What Is Retail Execution? A Complete Guide with Winning Strategies

Retail success isn’t just about having the right products; it’s about ensuring they reach the right shelves, at the right time, in the right way. Yet, multiple businesses unknowingly hinder their growth by not executing this process effectively.  Also, did you know that due to poor product placements and merchandising, businesses lose up to 25% of their total sales? (G2) Perhaps this is the ideal time for companies to reassess their retail execution strategies.

Let’s face it, without a structured retail execution strategy, businesses risk losing not just sales but their competitive edge. 

The solution? 

A smarter, more connected approach to retail execution that ensures every product placement, promotion, and store visit is optimized for success. Let’s dive deeper into understanding retail store execution, challenges that businesses can encounter, and fruitful strategies for overcoming those challenges. So, without further ado, let us begin!

What is Retail Execution?

Retail Execution can be referred to as the process of planning, executing, and improving the activities needed to ensure that products are available and well-placed in stores. This helps to increase consumer purchases at retail locations.

Core components of retail execution:

• Merchandising:

This involves selecting the right product assortment based on planograms that align with consumer preferences and market trends. It ensures maximum product visibility, display consistency, and strategic pricing that eventually enhances customer experience.

• Inventory Management:

Tracking stock levels is essential to avoid stockouts or overstock situations. Effective inventory management includes timely reordering of products to maintain optimal stock levels, ensuring that popular items are always in stock for customers.

• Promotions:

Planning and executing promotional campaigns, events, and discounts are key strategies to attract shoppers and boost sales. It can be done by various types of loyalty programs that create excitement and encourage customers to make repeat purchases.

• Performance Analysis:

Tracking and analyzing sales performance, consumer behavior, and store operations provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of retail strategies. This data can help determine the effectiveness of previously run promotional campaigns and also act as a guiding light for future strategies. 

• Strong Relationships:

Establishing strong relationships with retailers is crucial for successful in-store promotions and overall collaboration. This not only facilitates smoother operations but can also lead to better product placements during negotiations.

• Staff Training:

Educating retail associates about the products is crucial for effective selling. When the staff has good knowledge and understanding of the product and its benefits, they’re more likely to upsell and cross-sell products more effectively. 

Why Does Retail Execution Matter?

Here are a few strong reasons that validate the importance of retail execution for businesses and large retail stores:

Improved Brand Visibility

When the consumer goods are strategically placed on shelves that can catch the eyes of the customers in the retail stores, the brand visibility gets improved. This improved brand visibility allows retailers to give a scope of interaction of their products and eventually become brand loyalists.

Better Competitive Edge

Successfully executing this strategy gives businesses/ retailers a competitive edge in the highly competitive landscape. As retail execution covers the aspects of strategic pricing, retailers know that one misplaced product placement can lead to a lost sale for them and a sale surplus for their competition.

Boosted Customer Experience

When the in-demand products are available in stores and attractively placed for the customers, the customer’s overall in-store shopping experience gets boosted.

Smooth Operations Execution

The overall operations in stores and for the field reps run smoothly with retail execution. This happens as reps can easily track the inventory levels, measure the demands of the products that are highly likely to be purchased by the customers, and avoid overstock and stock-out situations.

Enhanced Sales Revenue

Eventually, the brand’s/ retailer’s can experience enhanced sales revenue as all the crucial components of retail execution work in sync and coordination.

Challenges Businesses Can Encounter While Executing

Imagine launching a new product with high hopes, only to find:

• The product is buried in a corner of the store, overshadowed by competitors
• It gets out of stock when demand peaks
• Promotions that never get properly displayed
• Sales reps struggle to prioritize store visits
• Store managers remain clueless about performance due to scattered data.

Well, this is the chaotic situation and which amounts to us shedding light on some of the crucial challenges of retail execution: 

Execution Gap 

There’s a lack of proper execution of strategy, as many businesses step in without proper planning. This can lead to inefficiency in processes like routing, strategic planning, product placements, and pricing segregation. This can eventually put a lot of load on the ground staff to manually take care of everything and eventually lead to delays, errors, and loss of sales.

Compliance Regulation

The big retail chains like Keells, that operate in various geographical locations, need to adhere to all the retail compliance regulations. Handling multiple locations, their POS machinery, and customer data security, all while adhering to compliance, can become a tedious task. Plus, keeping a tab manually with fragmented data sources can pose a threat for smooth operations.

Difficulty in Quantifying the Data

There’s often no real-time data available for measuring the inventory levels or even for tallying customers’ preferences and past purchases. This inefficiency in having quantifiable data can lead to poor planning and sales estimation, leading to unsold goods and unfulfilled customer demand.

Coordination with the Field Reps

There are multiple store reps involved in the process of successful retail execution. However, the real challenge arises when there is a lack of orchestration and coordination between them. There are skill gaps, inadequate mentor support, and no offline availability of mobile applications when they are in no network zones, like basements or warehouses. This can lead to severe mismanagement and no timely delivery of crucial data that can make or break your business’s sales.

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud: Solution for Consumer Goods Retail Execution 

• According to a report by Salesforce, 52% of Consumer Goods leaders want better visibility into their inventory, and the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud helps exactly with that.
  Think of Retail Execution as managing a worldwide product launch in different markets. Each local team, including field representatives, store managers, and marketing teams, plays an important role in adapting and putting the launch plan into action. However, without a central system (like Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud) to track compliance and performance in real-time, their efforts can become uncoordinated and inconsistent across various regions.
  
  Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud is the best retail execution software. Here’s why? 

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, combined with the Retail Execution mobile app, provides a robust framework for enhancing retail execution. Here’s what it helps with:

• Provides detailed information on accounts, orders, promotions, and product assortments.
• Utilizes map coordinates and driving directions to generate efficient routes for field representatives.
• Extends capabilities with Lightning App Builder and Flows for page customization and automated tasks.
• Optimizes action plans and order placements to expand business possibilities.
• Gathers metrics for stores and products to analyze performance and ensure compliance.
• Allows field reps to capture data and execute tasks even without internet connectivity through its offline mobile app.

Even AI agents from Agentforce are essential for retail execution. They provide the tools needed to manage and improve retail operations. These tools help field representatives and sales managers in their work, like:

• Use mobile apps and analytics to plan visits and prioritize tasks.
• Record data on the go, even in areas with poor connectivity.
• Use advanced analytics to gain insights into store and rep performance.
• Automate and streamline various retail execution processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

See how Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud boosted retail management and sales performance for a leading brand.

Winning Strategies for Optimal Retail Execution Management        

Here are some handpicked customer goods retail execution best practices that can be considered for favourable results:

• Invest in retail execution software and AI tools for real-time insights and automation. For example, Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud’s mobile app allows reps to check inventory and reorder products offline. Engage with reputed Salesforce implementation partners to understand your customization and implementation needs and their alignment with Salesforce solutions. 

• Use visually appealing displays and promotions to attract customers. Conduct surveys to understand preferences and improve offerings. Embrace automation and personalization to meet evolving consumer demands. Integrate online and offline channels for a seamless digital experience, leveraging platforms like Instagram for engagement.

• Utilize predictive analytics AI in retail execution to maintain optimal stock levels and prevent stockouts. Standardize displays with planograms and conduct regular audits to ensure compliance.

Final Words

Effective retail execution is essential for businesses to boost sales and stay competitive. However, if you find it challenging to adopt Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud for retail execution, you are not alone. Many businesses face similar challenges. But here’s a catch: you can overcome these hurdles by reaching out to top Salesforce consulting partners like Cyntexa.

With our years of experience and hands-on Salesforce expertise, our team of experts can not only provide you with valuable insights but also help you execute them with perfection.

So don’t hesitate to take the first step toward improving your retail execution strategy today! Contact our team today!

AUTHOR

Vishwajeet Srivastava

Salesforce Data Cloud, AI Products, ServiceNow, Product Engineering

Co-founder and CTO at Cyntexa also known as “VJ”. With 10+ years of experience and 22+ Salesforce certifications, he’s a seasoned expert in Salesforce Data Cloud & AI Products, Product Engineering, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, ServiceNow, and Managed Services. Known for blending strategic thinking with hands-on expertise, VJ is passionate about building scalable solutions that drive innovation, operational efficiency, and enterprise-wide transformation.