative Gateways, create a North-Star vision that allows partners to collaborate more effectively and drive mutually beneficial outcomes. Retailers reap the benefits of visibility into total-market opportunity, competitive benchmarking, and leakage, while suppliers gain a deeply granular, store-level understanding of how their customers shop for their brands.
When retailers and suppliers use collaboration technology platforms to achieve and maintain a more customer-centric view of the marketplace through a shared portal, both partners can more easily identify and implement process improvements to drive growth.
Technology-enabled collaborative portals that link suppliers, distribution centers and the retail store create better alignment across purchase orders, shipments and inventory. This improves supply chain efficiencies and allows retailers to avoid out-of-stock and overstock situations.
With advanced collaboration technology, retailers can combine their POS insights capabilities with their suppliers’ product development and marketing expertise to produce creative and curated assortments that resonate with their highest-value customers.
IRI’s approach to collaboration ensures that both partners achieve growth through process improvement, cost reduction, and revenue and margin enhancement.
The IRI Retail Collaborative Gateways allow fast and secure integration of data sets from retailers, FMCG partners, and third-party suppliers, and provide consistently aligned and fully integrated data through a single point of access.