Nielsen Insights Study: Real-world applications in using data to increase consumer sales

Last week, Nielsen published its latest report on household consumption behavior in the country showing interesting insights:

• Lower supermarket shopping frequency (-20%) and number of shopping households (-5pp), compensated by higher ticket (+30%).
• Increase in e-commerce channel (216%), driven by a five-fold increase in the number of households shopping online.
• Increased Traditional Channel penetration (+8pp)

The question that arises is, what do I need to do differently or what do I need to prioritize more given this new consumer context regarding the use of our data? I will focus on some of the things that we at Brain Food have had to do that have been of great importance to our clients.

1. Develop predictive sales and stock models: Ensure that the product is on the shelf. Today, fewer visits are made to sell each product; if it was not available, that purchase was lost.
2. Generate robust product recommendation models, especially in e-commerce: Online impulse buying is more difficult to stimulate than in the store, so offering the “right product to the right customer” (Next Best Offer) is key to increase the ticket.
3. Reach more stores with your brands: The traditional channel has taken a relevant importance, having your products in stores can be a relevant sales driver. At Brain Food we build a tool with all the existing commercial patents and cross them with the customer base, thinking of going to knock on doors to all potential customers (traditional channel, food service, and any other activity), prioritizing neighborhoods or sectors of greater potential.
4. Robust value proposition but at the same time profitable for the traditional channel (or Food Service as well): Being a low average ticket customer in general, it is key to balance the service we offer with the profitability it delivers to me as a customer. Performing profitability analysis per customer, having a good estimate of their Lifetime Value and the margin they give me is key to make good decisions and not generate “bad sales”, balancing the cost/benefit of each of them.
5. Customer service: The number of options has increased significantly, all have or are developing their e-commerce and are facing requirements never seen before. The challenge is to become the preferred option, for that, meeting the customer’s expectations is fundamental: Meeting delivery times, delivering the complete order, offering an effective after-sales service become the priority levers of choice. To achieve this, it is key to have automated customer service processes, models that minimize errors and deliver quick responses to customers.
6. Flexible budgeting: Having dynamic budgets and the ability to plan and budget in an agile way will become a distinctive skill among companies as the environment is constantly and drastically changing.

Finally, and probably most importantly, we are in a process of change and learning from this new reality, therefore, agility and speed in developing, testing and implementing is key, which requires a relevant cultural change in organizations. The important thing is to have a clear definition of the KPIs we want to impact and a constant measurement of these, which will allow us to make good decisions about whether or not to scale the models/tools we develop. It is okay to make mistakes, the important thing is to do it quickly and cheaply.