Today, sales management is increasingly driven by promotions, product launches and seasonal sales activities. With shortening product life cycles and volatile consumer behavior, you must maximize sales during these key “moments of truth”. What does it take to succeed? Most importantly, you need to know what’s happening at the point-of-sale.
Tech manufacturers have been basing their strategic decisions on GfK’s POS Tracking for decades. But tactical sales management is different. To stay competitive and meet targets, sales, marketing and product teams need more frequent insights into sell-out performance to spot and act on opportunities and weaknesses. With the addition of our mobile app, weekly data will be an early warning system anywhere, anytime.
What difference can weekly POS data make for the business?
Let’s take a look at weekly POS in action.
1. Deep dive into sales week by week
With our monthly reporting you know what was sold, which channels performed best, how the competition is doing, and the bestsellers. However, by detecting under- and over-performing areas across all channels on a weekly basis, sales managers can take immediate corrective action to improve the efficiency of the salesforce or distribution network and negotiate with high-potential retailers.
2. Track price developments efficiently
Monthly average prices can be helpful when creating a pricing strategy, but of course prices fluctuate during a month. Tactical pricing decisions need continuous attention. How much will consumers pay for a product? Am I selling at the right price? Is my competitor’s pricing better than mine? Crucially, Pricing and Product Managers need to understand the maximum price achievable for a product depending on the stage in its lifecycle. Weekly sell-out data brings valuable insight into pricing decisions on sales performance.
3. Maximize the impact of marketing campaigns
Sales and Marketing Managers need to optimize their trade marketing spend. Regardless of the activity – price or in-store sales promotions, or advertising displays – they need granular insights on sales uplift versus budget invested. Monthly data may show a sales increase in the respective month, but weekly POS provides detailed sales data to track the promotion’s impact shortly after the actual sales took place. More frequent reporting allows sales and marketing teams to maximize impact by acting fast, such as continuing promotional activity that delivers an uplift, or terminating a campaign that fails to deliver.
4. Optimize distribution during seasonal events
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Singles’ Day – special events dominate the retail calendar. Today, Black Friday is the most important sales peak for retailers outside China. While our monthly POS data will show that November was a very strong month, the weekly view will allow you compare Black Friday against Cyber Monday and analyze sales performance on channel level.
5. Monitor market acceptance during launch
Launches are the ultimate “moments of truth”. Whether you introduce a new product, feature or product line, you need rapid feedback on performance. Weekly POS data provides performance data to support adjustments to a launch strategy. It also provides objective sales KPIs to better negotiate with merchandising planners and buyers on the retail side.
6. Reporting based on objective insights
Headquarters expect weekly reports on sales performance across countries and regions. Country Managers need quick access to objective performance insights at product, country and category level to define and implement counter-actions. Weekly POS data provides reliable KPIs on SKU level to understand the performance.
Be in-the-know while on-the-go
You need the right insights to take informed, tactical sales decision fast – anytime, anywhere. Our Android/iOS App GfK Performance Pulse equips you with weekly sell-out data, so you are always prepared for retail sales pitches. Benefit from at-a-glance summaries of market share, sell-out performance, strongest competitor, fastest mover and best-selling models to support discussions with retailers on product listings, distribution, and trade-marketing.
Weekly POS is more than “monthly” data divided by four:
- Timely answers to quickly and confidently identify where corrective action is required.
- Tactical sell-out insights for your own and competing products – the full picture across all relevant channels, online and offline.
- Easy access – also via app – and simple sharing with sales teams for timely course-corrections and to maximize your product’s “moments of truth”.
Want to know more about POS tracking?
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