No one needs any convincing with the importance of mobile phones. A whopping 7.26 billion mobile phones are in use currently, which is equal to 91% of the world population. Businesses also have their processes and operations making extensive use of mobile solutions. Consumer goods companies are also catching up on this trend and are strategizing digital transformation around mobile solutions.

Starting with an online ordering solution and then moving to advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies is a great way to go about this.

Have you adopted a mobile ordering solution for your consumer goods business?

If not, then start thinking about it. Let us understand why mobile strategy is a must-have for your business.

Convenience

With the pandemic emerged new ways of reaching the consumer, and mobile ordering has become the new normal. Many consumer goods businesses now either have their apps or have listed their products on marketplaces, enabling retailers to order products online.

The online ordering experience of your products will delight retailers and reduce reliance on the field reps for orders.

Personalization

Data shows that the effectiveness of personalized offers is at least twice that of an average mass promotion run by consumer goods brands. A mobile solution of your business will gather data day in and day out to give you access to what is happening on the field. You can leverage demographic and behavioral data of retailers collected by your mobile app to run personalized marketing campaigns.

Strategic Pricing

As a consumer goods business, you may be devising your pricing strategy on production costs, competitor pricing, market dynamics, and other factors. Lately, the rise of e-commerce platforms has added another data point to price point determination due to the price differential on these platforms. You may need to moderate prices on different channels to achieve KPI-based offer segmentation. Data collected from marketplaces, e-commerce platforms, and mobile apps used by field reps can help you derive channel-specific products and pricing.

Minimal Errors

Go digital, and the first thing you will notice is considerably less time spent in data clean-up between the processes. Eliminating pen and paper at warehouses will minimize errors drastically, save time, and provide transparency across systems. Reduced errors also make reconciliation an easy task for the stakeholders.

Transparency in Stock Availability

With sales of consumer goods moving across multiple channels on different platforms, managing accurate stock availability manually is nearly impossible. With an online solution to manage stocks across channels, you will have access to information in real-time. With your reps, supervisors, and distributors empowered to access this on the go, you will experience improved transparency, efficiency, and productivity. The availability of stock information will also help you identify demand and supply patterns to optimize stocks at warehouses.

Power of Data

As a consumer goods company, the data collected via mobile app and other digital solutions will give you visibility into unseen aspects of your business. Data will also be more relevant with real-time updates. Pre-digitization times, the consumer goods companies collated data every 4-5 weeks from the retailers. By the time the data would reach them, it was already redundant and could not provide any actionable insights.

Easy Tracking

With digitization, tracking consumer products has become easy and seamless. From production to the shelf, we can precisely identify the location of any product using solutions like Ivy’s Distribution Management System. This tracking helps manufacturers move out stock based on their production dates and near expiry dates.

Delivery Management

New technologies like Ivy’s Direct Store Delivery and Marketplace enable retailers to choose delivery slots based on their preferred timing. These solutions help retailers reduce out-of-stock, manage orders and monitor merchandising- all from a single mobile application.

Digital Payments

Adopt mobile phones, and you are just a click away from digital payments. These payment apps will help the consumer goods companies keep a tab on all transactions and keep systems transparent. They can also manage credit limits of distributors, ensure clearance of payments, and calculate tax when things move digital.

Sellers upgrade to Consultants

Sellers can now save time with guided selling applications that help them decide faster, make better choices, and achieve more in less time. These solutions provide sellers with schedules and to-do lists, helping them execute more without trouble and roadblocks. They also guide retailers on SKU recommendations and other insights generated from past data- all on their mobile app.

When considering digital transformation for your consumer goods business, it’s essential to strategize around the pain points you want to address first. Consumer goods businesses can get quick wins by identifying the root causes of waste across their operations. Adopt mobile solutions and solutions built on the cloud for disproportionate efficiency gains.