Kristen Groh currently leads the Consumer Products industry for North America and has been with Publicis Sapient for over nine years. She is responsible for growing and managing a large portfolio of client business, leading a cross-functional team, and driving new business in the Consumer Goods (CG) vertical. Kristen believes that experience drives brand affinity and that data beats opinion. She is based in Chicago.
With everyone in a work-from-home mode and not going into stores as often, consumer behaviors have shifted significantly toward shopping online. Early on, we saw many retailers struggling with supply chain and distribution challenges that their businesses were not equipped to handle. Consumers began to shift to brands that offered a direct-to-consumer (D2C) solution.
In line with the D2C offering, we have also seen new channels emerging, such as social media platforms. Instagram, Facebook, and even TikTok now have commerce capabilities built into their platforms.
From the manufacturers’ perspective, there are major challenges. Retailers are seeing an uptick in ecommerce and are pushing the costs for last-mile distribution back down to manufacturers, reducing their profit margins. Alternatively, those who are going direct are having to absorb these costs themselves—sourcing their own supply chain and delivery, warehousing, and distribution centers—all aspects that were not part of their system prior to the pandemic.
We saw consumers start to shift to brands that had a direct-to-consumer (D2C) solution for them.
Salesforce reacted early by creating an easy, out-of-the-box solution for their clients to stand up D2C. We were able to partner with Salesforce on a four-week stand-up, as well as with a third party who supported the distribution portion of the offering. This allowed customers to easily shift their model to keep pace in the current environment.
Salesforce also recently announced a new offering, Digital 360, which is a good progression from the initial D2C offering. Digital 360 now incorporates not just Commerce Cloud, but also Marketing Cloud and Experience Cloud (formerly Communities). It all comes together in a single offering that could be the next evolution as CG companies go direct to consumer.
One of the indirect value propositions of this all-in-one offering and going direct to consumers is the first-party data capture.
A key piece in this evolution is the launch of Audience 360, Salesforce’s version of a Customer Data Platform (CDP), which ties together the D2C offering, the data, and the insights to further personalize and better engage with customers. We are excited to have been named one of five inaugural partners on this launch, which will help drive further engagement for our clients.
In the middle of March 2020, there was a lockdown in France due to COVID, which resulted in all retailers being required to close. Our client, a luxury pet food company, was put at risk as over 60% of their business was done through brick-and-mortar locations. In partnership with Publicis Sapient France, we worked to better serve household pets by launching an emergency D2C Flagship Store Express for France.
The goal was to migrate over 100 SKUs of dry cat and dog food, create a secure payment processor that included guest checkout, as well as a help page and call center. After only two weeks, we were able to successfully deploy this solution, resulting in over 230 unique orders in its first week through only organic traffic, and conversion rates increased from around 2% to around 6% on average.
The best opportunities arise when we can come together with the client and recognize Salesforce as having a unique offering that helps deliver the value proposition we have defined along with the client. The 360 solution is a great example, as it brings together all the pieces of what we are trying to do and unites the whole ecosystem of engagement. It’s that moment when you hit the sweet spot of aligning their offering, and we are able to help our clients solve their business and technology problems.
There is truly end-to-end inclusivity within the Salesforce culture; there is excitement from developers and administrators all the way through to executives. They have created a space that allows people to grow with it, regardless of how they are engaging with Salesforce and regardless of level. Another thing that stands out is the depth of knowledge and interest in the business problem. Every conversation is authentically centered on the clients, and Salesforce does a great job at creating an environment where they go beyond seeing you as an implementer and instead partner to create the best solution for a client.
One of the indirect value propositions of this all-in-one offering and going direct to consumers is the first-party data capture.