Zerlina Hayes

𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞... A recent RetailWire discussion ponders whether Walmart can take on Trader Joe's with its latest private brand launch, bettergoods. My take was that the brand seemed more Target-esque (shades of Good & Gather) and that it was about time Walmart upped the ante with a "better" private brand in grocery. This weekend, I headed to the freezer to grab my new favorite plant-based ice cream only to find I was out of it. Keep in mind that 1. I'm plant-based but wasn't always. I know the standards analogs need to meet. 2. I've been hitting this ice cream several times per week. It's rich, not too sweet, with a perfect consistency, even after days in the home freezer. 😋 I started backtracking to remember where I bought it. Was it Whole Foods? Fresh Market? I remembered the bright green packaging...very "Target" - that must be it (my more frequent jaunts to Target for plant-based goods still surprise me). I wasn't completely sure so I headed to the recycle bin. Mystery solved. It was - Walmart's "bettergoods" plant-based ice cream. 😯 Well played, Walmart. Well played! ✅ 👏

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Putting yourself in the shoes of your dream retailer can yield an understanding for their priorities. Each year, major U.S. retailers open a crucial window to evaluate new and established brands. This is your golden opportunity to pitch to buying teams. Retail Insight: Product resets in retail are both time-consuming and costly for retailers. Store teams continue to do the things they always do: – Restocking shelves – Serving customers – Maintaining store cleanliness Buying teams are also inundated with extra work: – Creating new blueprints for stores to lay out the new items – Meeting with 100+ brands that all have exciting newness to share – Landing on a strategy that will yield growth Major resets also involve: – Printing new shelf labels – Rearranging product placements – Managing discontinued items – Communicating big bets and strategy from corporate to stores These resets can evoke mixed feelings among retail teams: • Excitement about new products and the potential growth they bring. • Anxieties over the additional workload. Why am I sharing this? Because timing is important, you get one window annually to pitch your brand at big retail. So when you approach the retailers treat it like this is your one shot. Prepare your pitch → Nail it. Share your brand purpose → Inspire them. Understand what it takes to be successful →  Make them believe in you. Take this opportunity to show buyers all of the things your brand has done. Shine bright. PS - Have you pitched to a retailer? Share your experience in the comments. – 👋🏾 Hi, I’m Monique, a former retail buyer turned beauty industry advisor who helps emerging brands ready to scale at big retail. If you are ready to scale and invest, book a discovery call, and let’s see if we can work together.

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In my experience as a buyer, I viewed brand-buyer relationships as collaborative, but it's crucial to recognize that not all collaborations are equal. When you seek a retail partner for growth - look for a retailer that is collaborative Understand that the retailer still operates as a for-profit business But, know that you play a role in helping them achieve their goals Here are some areas to consider when looking at collaboration with retailers Door Count Bigger does not necessarily mean better. If your original doors aren’t “ALL” that’s ok. Discuss a tiered plan for growth and expansion. Placement Every brand wants to be seen. Your shelf placement, or location in the store can determine how many consumer eyes see your product. Ask where you’re being placed. Marketing Yes, ask for support from the retailer in their advertising vehicles. But know this is the place where the brand does the heavy lifting. Be ready to shout to the rooftops where you are. Forecasts Work closely with buyers, planners, and your ops team to understand projections. Have a reserve stock to plan for overperformance. Sales Expectations Ask upfront about the retailer’s benchmarks. Consider how the category performs too. Check-Ins As a new brand, having regular check-ins with your buying teams is great. This could be quarterly, or monthly depending on the projected sales volume. A lot to cover, and I know you might not be there, yet. So save this for that future retail meeting - cheers! – 👋🏾 Hi, I’m Monique, your bridge from niche market to major retail. I’m a former retail buyer turned beauty industry advisor who helps emerging brands ready to scale. Ready to expand your reach? Book a discovery call and let’s explore how we can elevate your brand together.

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Our "Win with Target Promotions" webinar featuring Maya Mirt from Krazy Coupon Lady was packed with invaluable insights. Maya highlighted a significant trend: "Overall Target engagement is up 3% year over year, but during Target Circle Week, it's up a whopping 26%! Consumers are keenly looking for the best value amid inflationary pressures." Target Circle Week is a critical time to capture consumer attention and showcase your brand. https://lnkd.in/g8DE-CE7 #TargetPromotions

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Instacart continues to outperform with a double (top- & bottom-line beat). Rare for a tech company that IPOed only back in Sept 2023 Instacart also announced a new partnership with UBER for restaurant delivery 'that will have positive unit economics from day one' (Instacart CEO, Fidji Simo) It now counts >600,000 Instacart shoppers picking online orders in store. Impressive Stock price since IPO is now up 15% Time for all FMCG companies to craft their Instacart strategy & leverage its unique assets/ capabilities. Exciting times Full Q1 results in details: • NR: $820M (Transaction NR: $603M, +8% y-o-y | Advertising NR: $217M, +9% y-o-y ) • GMV: $8,319M, +11% y-o-y • NR OSG: 8.0% • GM%: 75%; -200 bps vs Q1 FY23 • A&P: 22.4%; +180 bps vs Q1 FY23 • Adj. EBIT%: 24.0% | $198M; +17% y-o-y abs. growth 𝗧𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀, 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝘀/ 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝗠𝗖𝗚 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿: https://lnkd.in/ea4gy65y #fmcg #ecommerce #cpg The Coca-Cola Company Nestlé Procter & Gamble AB InBev Kraft Heinz Unilever L'Oréal General Mills Campbell's The HEINEKEN Company Diageo Pernod Ricard Mondelēz International Danone Bel Henkel PepsiCo Coty Reckitt The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. https://lnkd.in/e8RmhfCx

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Press Release: Walmart Cherry-Picks Agritask as Partner to Enhance Produce- Sourcing Decisions I'm excited to announce that Agritask is partnering with Walmart to revolutionize the sourcing of seasonal crops through our advanced Yield Intelligence solution. This pilot will deploy Agritask’s remote sensing and data analytics tools in various regions in the U.S. and Mexico, providing real-time, hyperlocal insights on seasonal blackberry and cherry crops from select Walmart suppliers. This initiative is built on 15 years of expertise in optimizing agricultural supply chains, leveraging cutting-edge technology to offer data-driven innovation. Yield Intelligence empowers sourcing managers to make well-informed decisions on crop yields by filling vital information gaps and enabling rapid responses to adverse environmental conditions. Our technology ensures improved supply management and overall produce quality. Through this partnership, Walmart is set to adopt more streamlined and sustainable sourcing practices. Together, we aim to implement scalable, climate-smart, and risk- resilient solutions that enhance the collaboration between enterprises and suppliers, ensuring the consistent delivery of fresh, high-quality products to meet customer demand. https://lnkd.in/dfpdKiBS Ofir Ardon #cropsupply #climatesmart #climatechange #dataanalytics #yieldintelligence

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Excited to head to the 2024 Snowflake Summit in San Francisco this week! 🏙️ I can't wait to share insights on how retailers are leveraging Snowflake and Vantage to launch and accelerate their Retail Media Networks. 🚀 If you’re attending or in SF, let’s connect and discuss the future of retail tech. What are you most excited about at the summit? Drop your thoughts below! 👇 #SnowflakeSummit #RetailTech #Innovation

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https://lnkd.in/enn6UFiy Thee headlines from the Kantar Numerator data on how Bettergooods is impacting one category: 1) 71% of shoppers who bought Bettergoods ice cream did not know it was owned by Walmart. 2) Bettergoods appeals to both low- and high-income groups, as the PL brand saw low-income homes to be 34% more likely to purchase and high-income homes to be 20% more likely compared to Great Value shoppers.  3) Gen Z shoppers are 67% more likely to buy the Bettergoods dessert than Great Value ice cream. #privatelabel #walmart #CPG #brands #walmart

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In his article today, Sam Silverstein from Grocery Dive, calls out the key issues confronting retailers as we accelerate up and out the exponential growth curve of tech-fueled innovation. "Rapidly advancing technology is presenting grocers with unprecedented opportunities to move their businesses ahead, but the industry’s tendency to move slowly to test and implement new concepts poses a central challenge for retailers as they look to embrace change, experts said during a webinar on Tuesday. The issue is becoming especially urgent for grocers as artificial intelligence upends long-established processes at the heart of retailing, threatening to put retailers that don’t make adjustments fast enough at a substantial competitive disadvantage, said Gary Hawkins, founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Retail & Technology." This and other key issues were surfaced during the launch webinar for Bionic Retail, my latest book that's now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other bookstores. I was joined by Tom Furphy, Zach Bello, Doug Baker, Shekar Raman, and Mike Stigers for a great discussion around the challenges and opportunities retailers have as they prepare for a future arriving sooner than expected. Thank you to all who joined our spirited discussion! Bionic Retail is now available here: https://lnkd.in/gNDY8baC Center for Advancing Retail & Technology (CART) #retail #retailtech #retailinnovation #retailstrategy #grocery #groceryretail #grocerytech #cpg #cpginnovation #techinnovation #fmcg #fmcgretail https://lnkd.in/gFxcKMXu

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"61% percent of Gen Z individuals voiced intentions to drink less in 2024, which is up from 40% in 2023. Millennials are also joining this movement, with almost half (49%) planning to take a step back from alcohol consumption, representing a 26% spike from the year before." Great to see the below piece via RetailWire (Lavina Suthenthiran) on the overall importance of retailers expanding their wider nonalcoholic drink offerings to keep up with the ever-evolving consumer.   Modern consumers are actively looking for brands that align with their mindsets – which for many are focused on all things “better for you.”   To keep up with the times, retailers must meet these customers where they are through offering products that cater to these more conscious drinkers. Is this consumer shift surprising to you? Should all retailers make this shift?   Full article below:

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I am pleased to share that after two years as Vice President of Finance, Technology, and Operations at bluSPARC, I’ve been asked to take on the role of Chief Growth Officer. Learn more about some of the exciting changes ahead as we continue to use our results-driven approach to create transformational change for leaders and organizations. https://lnkd.in/gub2XNqG #executivecoaching #leadershipdevelopment #organizationalgrowth

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Wow, an actual retailer is making Retail Media Network headlines today. 🤣 After a few weeks of non Retailers making headlines launching RMNs (PayPal, United Airlines) and actual retailer is ramping up their right to win🏆 **2 noteworthy points:** 1️⃣ **Omni-channel**: Costco Wholesale is leveraging their membership model to create an effective omni-channel advertising opportunity that targets consumers online & offline at their physical stores. 📱🛒 2️⃣ **Creating Consumer Value**: Costco plans to use the high profit margins of their advertising network to offset shipping costs and keep prices low, like their famous $4.99 rotisserie chicken. 🍗💸 This strategy is likely to significantly boost Costco’s nascent RMN revenue by 4✖️ according to Mark Williamson BMO Capital Markets estimates their current nascent RMN revenue to be around $225 Million. $900 million at 90% gross profit margins should provide management with many strategic investment opportunities that go far beyond the immediate value the healthy advertising profit margins will provide. 💼📈 Well done Costco Wholesale 💪🏻👏🏻

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DTC/Digital Native Brands struggle to achieve scale. CPG portfolio's are stagnating. Consumers are trading down, and retailers owned brands are disproportionately growing. Target, Costco, Trader Joes, and Aldi owned brands are winning. Now Walmart has launched a formidable new elevated basics brand, BetterGoods. The best way to beat the Amazon/Temu/Shein/TikTok marketplaces is to sell products they don't have.

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PRIME DAY LIVE TAKES: DAY 2 We’re wrapping up the second and final day of Prime Day. It’s looking like Amazon has accomplished its goal of beating last year’s Prime Day performance… by a healthy margin. Not only that, but participation from CPG brands this year felt like the highest it’s ever been! Here are some hot takes from Day 2 (maybe a bit less rosy!): 💹 Are the deals fake? - I got questions about price increases ahead of Prime Day, which has the impression of making the deals seem “fake”. (I think this is trending on Tiktok) - This definitely exists, though it’s not so simple to pull off: requires months of planning. “Reference price” is closely monitored and if it moves ahead of Prime Day, you often have to recreate your deals or restructure - In our categories we actually worried about June or July deals or price matching which would make your reference price too *low*, requiring too deep of a discount brands couldn’t afford. On that topic… 🏷️ Price matching from other platforms is getting worse: - Chewy and Target have started price-matching promos or sales prices which can jeopardize Prime Day deals. - Because of this, it’s becoming almost table-stakes to have unique assortments for different retailers. ♻️ Amazon is emphasizing repurchase behavior: - This year, Amazon showcased deals from brands on “Buy It Again” list (appearing high on the homepage) - S&S coupons were everywhere - a 50% coupon was a great follow-on to a deep discount - The mega brands you know were some of the biggest deals - Apple, Dyson, etc. Best Buy now operates as a 3rd party seller - Paired with less prominent badging of deals, feels like Amazon focused on driving sales a bit more than new product discovery 🛠️ Prime Day also had lots of technical issues: - The Amazon advertising console was down for over an hour last night - Brands experienced several strange, new suppressions that prevented them from running coupons or promos. - Prime Day badging displayed somewhat inconsistently, causing confusion for shoppers (and frustration for brands!) The next 2 weeks is critical. The purpose of Prime Day is—and always has been—new customer acquisition. Brands should specifically target new people who visited their pages. Follow-on promos for people still in cart, emails about the follow-on promos (”Did you miss it?” FOMO is strong!), retargeting ads, and repurchase campaigns should all be launched in the coming days. Finally, want to know if your Prime Day was good? My advice: look at your Best Seller Ranking compared to your direct competitors. It’s the simplest measure of relative performance! You can use a tool like Keepa or Helium10 to track both this and price (to see if any brands pulled price increase tricks!). - - - - - Next week, we’ll be aggregating all of Cartograph’s Prime Day performance data and writing a deeper list of learnings from this year.

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Amazon continuing its test & learn strategy to expand its grocery business. Also noteworthy is that it includes grocery retailers on Amazon.com, not just its own grocery ( continuing to build an ecosystem and offer more to customers) Excerpts: Dive Brief: Amazon announced Tuesday a new grocery subscription available to Prime members and customers using EBT. The subscription, which costs $9.99 per month for Prime members and $4.99 per month for non-Prime members with an EBT card, provides free grocery delivery on orders over $35 across Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market and grocery retailers on Amazon.com such as Cardenas Markets and Save Mart.   The subscription adds to the string of changes Amazon is making to its grocery offerings as it looks to sharpen its presence as a grocer as well as bolster its Prime membership. Dive Insight: Amazon is positioning its new grocery subscription as a “low, monthly fee” that “pays for itself” after one delivery per month. “Our goal is to build a best-in-class grocery shopping experience — whether shopping in-store or online — where Amazon is the first choice for selection, value, and convenience,” Tony Hoggett, senior vice president of worldwide grocery stores at Amazon, said in an emailed statement. “We have many different customers with many different needs, and we want to save them time and money every time they shop for groceries.” Grocery delivery has been one area in particular that Amazon has grappled with recently. In January 2023, Amazon Fresh raised its threshold for free delivery to $150 but then 10 months later lowered that minimum to $100. A month later, Amazon said it started offering grocery delivery and free pickup to non-Prime members in all markets where its Amazon Fresh stores and online services operate, with plans to expand grocery delivery and free pickup from Whole Foods to shoppers who aren’t Prime members. #amazon #grocery #ecosystem

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Are retailers moving fast enough as they build out retail media? Are they setting themselves up to be self-sufficient? Get ready for part 2 of our #RetailMedia series on the Middlemen...we talk about how retailers have begun the process of in-housing their technology, and their slow slide toward becoming digital publishers. Why is it happening slowly? Because display ads on retailers never really worked. We also cover Costco's launch of its Off-site retail media offering, and how (this part is a rant) unsophisticated press coverage is stuck treating all retail media capabilities as one monolithic thing, and holding back an understanding of the business. Some shout outs to Mark Williamson of Costco Wholesale and Michael Halverson of Albertsons Media Collective in this episode as well as a lot of talk about the rise, fall and dispersion of talent from Quotient to the rest of the retailers and vendors who are building out retail media. Spotify https://lnkd.in/esFZiWqY Youtube https://lnkd.in/eW_uHuKZ

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Kohl's is partnering with Instacart to enable super fast delivery. Now, being on the Instacart platform gives Kohl’s more visibility and might win it some new customers who want things in a hurry. So, it's not a bad initiative. The but part is that most of the things Kohl’s sells are discretionary and are not always needed within hours, so this caters to something of a niche audience. The even bigger but is that while this doesn't harm Kohl's, it does not address the core issues of a lack of investment in stores, mundane ranges, and weak pricing compared to retailers like Target. Kohl’s is working on these things, but it needs to fix them if it wants to compete and win market share. In other words, it will take more than fast delivery to revive Kohl’s. Thank you to Inside Retail US for including my thoughts in this article... https://lnkd.in/ePjPfFFh #retail #retailnews #fastdelivery #ecommerce #shipping

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