DRIVING IN-STORE EXECUTION & USE OF 3RD PARTY MERCHANDISERS
For the fastest growing pet food company in the US CoolR provided StoreAware with ‘workflow automation’ to ensure that merchandisers are only alerted to go to outlets when and where needed. In a second phase the project was expanded to even capture the before & after of a merchandiser’s visit to ascertain the work was done and the ROI of the visit secured.
The Challenge
Freshpet is a very successful, high growth brand of innovative fresh pet food. Freshpet have placed chillers with their premium products in the traditional ambient aisle in supermarkets. Customers love their products and sales velocity is high.
The amazing success brought its own challenges as consumers were buying products off the shelves faster than they often can be replenished which can lead to painful and disappointing stock-outs.
As a fast expanding but young company Freshpet makes very targeted use of their own sales team and mostly relies on 3rd party merchandisers.
The Sales & Operations team at Freshpet wanted a solution to pin-point the location, the exact issues to be addressed and in a second phase then even proof of the resolution by the merchandiser.
The Solution
The coolers of Freshpet were equipped with Vista cameras and connected to our StoreAware platform. StoreAware was configured for ‘workflow automation’ therefore providing both near-real-time shelf insights and triggering actions to the Acosta merchandising team daily – when hitting the threshold values set by Freshpet. In a first, critical step Freshpet thus ensured to direct the field-team to locations and to do tasks that made the biggest difference.
In a second step, the project was expanded to even utilise the StoreBuddy platform. Merchandisers now not only get directly alerted where to go and what to focus on, but can now capture the before and after with image capture which is decoded automatically then by StoreBuddy. Additionally managers direct the field team to capture other information utilizing the StoreBuddy survey functionalities.
The Impact
Freshpet has gained real-time insight into the actual situation of their many thousand assets and been able to direct the Acosta field force directly and with high precision.
CoolR is proud to be partnering with a dynamic, high growth company like Freshpet and proud to have been a contributor to their continued success.
COOLR’S INNOVATIVE COMPUTER VISION PLATFORM LETS US DEPLOY OUR REPS BASED ON INVENTORY AT EACH LOCATION, WHICH WILL MAKE A MEANINGFUL IMPACT FOR SALES.
HEAD OF ASSETS AT FRESHPET FOOD COMPANY
The lessons learned
Products in high demand and with high velocity can encounter out-of-stocks frequently and – to make things more challenging – at infrequent intervals. A solution like StoreAware is many times superior to alternatives that are “mobile-only” as you gain independence from the human visit and steer teams to the right place at the right time! You want to fix the issue before it’s manifested and not only document an issue via your field team.
Particularly, companies with a limited grip on each outlet need strong guidance where to go and what to focus on. Otherwise the same-store sales might be under criticism from the big box retailers and competitors might move in quickly to fill the gap left on the shelf.
When utilising 3rd party merchandisers it is important to ensure their IT platform is integrated well with CoolR’s systems which is something we can happily advise you on, not least based on the experience with Freshpet.
