Guess what? Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud just got a big thumbs-up from the Promotion Optimisation Institute! Best in Class for three distinctions in retail execution (ReX) and five distinctions in enterprise planning (EPx)?
Currently, companies that make things people buy are undergoing some significant changes. People’s tastes are shifting, the market can be unpredictable, and everyone wants quick information. That’s where the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud comes to the rescue! It’s like a super tool that helps these companies face challenges, adapt to changes, and do well in this fast-paced world.
What is Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud?
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud is a comprehensive suite of cloud-based software solutions built on the Salesforce Platform, tailored to the unique demands of the consumer goods industry, enabling brands and retailers to manage operations, elevate customer experiences, and drive revenue by connecting and engaging with retailers, distributors, and customers.
This game-changing solution solves problems that consumer packaged goods companies are having by combining industry-specific features with the power of Salesforce CRM. This speeds up growth, streamlines operations, and boosts productivity across the whole business, from managing customers to managing the supply chain.
Why Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud?
Here are compelling reasons for consumer goods companies to consider utilising the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud
- Made Just for You: Consumer Goods Cloud is like a unique toolbox filled with tools designed specifically for companies that make and sell products to people. These tools help ensure products are on store shelves, manage orders, and plan promotions.
- Sales Made Easier: Imagine if your job was to sell things to stores. This platform makes your work smoother by helping you take orders, keep track of what’s in stock, and set up how products are displayed in stores.
- Promotions that Work: Have you ever seen a sale or special deal in a store? This platform helps companies plan and run those promotions and determine if they work well. This means smarter decisions about what kinds of sales and ads to do.
- See What’s Happening: Imagine you have a magic crystal ball that tells you what people are buying, what’s in stock, and what’s popular. That’s what this platform does—it helps you see what’s happening—it stores and the market to make intelligent choices.
- Anytime, Anywhere: Imagine if you could do your job from anywhere, even outside the office. This platform lets salespeople do their work using their phones or tablets to get things done while they’re out and about.
- Teamwork Made Easy: Sometimes, different company parts need to work together. This platform helps them do that by sharing information and working together smoothly.
- Super Customer Service: Just like how you make friends by being friendly and helpful, companies can build good relationships with the stores they sell to. This platform helps keep track of those relationships and helps the stores get what they need.
- Grow as You Want: Imagine if your favourite plant could keep growing bigger and bigger. This platform is like that—it can get more prominent as the company gets bigger, so it always fits just right.
- Cloud Magic: Do you know how to save your favourite game progress in the cloud? This platform stores all the important stuff in a magical cloud, too. This makes it easier to use, flexible, and saves money on fancy computer stuff.
- Smart Numbers and Reports: Think of this platform as a super-smart calculator that helps the company figure out important things. It makes graphs and reports showing what’s going well and what needs help. And for companies that make and sell products, this platform is even more astonishing.
- One Place for Everything: Just like you might have a special drawer for all your toys, this platform is like a super drawer that holds everything a company needs, from talking to customers to ensuring products are ready to be sold.
- Grow Just Right: Like a cosy blanket that you can stretch out when you get bigger, this platform can be changed to fit exactly how a company works, no matter how big it gets.
- Easy for Everyone: You know how some video games are easy to play, even if you’re not a pro gamer? This platform is made to be simple and easy to use, so even people who aren’t computer experts can use it.
- Super Safe and Strong: Like a superhero’s shield, this platform is solid and safe. It keeps all the company’s critical information locked up tight.
- Friends with Other Tools: This platform can talk to other helpful tools from the same company. It’s like having all your snacks in one lunchbox—everything is easier to find and use.
Features of Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud
1. Enhanced store visit planning
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud offers a more innovative way for field representatives to plan their store visits. It gives them a clear list of important stores to visit, suggestions on what to do, and maps to help them get there faster. This makes their work easier and helps them track how well things are going in different stores.
2. Streamlined store visit execution
When field representatives use Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, they have a super convenient way to get things done. They can do tasks like ensuring products are arranged correctly, managing how much stuff is in stock, dealing with returns, and even asking customers questions. They can use ready-made forms just right for each store, and they can do all this from their phones or tablets, making their work super efficient.
3. Harnessing the power of Einstein AI
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud uses super-smart computer help called Einstein AI. It looks at what people like to buy and what’s happening in the market. Then, it tells the salespeople what might be good to sell together, what customers might want next, and how to talk to customers. This makes the salespeople even better at their jobs and helps stores sell more stuff.
4. Effortless order management and data capture
A really important part is the OMS (order management system) of Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, which helps salespeople take orders and track what’s available in real-time. It’s like using magic to make sure everything is organised and correct. It’s also good at connecting with other computer systems, so orders are processed perfectly.
5. Effective time management
The Consumer Goods Cloud liberates field representatives from time-consuming auditing tasks, enabling them to dedicate their efforts to building meaningful customer relationships. A quick snapshot of store shelves confirms proper arrangements, eliminating the need for manual counting and data entry. This user-friendly solution saves time, empowering representatives to be more efficient and customer-focused.
6. Efficient task management system
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud saves salespeople time by making some tasks quick and easy. For example, they can quickly check if products are in the right place on the shelves without counting them individually. This means they can spend more time helping customers and ensuring they’re happy.
7. Holistic view of operations
The Consumer Goods Cloud is a central hub offering a comprehensive view of sales targets, orders, discounts, and promotions. This panoramic perspective empowers sales managers to orchestrate retail activities precisely, ensuring the seamless execution of business strategies.
8. Optimised route planning and task management
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud empowers field representatives with optimised route plans, actionable insights, and efficient task management tools. This comprehensive approach equips representatives for success by enhancing their understanding of sales targets, streamlining visit execution, and enabling better on-the-go decision-making.
9. Seamless mobile order capture
Sales representatives harness the mobility of the Consumer Goods Cloud to capture orders using mobile devices effortlessly. This feature significantly enhances in-store sales by enabling representatives to engage customers while accurately recording orders in real time.
10. Integration with the Salesforce Cloud Ecosystem
Consumer Goods Cloud seamlessly integrates with other Salesforce clouds, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud. This symbiotic relationship creates a comprehensive ecosystem that facilitates seamless data sharing, enhances collaboration, and empowers retailers to optimise operations across various facets.
11. Customizable store layouts
Retailers utilising the Consumer Goods Cloud benefit from the ability to personalise and assign templates based on store segment categories. This customization drives productivity throughout the entire customer journey, from check-in to check-out.
Strategic business advantages
1. Accelerate growth and drive productivity
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud serves as a singular platform to manage the entire customer journey, spanning demand planning, forecasting, trade promotion, and retail execution. This unification accelerates growth and amplifies productivity, positioning brands and retailers for remarkable success.
2. Optimise customer planning and forecasting
By providing insights into customer buying behaviour and trends, Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud aids in optimising customer planning and forecasting. This data-driven approach enhances resource allocation and pricing decisions, leading to more informed and effective strategies.
3. Improve trade promotion effectiveness
Centralised promotion visibility within the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud enhances the effectiveness of trade promotions. Brands gain a comprehensive view of promotions and their impact on sales, enabling a refined allocation of marketing budgets and maximising promotional outcomes.
4. Unlock perfect retail execution
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud unifies in-store activities, such as inventory management, planogram compliance, and return order processing. This holistic view ensures products are consistently stocked and displayed correctly, driving perfect retail execution.
Latest updates in Consumer Goods Cloud
New Retail Metadata Types the new retail metadata types include
- Product attributes: These attributes describe the products that a brand sells, such as size, colour, and flavour.
- Shelf locations: These locations indicate where products are displayed in stores.
- Promotions: These promotions can increase sales or drive traffic to stores.
Improvements to Trade Promotion Management The upgrades to trade promotion management include the following
- The ability to create and manage promotions more easily.
- The ability to track the effectiveness of promotions.
- The ability to get insights into how promotions are affecting sales
New Features for Customer Service The new features for customer service include
- The ability to view order history and pricing information
- The ability to create and manage cases more easily.
- The ability to get insights into customer satisfaction.
Integration with Salesforce Einstein The integration with Salesforce Einstein provides Consumer Goods Cloud users with access to AI-powered insights, such as demand forecasting and customer segmentation. This can help brands and retailers make better product assortment, pricing, and marketing decisions.
New mobile apps The new mobile apps for Consumer Goods Cloud make it easier for users to access data and collaborate. These apps are available for iOS and Android devices. Check out the below link for more information on the latest update on consumer goods.
Top 6 benefits of Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud
1. Enhanced store planning capabilities
With Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, consumer goods companies have access to the best solution for effective planning and execution. This innovative platform provides sales managers with a complete view of their sales targets, orders, discounts, and promotions, enabling them to make informed decisions. It ensures that all retail activities run smoothly and efficiently. Salesforce is your reliable partner in the consumer goods industry, helping you streamline operations and achieve success in sales.
2. Optimised store layout design
In retail stores, inventory organisation can vary from one store to another. Salesforce CG Cloud offers a solution to personalise and assign templates based on the specific categories of each store. This customization helps improve productivity and efficiency throughout the shopping experience, from check-in to check-out. With Salesforce, businesses can enhance their operations and provide a seamless and tailored shopping experience for their customers.
3. Precise shelf auditing
With Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, managing store shelves and inventory becomes effortless. This powerful solution enhances inventory management, optimises planogram creation, and ensures consistency in visual merchandising. By leveraging features like Einstein Vision, businesses can scan store shelves, track inventory, and identify out-of-stock products. With Consumer Goods Cloud, all essential information about products, pricing, quantities, promotions, and discounts is easily accessible on a mobile device. It empowers businesses to personalise templates based on store categories, boosting productivity and delivering a seamless shopping experience from start to finish.
4. Seamless store visit navigation
The Consumer Goods Cloud empowers field sales representatives, making their activities and shop visits more efficient. Let’s take an example to understand how it works. Imagine sales representatives needing to track each store visit, including essential details like store name, location, duration of visit, expected visit time, and any previous visits. With Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, all this valuable information is easily accessible, enabling sales representatives to work effectively and quickly access essential data. This powerful retail management software enhances retailers’ productivity by ensuring seamless operations and providing a human touch to the sales process.
5. Mobile order capture for enhanced in-store sales
In-store sales have revolutionised the retail industry, driving profitability and enhancing customer satisfaction. With Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, retailers can take their sales to the next level. The mobile-friendly platform enables sales professionals to capture orders while providing helpful product recommendations efficiently. This user-friendly solution ensures smooth order management with accurate pricing, promotions, and discounts. By leveraging Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, retailers can streamline their sales process and deliver an exceptional shopping experience to customers.
6. Thorough surveying for comprehensive insights
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud revolutionises retail management by enabling real-time promotions and seamless team collaboration. Businesses can make better decisions and strategies with all their data on one platform. It also helps gather feedback through surveys, enhancing customer understanding. By leveraging Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, retailers can streamline operations, boost customer satisfaction, and drive growth.
What is its impact on the retail sector?
Physical stores play a crucial role in driving sales in the retail industry. To succeed, retailers must focus on effective store management, product placement, and promotional strategies. That’s where Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud comes in, revolutionising store management services and helping brands build strong customer relationships.
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud is a reliable partner for generating revenue and maximising ROI through enhanced retail execution capabilities. With its advanced analytics powered by Einstein AI, this cloud-based solution provides valuable business intelligence to tackle complex challenges.
One of the remarkable impacts of the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud is its ability to empower field representatives. They can ensure store shelves are always well-stocked and aligned with the correct pricing and promotions. Additionally, sales executives can forge strong connections with retail channel partners, fostering collaboration and driving business growth.
Retail companies can confidently rely on Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud to achieve their goals and gain a competitive edge in the market. By leveraging this platform’s capabilities, they can optimise store operations, enhance customer experiences, and propel their business forward.
Catalysts for adopting the Consumer Goods Cloud
1. Scalability for the business
Consumer goods companies need a solution to meet their unique needs and help them stand out in a competitive market. Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud provides the tools and data to achieve industry-leading standards and drive growth. It offers actionable insights and information that enable informed decision-making, improving sales processes, store visits, and deliveries.
2. Future state readiness
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud empowers businesses to stay ahead by unlocking market differentiators and focusing on strategic activities. It streamlines processes, saves time, and allows resources to be allocated to value-added tasks. Features like in-store visit management and task tracking help field representatives prioritise their work. In contrast, trade promotion management capabilities optimise sales forecasting and planning.
3. Building on your existing suite
Many consumer goods companies already use Salesforce as their CRM platform. With Salesforce CG Cloud, they can enhance their existing suite to meet industry-specific needs. By integrating Field Service Lightning, businesses gain a 360-degree view of retail activities, improve customer segmentation, and increase field representative efficiency. This integrated solution aligns with business goals and ensures a unified Salesforce architecture.
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud pricing
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud offers different pricing modules tailored to the specific needs of contractors, merchandisers, field sales representatives, and strategic sales teams.
1. Contractor – $75 USD/user/month
This module allows contractors to manage their tasks effectively, track store visits, and collaborate with the sales team.
2. Merchandiser – $100 USD/user/month
With this module, merchandisers can streamline workflows, improve product visibility, and drive sales growth.
3. Field Sales – $175 USD/user/month
This module empowers field sales teams to maximise their productivity and drive revenue growth.
4. Strategic Sales – $325 USD/user/month
With strategic sales, organisations can unlock growth opportunities, strengthen customer relationships, and drive strategic business outcomes with AI.
| Features of Salesforce consumer goods cloud | Contractor $ 75 USD/user/month* | Merchandiser $ 100 USD/user/month* | Field Sales $ 175 USD/user/month* | Strategic Sales $ 325 USD/user/month* |
| Consumer Goods Data Model | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Visit Planning | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Visit Execution | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Einstein Vision for Consumer Goods Cloud | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mobile Order Capture | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Einstein Visit Recommendations | ❌ | ❌ | 600 included; more can be purchased | 600 included, more can be purchased |
| Salesforce Maps | Routing Capabilities | Routing Capabilities | Basic Scheduling Capabilities | Advanced Scheduling Capabilities |
These pricing options enable businesses to choose the module that aligns with their specific sales needs and budget.
Conclusion
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud empowers retailers to thrive in today’s competitive retail landscape. By leveraging its robust features and capabilities, retailers can streamline sales operations, drive growth, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. With its intuitive interface, advanced analytics, and seamless collaboration, Consumer Goods Cloud revolutionises how retailers engage with customers, manage sales teams, and make strategic business decisions.
