Why FMCG companies need offline AI technologies

Back in 2018, Bain and Company released their research claiming that over 85% of the biggest global FMCG companies have experienced a shortfall in the period 2012-2016. The smaller and more flexible businesses were more successful and even grew faster than FMCG giants. For example, even the popular American DAVID&GOLIATH brand was built out of many small companies who could take their place in the market in almost all countries, and all categories. 

What big FMCG producers can do to keep up with such trends and why AI can be helpful here? In accordance with the BCG forecast, AI integration can help FMCG companies to grow their revenue by up to 10%. Let’s check out the 3 ways how the FMCG experience can be enhanced with AI. 

1. Optimize sales and advertising campaigns 

Reasonable discounts and attractive price offers can quickly catch the client’s attention. The need for a faster and more convenient experience pushes clients to shop online more often, which means in-store promotions become even more important for customer retention. These promotions are not always effective, and up to 72% of them are not going to work. How to resolve this challenge? 

The use of AI can help accurately optimize in-store promotions. Machine Learning algorithms can learn with a large amount of historical sales data, which means they would be able to identify key trends and opportunities. This enables businesses to run the most appropriate promotion at the right time and place. 

The AI algorithms build better future sales performance models, allowing teams to make revenue forecasts, and manage sales budgets efficiently. 

2. Understanding your client’s behavior 

Another critical aspect of improving retail performance is understanding client in-store behavior. AI enables retailers to better understand client interaction with products and storefronts and provides much more data compared to the analysis of sales numbers and counts.  

AI-powered video analytics and other technologies help notice small behavioral details and analyze them. It includes the time clients spend in front of particular products, and even eye-tracking showing how long the buyer watches the shelf. These data are impossible to be collected with classical methods, though they can help enhance all the merchandising strategies and change the game completely by providing a better client experience. 

3. Perfect stock of goods control 

The merchant’s nightmare is the client who has spent a huge amount of time searching for a particular product but finally realized there is no such product on the shelf. Any FMCG representative would agree that the impossibility to meet the buyer’s needs and lose them because of the goods shortage is the worst thing to happen. 

AI reduces such risks. It helps control real-time goods availability in several stores, and even predict what to do in the situation of increased demand. Such technologies as “Smart shelf” (including digital price labels changing in accordance with the system data) can help retailers quickly realize which merchandising strategies work better, and correct them in real-time when needed. 

At the same time, machine learning based on the historical sales and stock data can help track the perfect amount of goods to be stored, and distribute goods more efficiently. The strategy can lead to fewer logistics-related expenses. 

Why else AI is important 

When it comes to AI integration, FMCG companies have a huge variety of opportunities. It looks like small businesses and online shops will be the key market players soon. That is why FMCG businesses have to choose the most agile technologies able to work with both huge and small companies. 

Our team is experienced in sales growth while reducing employees working time. We are ready to share our knowledge about AI and AI-based solutions offered by Salesforce and other technologies. Check out the solutions we can provide, and we will be happy to organize a free demo — the first step to AI-automated sales. 

MD Cloud specializes in the various AI-using tools consulting and implementation. Our team can help you choose the perfect tool to cover your needs — from CRMs like Salesforce to the specific tools like Tableau. We are ready to share our implementation success stories and experience on our website.  

Contact the team right now to get the solution for your business as soon as possible.