Brands and distributors in developing economies need to build deeper relationships with their retailers and merchants to effectively deal with an evolving market context and rapidly changing consumer behaviour as they can detect new market trends quicker and develop more agile business models by directly connecting with their customers. Developing these competencies are crucial, with research showing that even if small changes in consumer behaviours become permanent, the effects of these changes will reshape value chains and redistribute over $3 trillion worth of value to the brands that best anticipate the change.
Cloud technologies will play a key role in helping FMCG brands, and distributors drive growth, as the adoption of cloud-based digital and analytical technologies to provide data-driven decision making at scale, which will be the superpower that will provide leading brands and distributors with a competitive advantage. Analyzing top use cases and application areas of cloud technologies in the FMCG industry can potentially drive at least $490 billion in value creation by 2023. In addition, adopting cloud-based technologies can provide a 6 to 10 percent boost in sales, an 18 to 30 percent reduction in marketing expenses and up to 18 percent improvement in ROI through proper customer segmentation.
However, brands and distributors must understand and commit to driving full cloud adoption to reap the benefits. Business leaders must treat cloud technology as a muscle to build, strengthen, and maintain to unlock potential value and drive growth.
How cloud technologies help drive FMCG growth
Many FMCG brands are stuck in the first phase of data migration as business leaders restrict the cloud to just an IT cost management solution, as it can generate up to 40 percent reduction in infrastructure costs. However, they are missing out on many significant benefits. When brands and distributors fully embrace cloud, they can:
- Deepen customer relationships at a lower cost: Adopting cloud empowers FMCGs to build closer relationships with their customers and target them with customized marketing, increasing the ROI on marketing spend by up to 30 percent. In addition, cloud-based interfaces with retailers can help synchronize demand and supply, as well as reduce transaction friction associated with interacting with the smaller merchants and shops that are common in emerging markets.
- Unlock growth with data-powered insights: Advanced analytics is a major driver for growth, as insights into customer decision patterns can boost sales while simultaneously reducing costs. Leveraging cloud-based data and analytics solutions help business leaders unlock new levels of visibility, create profitable promotions and even deploy predictive marketing at scale, which can potentially generate between $69 million and $144 million in value for the average FMCG brand.
- Increase agility related to new market growth: Cloud technologies allow brands and distributors to deploy and scale advanced sales capabilities in new markets, channels, and geolocations. The deployment of cloud-powered exchange platforms enables brands and distributors to reconfigure their supply chains to embrace a broader array of small and local suppliers.
Unleashing the full power of cloud for growth and increased revenue only comes when brands and distributors go for full adoption. By moving from the “migrate” phase to the “accelerate and innovate” phase, the potential business impact increases from tens of millions to hundreds of millions.
Barriers restricting full cloud adoption by FMCGs
FMCG brands and distributors have been unable to unlock the full potential of cloud technology due to several issues, some of which include:
- Perceptions of risk and complexity: perceive full cloud migration as risky and complex, with research showing that 46 percent of FMCG executives say the complexity of business and operation change was a barrier to adoption.
- Perceptions of risk and complexity: perceive full cloud migration as risky and complex, with research showing that 46 percent of FMCG executives say the complexity of business and operation change was a barrier to adoption.
- Lack of technical knowhow: Most existing cloud solutions are highly technical, requiring complex software, dedicated hardware, and extensive training for analysts and operators, all of which are costly.
To maximize the potential of cloud-based technologies, FMCG businesses need a solution that is low risk and easy to adopt. This is the RedCloud advantage.
Switch to the cloud, with RedCloud’s connected open commerce platform
RedCloud is the world’s first open commerce platform that unlocks the full value of the traditional distribution chain, connecting brands, distributors, retailers, and merchants on a single cloud-enabled platform. With RedCloud, brands and distributors have increased visibility across the supply chain and can connect directly with even the smallest merchants in any geolocation. The platform also collates valuable data at POS, providing insights into variable demand and changes in customer behaviour.
The cloud-powered integrated marketing intelligence tool enables sales and marketing leaders to analyze the effectiveness of their promotion and marketing spend in real-time, as well as create targeted customer and geolocation specific campaigns that take advantage of the micro-consumption patterns in the market. FMCG marketing teams can also leverage the insights to identify new opportunities to upsell and cross-sell their products, increasing revenue by up to 60 percent.
Unlike other cloud solutions, RedCloud is an intuitive and easy to use solution with a short learning curve. Sales and marketing teams can set up and use the platform with minimal training as the data and insights generated are displayed on easy to understand, customizable dashboards, which gives your teams a competitive edge.
Contact us today to see how deploying RedCloud can provide a competitive edge for your brand, increase revenue by up to 25 percent and drive growth.
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