The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry has always been a dog-eat-dog world, with intense competition among companies to gain even the slightest bit of competitive edge. CGP field service reps and brokers spend time at retail stores trying to get the best positioning, tracking sales, improving merchandising and handling inventory and restocking.
Today, their most potent weapons are mobile apps. So concludes a white paper from Consumer Goods Technology (CGT), titled, “Taking on CPG’s 6 Biggest Challenges with Mobile Field Apps.” The paper, based on a survey of global CPG executives, makes clear just how vital mobile apps are to the industry: “For CPG field teams to gain a competitive edge, they need an enterprise-grade mobile application that creates a seamless, real-time experience from the field to the office. They need an app that will empower field reps with the insights required to take a more consultative approach when selling, merchandising or delivering products.”
One big challenge mobile apps solves, the paper says, is the “show-and-sell” conversations reps have with retailers, in which reps try to get the retailers to take as much of their products as possible. Mobile apps solves that, by giving reps “real-time insight into retailer-specific data that reflects how individual SKUs are performing in each store and what factors may be affecting performance.” Reps can use that information to place more products in stores.
In addition, with mobile apps, store visits by reps are more productive. The paper notes, “By some estimates, improvements in productivity can decrease store visits by 15 to 20 minutes. Gains in efficiency help explain why 72% of companies queried for a CGT custom research study cited the ability to have more informed discussions with retailers as a major benefit of harnessing a mobile application.”
Mobile apps also let reps get data in real time, rather than having to use old, outdated information. In the words of the paper, this helps “CPG companies present the right KPIs to the right people in real time. By providing up-to-the-minute information that can be addressed with immediacy, a mobile app can yield productivity improvements of up to 30%.”
For all these reasons and more, the paper concludes, “There is no question that every CPG company needs a mobile app in its pocket in order to compete at the shelf. The key to success lies in an easy-to-use, feature-rich mobile app that makes field representatives feel confident and provides them with all the information they need to operate as trusted advisors.”
If you’re looking to build the best retail apps for the CPG industry consider Alpha Anywhere. Its low code/no code approach lets even people with little or no coding experience write great mobile apps, eliminating IT backlog. It lets you rapidly change and update apps. And right out of the box, it integrates with any data source.
In addition, with it, you can write offline apps, which is vital, according to the CGT paper. The paper says, “The best mobile apps function even when reps are offline and then sync up the very latest data as soon as they go back on. Having access to the company data ensures that field reps always use the correct pricing and are only able to sell product that can truly be found somewhere in the supply chain. Eliminating pricing and supply issues like this helps to cultivate retailer loyalty — and a win for CPG companies no matter where in the world they operate.”
Learn more about how CPG Companies are leveraging low-code development to gain a competitive edge.
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