New solutions provide consumer goods companies with tools to build loyalty and make their businesses more resilient amid margin pressure and supply chain issues

Today, Salesforce announced new innovations for consumer goods companies, giving brands a better way to navigate increasing market complexity, drive profitable growth, and increase customer loyalty through connected data, automation, and expanded selling opportunities.

The consumer goods industry is facing a host of challenges, including inflation-driven cost increases, tighter margins, and global supply chain issues, all of which can lead to decreased sales and declining brand loyalty. And, with 70% of consumers turning to other options when their preferred brands are not available, it is critical for consumer goods companies to be more resilient and efficient so they can deliver customer success through any economic headwind.

These new innovations extend the power of Salesforce Customer 360, giving consumer goods companies a single, comprehensive platform for growing their business

Kishan Chetan, SVP and GM, Retail and Consumer Goods, Salesforce

“The consumer goods industry is looking for digital solutions to make their operations more efficient and resilient as they face economic uncertainty,” said Kishan Chetan, SVP and GM, Retail and Consumer Goods, Salesforce. “These new innovations extend the power of Salesforce Customer 360, giving consumer goods companies a single, comprehensive platform for growing their business and, critically, a single source of truth for customer data so they can create more frictionless experiences and drive efficiencies.”

Feature information

Salesforce for Consumer Goods innovations announced today include the following:

Trade Promotion Management delivers profitable growth 

Optimizing trade activity and trade planning on a single, connected platform allows sales teams to manage promotional plans and allocate trade funds to maximize revenue. With clear visibility into trade budgets, and dynamic funding, reps can ensure their promotions are optimized to avoid overspending. 

For example, a key account manager at a snack food company can now forecast their baseline and incremental sales with an understanding of how they can optimize their trade spend to maximize revenue. They no longer have to manage these plans in offline tools or spreadsheets, and can give the organization visibility into the latest forecasts and spend estimates.

Offline Penny Perfect Pricing offers retail execution excellence from anywhere 

Consumer goods sales reps need access to critical selling information when they are in the field, with or without connectivity, to deliver their goods anywhere. Now with the new offline app, reps can execute their visit objectives and take orders anywhere with a solution that calculates the exact price based on available promotions, customer-specific discounts, and other pricing conditions.

A fully offline field sales rep can take orders while having a view into potential promotion-driven orders to help her up-sell additional products. She can also execute inventory tasks for her list of products and review options to reschedule visits to retail locations and then sync her mobile device with Salesforce when back online.

B2B Commerce & Marketplace helps improve sales automation, boost margins 

The new B2B Commerce Wholesale Retail App maximizes wholesale buying efficiency for consumer goods companies with new virtual showrooms, sales collaboration, and large cart ordering. In a time when 1 in 3 commerce organizations are prioritizing the implementation of their own marketplaces, the new Commerce Marketplace unites the fragmented buyer and seller landscape to create new revenue streams, giving brands and distributors the ability to expand reach by adding inventory to retail partners quickly.

Now, a nutritional food products and supplements chain can connect their inventory to hundreds of franchises, with different pricing and product offerings available based on the various regions and locations of the franchise.

MuleSoft Accelerator for Consumer Goods integrates critical data for informed trade planning 

To innovate faster, consumer goods companies need to connect critical systems, data, and applications — including trade promotion management, enterprise resource planning, and product information management systems — for holistic trade planning. With MuleSoft Accelerator for Consumer Goods, companies can have a single source of truth for data and can quickly deploy trade and retail execution capabilities leveraging existing master data in traditional back-end systems.

Salesforce for Consumer Goods drives customer loyalty through the power of the Customer 360

As part of Salesforce Customer 360, all of today’s new offerings easily connect to Salesforce Customer Data Platform. By bringing first-party data from these tools into a unified customer profile, consumer goods businesses can more efficiently plan, activate, and optimize personalized engagement strategies for every customer, such as those who want value or premium offerings, helping grow their loyalty. 

Salesforce Partner Ecosystem extends the power of Customer 360 for Consumer Goods

Salesforce has an extensive partner ecosystem that provides unique expertise and solutions for the consumer goods industry globally. ISV partners such as PSignite extend and complement Salesforce for Consumer Goods.

Additionally, consulting partners Accenture, PwC, Corrao Group, SBX Solutions, Peak & Peak, Everymind and PSignite are experts in Salesforce for Consumer Goods and are equipped to implement tailored solutions for individual customers.

More information:

• For more on Salesforce for Consumer Goods, click here.
• For more on MuleSoft Accelerator for Consumer Goods; TPM solution, click here. 
• To learn more about Consumer Goods Cloud and Trade Promotion Management, visit Trailhead.