Flying Embers
Trax Dynamic Merchandising helped an organic kombucha manufacturer to improve On Shelf Availability and the retail insights to launch a new SKU
Producing organic sparkling probiotic tea, the kombucha brand launched into 900 stores nationally, with a small sales team. Managing tight deadlines and a new nation-wide retail footprint, the team needed help for the “sprint to the shelf”.
500-600
Placements in new stores
SKU development
New opportunity identified
25%
Increase in retail presence
The Challenge
The brand needed strong early launch results in more than 900 stores belonging to a major US retailer. As a result of selling within a tiered system; first to a distributor and then a retailer, the beverage manufacturer lost visibility to the presentation of products in-store and how the shelf was changing. They required a way to have coverage across all stores despite having a small team, to identify and correct retail execution issues and also to spot new market opportunities quickly.
- Chief Strategy Officer
“Trax brings visibility at retail execution as part of our go-to-market-strategy. Trax has helped us get on shelf, and stay on shelf”
The Results
Ensured national coverage
Trax Fieldforce provides retail coverage for launch and growth stages. Trained retail representatives visited every store, merchandised, replenished shelves with back stock, identified out of stocks, documented product placement, and more. The work was captured via mobile, and data and photos were summarized in a dashboard.
Identified new market opportunities
Data collected from multiple signals such as real-time shelf conditions and inventory data highlighted additional insights for the team; some retailers were separating cans from four-packs and selling individual cans. This visibility into shopper behavior shaped future product introductions.
- VP of Strategy
“Without asking consumers, we learned about a major market opportunity because we had Trax Dynamic Merchandising acting as our eyes and ears in the field…They are an extension of our sales team.”
The Bottom Line
Using Trax Dynamic Merchandising the brand discovered that its products were missing from approximately one-fifth of stores. Leveraging the AI-driven merchandising platform and real-time images, the team was able to quickly identify gaps in compliance and fix the most urgent inventory issues first. Data collected using Trax also highlighted that 15% to 20% of the stores were breaking up the four-pack, validating that there would be strong consumer demand for a single pack type. This led to a stronger product line-up, with the launch of a single-can SKU. Overall, the brand, now found in 2500 stores, was able to drive a 25% increase in its retail presence with up to 600 new product placements.
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