In the Consumer Goods (CPG) industry, manufacturers have dedicated merchandisers for executing the brand’s promotional strategies within retail stores. Traditionally, this was performed manually at the store level, but the Image Recognition technology has ushered in automation to support faster execution and improved productivity.

Projections indicate a robust growth trajectory for retail execution, anticipated to expand at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9% from 2023 to 2033. The most recent Market Study Group (MSG) report suggests that the market’s potential will ascend to 875 million USD by 2033. In response, the CPG industry has witnessed an upsurge in the number of solution providers eager to become technology partners.

Selecting the right retail execution software for your Consumer Goods enterprise is pivotal, as it holds the key to elevating sales performance and operational efficiency. This comprehensive guide outlines a systematic approach to evaluating and choosing the most suitable retail execution software tailored to your unique business requirements.

1. Have You Clearly Defined What You Need the Software to Solve?

The first step is to identify the specific goals and objectives that your organization expects to achieve with retail execution software. These may include:

• Improving visibility into in-store operations
• Increasing sales
• Improving line items per sales call
• Optimizing inventory management
• Enhancing field team performance by reducing their turnaround time at each store

2. Have You Modeled the Real ROI Beyond the License Cost?

Once you have identified your needs and objectives, you should conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis to determine the software’s potential return on investment (ROI). As an enterprise solution, it may be difficult to initially project numbers because the cost savings may appear in different ways, like reducing returns, minimizing store visits, and increasing the productivity of field force agents.

A rigorous ROI analysis should model each of these dimensions against your current baseline. Industry data provides useful benchmarks: AI-powered shelf management has been shown to reduce stockouts from 12% to 2% and overstocking from 8% to 1%, while Bain & Company research indicates that data-driven sales execution can add 3 to 5 percentage points to sales growth. Map those potential gains to your outlet network and field force size, and the business case typically becomes compelling well before implementation costs are fully accounted for.

3. Does It Integrate With the Systems Your Business Already Runs On?

The software must integrate seamlessly with your existing systems, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), or POS (Point of Sale) systems. Integration ensures data consistency and reduces manual data entry, opening up a path of a single real-time data source essential to generating analytical reports.

4. Is the Software Configurable Enough for Your Markets and Scalable Enough for Your Growth?

Look for software solutions tailored to each organization’s specific business needs. The software should adopt the processes of every organization. It should also be scalable to accommodate your business’s growth.

5. Does the Vendor Take Data Security and Compliance Seriously?

CPG companies operating across multiple markets are subject to varying data protection regulations, GDPR in Europe, PDPA across Southeast Asia, and a growing patchwork of regional frameworks elsewhere. The software you select must comply with applicable regulations in every market where it is deployed, and the vendor must demonstrate that security practices are not an afterthought.

Evaluate vendors on encryption standards, access controls, data residency options, audit logging, and their track record on compliance certifications. Cloud-native platforms built on hyperscaler infrastructure like AWS, Azure, Salesforce, typically offer stronger baseline security postures than on-premise or proprietary cloud alternatives.

6. Does It Have the Features That Actually Drive Execution Performance?

Draft a blueprint of your business processes, including a list of required essential features and functionalities. These functionalities may include:

• Route planning
• Order management
• Inventory tracking
• Merchandising tools
• Data Analytics
• Reports and Dashboards
• Run a fitment analysis against these features and ensure above 80% fitment from software to minimize additional costs incurred on change requests.

7. Will Your Field Teams Actually Use It?

The software must be user-friendly for both field teams and back-office staff. These employees fall in the category of minimal qualifications, especially those from the Asian markets. Hence, conducting usability tests and requesting demos to assess each solution would ensure that it is appropriate for each category of field force agents, ease of navigation, and usage.

8. What Do Existing Customers Say and Are They Like You?

Research user reviews and case studies to understand how well the software performs in real-world scenarios. Several websites help you read genuine reviews written by existing platform customers. Pay attention to feedback from businesses similar to yours.

9. Is the Implementation Plan Realistic — and Who Owns It?

Develop a clear plan for implementing the chosen software, including timelines, roles and responsibilities, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress. Enterprise solutions may take longer to migrate and implement.

Ivy Mobility’s implementation model is designed for speed without sacrificing configuration depth with deployment timelines of 8 to 12 weeks for standard rollouts. That pace reflects years of implementation experience across complex, multi-market CPG environments, and a platform architecture built for configurability rather than customization.

10. Does the Vendor Support You After Go-Live or Just Before It?

Assess the level of customer support offered by the software provider. As field force agents and merchandisers are not tech savvy, ensure that your support staff is efficient and can handle issues with minimum turnaround time. Consider companies based on how well and often they provide training and ongoing assistance to ensure a smooth transition and effective use of the software.

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When choosing retail execution software, it is crucial to consider factors such as pricing, deployment options, and vendor reputation. Ivy Retail Execution is a cloud-based software solution that offers a wide range of features and functionality at a competitive price. It is easy to use and can be scaled to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes. Ivy Retail Execution is a trusted partner for many of the world’s leading CPG companies. It is a comprehensive, customizable, configurable, and scalable solution that can help your business achieve its goals.

Schedule a demo with us today.