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How to Optimize Your Direct to Store Delivery Operations With Van Sales Automation?

Shipping good takes time, which means delivering directly to locations is common among modern e-retailers.

When looking at the bigger picture, getting your products to your customer faster means increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately more sales.

Van sales automation can alleviate a lot of the headaches that come with managing deliveries, managing delivery routes, monitoring drivers, and generating reports.

This blog lets you see some tips on optimizing your direct-to-store delivery operations with van sales automation.

What Is Direct To Store Delivery?

Direct to store delivery (DSD) is a model that allows the manufacturers of a product to deliver it straight to the point of sale, i.e., the stores, skipping the wholesale process.

A study published by the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association in 2008 stated that although only 24 percent of in-store merchandise were DSDs, this same 24 percent delivered 52 percent of total profits.

How Is DSD Delivery Different From Distributor-led Delivery?

Unlike distributor-led delivery, direct-to-store delivery is not just about delivering products to stores. It’s more than that.

A DSD delivery process is an end-to-end solution for FMCG companies with a massive network of distributors, wholesalers, retailers, and dealers.

It helps streamline the entire sales cycle and optimize supply chain management from product distribution to inventory and order processing.

The primary difference between distributor-led delivery and direct-to-store delivery is that in the latter model, the FMCG companies sell their products directly to the retailers through their own sales force instead of distributors.

Benefits Of Implementing A Direct Store Delivery Model

The advantages of D2S are apparent. Here are some of the most important:

1. Enables Quick Time To Market

DSD is an efficient way to get products from the manufacturer or supplier onto retail shelves as quickly as possible.

In many cases, manufacturers can fulfill orders and send them directly to the retailer’s distribution center within one day.

Almost 50% of consumers say that digital retailers meet their delivery speed expectations nearly half the time.

2. Higher Gross Margin Percentages

Since products are going directly from the point of origin to their final destination, a direct store delivery model helps reduce overhead costs and avoid extra expenses, such as storage fees.

3. More Personalized Service

You can build strong relationships with retailers with direct store delivery while offering more personalized service and sales support.

Since you’re shipping your products directly to retailers’ doors, you can customize each order based on their needs, preferences, and specifications.

4. Reduces Inventory 

The DSD model allows retailers to manage their inventory better. With this model, they can regularly receive new product shipments based on actual demand from customers.

It allows retailers to stock up on necessary items at optimal levels without worrying about storage costs or excess inventory that may not sell well.

Tips To Optimize Your Direct To Store Delivery Operations With Van Sales Automation

1. Manage Your Complex Supply Chain

Van sales software can simplify your complex supply chain. You can customize the software according to your business needs and access all data from one place.

When you have a centralized database, you will have better control over your business and make better decisions for the future.

2. Gain Real-time Visibility

Automated systems give you real-time insights into all aspects of your business, including customer accounts and inventory levels.

You will be able to track orders in real-time, leading to faster deliveries and increased customer satisfaction. Also, you can quickly identify any problems before they escalate further.

3. Boost Productivity And Efficiency

When you automate repetitive tasks such as managing inventory, calculating tax, processing orders, etc., all employees will be more productive and efficient in their jobs.

It will also free up valuable time that they can spend on more productive tasks such as marketing or developing new products or services for the company.

4. Streamline Your Direct Store Delivery Operations

A big part of van sales automation is streamlining the order processing process by automating it. When customers place an order, they can expect it to be delivered quickly and efficiently.

Orders are sent directly to the warehouse, generating picking lists and processing charges with minimal manual intervention or errors.

Summing Up

The bottom line is that Van Sales Application can help streamline and improve your direct-to-store delivery operations. We recommend you try it out and see how much time, money, and stress you will save.

How To Improve FMCG Sales During Covid?

After the pandemic, sales numbers in the FMCG sector are usually a cause of concern for most companies. It is a time when people are not sure if they need to continue buying the product, and hence sales drop.

According to Insight Market, April sales in the FMCG segment fell 34%. After experiencing single-digit growth in the first quarter, companies have found ways to combat this dip in FMCG sales software by introducing discounts on their products or even a buy one get one free offer.

So this blog comes with several ideas to improve FMCG sales.

Let’s get started!

FMCG During The COVID World

In the years before the pandemic, the consumer goods industry was booming and undergoing significant changes. Since mid-2018, the industry has slowed, with a steady decline in growth by January/February 2020, with teen growth rates nearly halving.

FMCG players have attempted to compete by cutting prices and increasing consumer offerings in this scenario. The FMCG sector in India has recently increased faster than its urban counterparts, FMCG products are about half of the total rural spending.

With about 12% of the world’s population, which live in villages in India, the Indian national FMCG market is the driving force for the entire industry. FMCG companies plan to develop their national affiliates by introducing small packages for goods that are likely to fit people’s incomes in India’s countryside.

This is an excellent example of how companies constantly develop new growth strategies to increase FMCG sales.

Ideas To Improve FMCG Sales During COVID

1. Create A New Sales Strategy

The world of FMCG sales is constantly changing, and it takes a keen eye to stay relevant. By using the proper marketing techniques, you can get customers to notice your brand more often, which leads to higher sales.

Salespeople must be able to analyze the needs of their clients and try to anticipate their future needs. They must also know how to create long-term strategies to meet those needs.

This may involve working with different departments in the company and with external partners to serve customers better. Then, the sales department collaborates closely with marketing, operations, public relations to achieve their sales goals with sales force automation FMCG.

Another example is that using social media is one of the best ways to update your sales plan. Social media is an excellent tool for FMCG brands because it helps marketers connect with their target audience in an authentic way that’s not too pushy or sales-focused.

2. Improve Communication With Retailers

Communication is the key to any successful business, especially in the FMCG sector during covid. Since communication between two parties is an interactive process, it is crucial that each party involved in a transaction can correctly convey their requirements and expectations.

Communication between FMCG brands and retailers is an essential part of increasing sales. Retailers are responsible for stocking and selling products and providing in-store services to customers.

The relationship is concurrently beneficial for both parties: FMCG brands provide retailers with products, which they can sell at a profit. In return, retailers offer brands the exposure from being present in their stores.

With the FMCG sales app, brands can build positive relationships with their retailers because communication between the two parties can affect sales, distribution, and overall brand marketing. Bad communication can result in negative consequences.

Nowadays, using digital media to stay in touch with retailers has become the “new normal.” Not only is it easy and convenient to communicate, but it also helps build business loyalty and send great offers to existing customers.

3. Efficient Inventory Management

The inventory management of an FMCG Product is a highly complex process. Many factors affect the sales and the demand for the products.

Therefore, it has to be appropriately managed with specific steps to be followed with FMCG sales force automation software, which will help allocate the resources and manage the inventory efficiently.

  • The first step is to examine and assess the effect of various factors on sales like advertising, weather conditions, seasons, competitive activities, and many more.
  • The second step is to plan and implement while keeping in mind the sales forecasted and desired levels of stocks.
  • The third step is to make sure you’re always stocking up on the best-selling products. Be aware of how your sales are doing. The moment you notice a dip in sales, restock your shelves with more of those items.

4. Advanced Visual Merchandising Audits

In the past three years, visual merchandising has become one of the most powerful tools to increase sales of FMCG products.

Visual merchandising audits are essential for retailers and brand owners to understand how customers perceive their products, which is crucial in optimizing their products’ positioning, display, and overall marketing mix.

Retailers can use visual merchandising audits to improve the effectiveness of their entire marketing mix. For example, to enable successful visual merchandising audits, careful planning is required to ensure that all the information needed is collected.

So, the visual merchandising audit summarises the shop layout and merchandising strategy to identify any opportunity to improve sales.

5. Make the Field Force Process More Automated

COVID-related restrictions make it difficult for companies to ensure that front-line workers meet compliance and performance standards.

At the same time, manually collecting and analyzing this data and applying different policies to improve standards can be a daunting process for businesses.

So, simply automating the process of collecting sales or service information onsite in real-time using communication technology (usually a handheld computer, wireless device, or mobile phone) with an FMCG field sales app can improve productivity.

To Wrap Up Things

Some marketers are still not focusing on the digital aspect of the FMCG markets. This is a huge mistake, as digital provides much more information about what customers want, and it helps to increase sales.

This article will provide you with five steps to improve your FMCG sales during Covid. As a business owner, you can rest assured of the challenges in improving your business due to this deadly pandemic with these simple steps.

Scope & Challenges before Food & Beverage Industry

It can be found these days food and beverage industry is the fastest-growing sector generating exceptionally high revenue. The main reason behind this fact is the busy life and cosmopolitan lifestyle of people around the world. We can see most of the families are now depending on processed foods and drinks due to various reasons.

Further, it can be also noticed that the sector is having immense future opportunities. Therefore, we can find every day more players are jumping into the food and beverage industry as it promising sector where companies earn huge returns on their investments. However, when it comes to food and beverage products people usually do not trust the new brands as these products are directly associated with the health of an individual and their family. That is why new players or brands in the market need better exposure to enlighten the core competencies of their products.

As we all know Horlicks and Complan are leading brands when it comes to health drinks. The products have many segments with different features like taste, color, composition, and benefits. These products use all the best mediums to promote their products as well as always present something new to their targeted audiences and potential customers. If you are launching a new health drink in any name the foremost challenge in front of your product will be how you can increase awareness about your product. As we know health drinks are usually related to children and any parent cannot afford to take any kind of risk. Therefore, you need the best medium to interact with your customers as well as get their feedback to bring improvements in your product and accordingly sales and marketing strategies.

The present era is the age of social media where a company can interact and increase awareness about its product without any direct contact with its customers. In order to become a brand, you need to be at the mouth of your targeted customers whenever they approach the market for buying your product. If we talk about marketing strategy packaging of products also plays a crucial role in its promotion. If we talk about the food and beverage industry your product must be easy to carry and at the same time attract the attention of buyers. Suppose if you are selling beer or cold drink the packing should not be dull and when the buyer going to consume it should open up easily. In case the buyer of your product finds it a cumbersome process to open the bottle or can of any beer or cold drink he or she may switch to some other brand for comfort.

In the same way, a company can make its product favored brand of its customers by showing the procedure to cooking or using it on its packet. As we know anyone can be your brand loyal customer and in case if your customer doesn’t know the process of using your product then in confusion he or she may choose some or brand, which indicates him or her about proper usage of its product. Suppose if we talk about noodles or any canned food product your customer can be a busy professional or maybe a student who hardly knows about cooking. In such cases, you can make your product more user-friendly by showing directions for cooking it on its packet. Further, it is also required your product must be easy to cook and have all the stuff required to cook it. In addition, if the product cooking process is consuming less time of buyer then it will serve as an added benefit in making the product a favored brand of its targeted customers.

In order to make any food and beverage product, a brand a company cannot avoid writing its compositions, manufactured, and expiry date. We can see consumers are becoming very conscious about the composition, manufactured date, and expiry date of the products they are purchasing. If a food and beverage company’s product is showing all these can win the trust of its customers as well as can become the favored brand of its targeted customers. If your company is manufacturing chocolates and sweets you can mention the quantity of sugar, caramel, coffee, and so on used for manufacturing your product. In case a beverage manufacturing is offering diet drinks it can also mention its composition so that consumers’ consciousness about their weight can judge the drink before consumption. Further, customers can also go through the expiry date before purchasing any food or beverage product. All this will make a food and beverage product company a reliable choice of its customers and the products will get a competitive edge in the market.

Sales and marketing of any food and beverage producers are necessary and at the same time if the management of the company is getting correct information about buyers’ choices it will help in prompt decision making. Further, the companies need to have reliable information about the stock holding of different distributors and sales returns made by them. It is also essential to track whether food and beverage companies offering discounts or offers to customers are reaching to them or not in different geographical areas. In absence of all these, it will be an impossible job for any company to grab brand loyal and potential customers. For all such issues sales force automation software can do the best job for you. The app is user-friendly and can be installed easily on android phones and tablets.