Leverage CPGPulse to Inform Your Retail Strategy

This post outlines how to use CPGPulse performance data to plan the early stages of your retail strategy when making the jump from DTC to Wholesale. My client CPGPulse is a new consumer data platform from SnackMagic, an omni-channel partner for emerging CPG brands.

The time to expand a DTC business into retail should be at an inflection point when customers are asking for your products offline, when you have the team skills and capacity across inventory and working capital, and when you have enough interest from consumers in key locations that you can drive into stores. It’s tempting to want to launch in retail right when you get inbound asks from retailers, but ensure you have a strong foundation and infrastructure in place before saying yes.

If you’re an early stage brand without a big retail partnership yet, you’ll need to make a case for how much demand there is for your product, disclose your online sales, note where those customers live, and an overview of your relationship with the people who buy your products. How do you communicate and keep in touch with your customers? How could those channels be used to celebrate retail launches and encourage your customers to shop your brand in-store?

CPGPulse by SnackMagic is a treasure trove of data about 500+ brands selling on their gifting platform that can help inform your retail go-to-market strategy.

What your brand can learn on CPGPulse:

Top brands, SKUs and flavors in your category

Curious which brands in your category are most popular and which flavors do consumers like the most? Use the Trends & Rankings tool on CPGPulse to understand the highest growth brands selling on SnackMagic. Within each category, you can discover Top Brands and Products, and understand the performance of an entire category (or sub category) in the last 12 months.

Analysis of your competitors and brands in your category

Study what other options consumers have in your category and what motivates them to buy one product over another to inspire marketing and R&D for new flavors and formats. Analyze these brands on CPGPulse, in-store, and bring them home for taste testing too. Look at their packaging, prices, flavors, retail distribution, and any hint at their customer demographics.

On CPGPulse, you can compare 2-3 brands to each other like we did above with Love + Chew, Mmmly, and The YES Bar cookies. Using Pulse’s Brand Comparison tool, your team can quickly compare top products, performance, demographics, ratings and reviews of a few brands side by side. You can even use this tool to compare a few brands that aren’t your own brand.

Understanding the strategies of your competing brands will inspire how you can stand out in the same retail aisle as them. Think broadly beyond competitors as well like products consumers might be alternating with yours. For example, if you make cereal, what else is your customer eating at breakfast on different days — maybe a protein bar, a smoothie or pancakes?

Identify complementary brands that play well with your product

Once you have a better understanding of your customer personas, think about other products that your customers buy or that they would want to discover that play well with your products. Find authentic ways to partner with these brands, especially if they are in retail stores you want to be sold in. You can partner on giveaways, content, events, cross-promos, and grocery demos.

In addition to using the Trends & Rankings tool on CPGPulse for competitor analysis, you can use it to discover high growth brands and products in complementary categories. For example, if you make a dip or spread, look for chip or cracker brands that would play well with your products for a content partnership. To help prioritize your brand partnership outreach, study the CPGPulse data for brands on your wishlist to meet to determine if they are category leaders worth partnering with.

What you can learn about your brand on CPGPulse:

Your top SKUs and flavors

Consider entering retail only with your best selling products to be setup for success. For Zesty Z, their CPGPulse data represents 18,000+ units sold across 5 products.

Consumer Insights

Demographics

Understand the gender and age of your SnackMagic customers on an ongoing basis to inform your retail, marketing, packaging, new flavors, and partnership opportunities. There are retailers preferred by Gen Z, Millennials, families, and people on-the-go in big cities - so knowing as much as possible about your customers can help you focus on retailers that have a similar shopper in store. All of which will lead to retail pitches that are most likely to convert into purchase orders.

Customer Reviews

See what SnackMagic users think of your product through ratings and reviews. Catalog your reviews to inspire product enhancements, and feature them in retail pitch decks or sales materials.

Traction on SnackMagic Over Time

Use the Brand Traction tool to understand seasonal spikes in sales for your brand or a competitor.

Where your SnackMagic customers live on a map

Your brand’s location data on CPGPulse can validate the regional or national appeal of your products and flavors, and can help your team prioritize retailers in the regions where you have the most demand. Combine this data with locations of your Shopify customers.