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3 New RTM Strategies & 3 Market Trends That All Sales Leaders Should Know
by Krishna Kothari
July 10, 2020 | 01 min read
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A Whole New World
Mask or no mask? Why is this a question? I suppose there will always be questions that we don’t understand.
Having answers to relevant questions, however, is a forte of Bizom’s Retail Intelligence platform. Our platform powers the downstream supply chains of over 450 consumer brands. That gives us a ringside view to the trends in the consumer industry.
In April, we created a report on the impact of COVID-19 on retailer spending that aggregated these trends and it went viral. It was even covered in Business Standard, ET Prime, and YourStory.
That brings us to the present when businesses and demand are limping back to normal. We went back to our data and checked for new trends. Here are insights on how the market performed in the last 10 weeks.
METHODOLOGY
We developed this report by analyzing data from ~30% of the retail universe across 400 districts/2000 towns and cities of India, which covers a population of ~800+ million.
3 MARKET TRENDS TO KNOW
The demand data from the last 10 weeks points to the following market trends:
Buying patterns are changing: Distributors & stockists, and retailers are moving from fortnightly or monthly replenishment cycles to weekly cycles. This is driven by a range of factors including stock availability and the ability to give credit in the market among others.
Alternative distribution strategies are coming to the fore: Consumer brands are reinventing trade models to combat supply chain disruptions. They are investing in digital tech and analytics to power their strategic decisions and actions.
Demand is varying by category and region: Demand is almost back to normal. However, packaged foods that saw a surge immediately after the lockdown was imposed, are down by 20%. But it is Beverages that have been hit the hardest with a 40% drop in sales during their peak season in April and May. Regions with fewer COVID-19 cases are doing better. In India, Southern regions have been doing better than the West which has the highest number of cases.
3 NEW & POPULAR RTM TRENDS
The value-based breakup of product categories
Brands are changing their RTM strategies to recover lost ground.
Simplification of the supply chain: Sales data for April and May pointed to brands consolidating their portfolio with fewer SKUs and limited new product launches. Thankfully, June data shows that the situation is almost back to normal and only ~10% down as compared to Feb 2020. The other trend is that customers are preferring lower-priced products and smaller, value packs. Brands are taking notice and consolidating their portfolio as shown in the graph above.
Investments in Digital Transformation: Consumer brands are investing in digital technologies to bring more visibility into the supply chains and make data-backed decisions. They are digitising their entire value chains including channel partners, enabling B2B eCommerce, investing in remote retail execution, and more.
Shift to hygiene products: Approximately 5-10% of our customers have launched hand sanitizers and masks to meet the new demand. Often, these hygiene products are outside the product portfolio of these brands.
It’s our belief that consumption patterns will keep changing and brands will change their RTM models to keep pace with the market. If you want to know more, write to us for a copy of this report and to discuss specific insights for your category. Email: marketing@mobisy.com
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