Can Retailers Directly Go Digital With FMCG Brands?

“FMCG brands have been naughty, causing price disparity”, so says the distributor Santas.

Fighting the struggle to keep pace with the pandemic, a large number of FMCG brands have been selling online to create convenient shopping experiences for their customers. 

But what seemed like a boon is now becoming a bane, as India’s distributor communities are revolting against the high margins online players are offering to retailers for FMCG products. And since offline distributors cannot provide such high margins, retailers are choosing to buy from online platforms to reap the benefit.

This price disparity is causing havoc in the downstream supply chain for many leading brands, if not all. 

As a result, many FMCG brands have even launched online-only products packs to tackle this conflict.

However, unlike digital-savvy countries like China and Taiwan, where consumers across different age groups have become more used to buying FMCG goods online, India’s 13 million Kirana stores remain the backbone of the country’s 900 billion retail market.

While you might be reading this on your mobile or laptop screen, there are millions in India who are yet to learn how to read and millions more who don’t know how to read a digital message or mail. 

So, under such circumstances, offline retail will hail in the country for years to come. 

Moreover, online selling leads to a bigger struggle to grab the consumer’s attention on a 5-inch mobile screen, as compared to 5 ft retail shelves. Local retailers and distributors who shed their time and effort to promote the brand’s products to the end-users, can never be replaced by pop-up mobile ads.  

Thus, the future of retail rests a lot on driving innovation across different shopping channels and personalizing shopping experiences – for everyone! Even your retailers.

This means that, along with selling on digital channels, digital selling should be imbibed in supply chain channels.

Fixing the disequilibrium in pricing or creating separate product SKUs for different channels is not a full-proof fix. 

FMCG brands need to create a direct & constant selling channel between retailers and themselves, in order to nurture a better bond between the brand and the retail store sellers. 

One, where they choose to buy from the brand’s distributors no matter what!

FMCG WhatsApp Ordering Bot is THE solution(superpower) that makes this possible.

A convenient way for FMCG brands to interact with every retailer on a personal level and for retailers to place orders anytime from anywhere, this easy-to-use tool can build a smooth bridge of communication across the start and the end of the supply chain.

The tool also informs retailers of all the different promotional schemes available for each retail store, giving them a detailed overview of every business opportunity. 

Because of these reasons, Bizom’s FMCG WhatsApp Ordering Bot can be immensely useful to stride ahead of competitors who are still wholly dependent on their salesmens’ efforts to get orders from retailers and to inform retailers of every trade scheme.

Wondering how all this can be accomplished with such a simple tool, and what can be the other benefits? Connect with us to know more about WhatsApp Ordering Bot for FMCG brands. Send us a mail at marketing@mobisy.com, or sign up here for a free personalized demo for your company.