Friedemann Stoeckle, Vice President of Global POS Support, GfK
The edge of retail
GfK explores what it takes to succeed in today’s TCG sector
COLLABORATION BETWEEN RETAILERS AND MANUFACTURERS, AND MAXIMISING THE VALUE OF DATA AND ANALYTICS, WILL CREATE SUCCESS
At the TCG Summit, Friedemann Stöckle, GfK’s Vice President of Global POS Support, will be speaking about his company’s research into the success factors for future retailing. We asked him to tell us more about this.
Retailing is in a massive change phase. Digitisation has provided a new setting. Consumers have fantastic new opportunities to receive information, select, and buy products. This is well known and the market players have already their strategies in place on how to maximise opportunities. In the race for consumer spend, what works and what does not? The answer is vital and decides about having a future in retail.
When linking big-picture strategic approaches to the very granular sales data on store level, we find amazing differences between those who successfully adapted to changing conditions – if not fully transformed themselves – and those who struggle. This research helps to detect the success factors in these change processes so that the market players can learn and adopt quickly. We also see that success is not down to one single activity – rather it is co-created between retailers and manufacturers and based on an ideal mix of existing and new concepts and their execution
Can you expand a bit on how you go about your analysis?
In the Technical Consumer Goods space, we look at total assortments like consumer electronics, IT, mobile phones, home appliances, etc. in a holistic way to answer key questions: What is the consumer’s need and want? How does a physical store present in a changed environment the “right” offering?
If we look at the data from all different angles, we can detect a variety of differences in performance between the product sectors, brands, innovation conversion, addressed price points, etc. Those variations between the development of the overall market and the individual store are enormous. Similar “basic” retail formats can perform very differently. At the end of the day, retailer and supplier need to closely cooperate along their entire value chain in order to convert new concepts into profitable and sustainable business.
What can be a takeaway for the TCG Summit participants?
Our perspective is the following: Today we operate in an environment where no single player can successfully create the future alone. For that reason, constant calibration and swift adaptation between concepts and market realities are essential. Successful collaboration between retailers and manufacturers, also maximising the value of data and analytics, will create success. What is the appropriate mix of product innovations, brands, and price points to win the customer? From GfK, we want to inspire this journey with leading edge research.
