Retail Growth Approaches

If more of your store sales start on TikTok lately, you might wanna read this. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦. The checkout happens in-store. But the sale happens everywhere else. Here's the reality: This year 60%+, and in 2027, 70% of retail sales will be digitally influenced. I can't emphasize this enough; here's what most brands miss—digital influence isn't just about online sales. It's about shaping every moment before the customer even walks into your store. L'Oréal cracked this code: 100M+ AR try-on sessions driving real conversions. 31 brands orchestrating seamless experiences across 72 countries. No.1 in beauty influencer marketing (29% market share), 20-80% higher conversion rates through enhanced digital experiences. The new customer journey isn't linear—it's layered: - They discover you on social - Research you through reviews and UGC - Try your product virtually through AR - Get retargeted with personalized content - Finally purchase in-store (feeling confident they're making the right choice) Every touchpoint matters, and every interaction influences the final decision. The brands winning today aren't just selling products—they're orchestrating experiences across owned, paid, and earned media that guide customers from curiosity to checkout. Digital discovery is increasingly pay-to-play and shoppers are paying attention. ++ Tactical Recommendations for CPG / FMCG Brands ++ 1. Beyond just having perfect, high SOV product pages, create discovery ecosystems. - Optimize for "zero-moment-of-truth" searches. - Activate shoppable content at scale. - Leverage user-generated content as social proof. Brands that do these see a 35% higher conversion rate from digital touchpoints to in-store purchases. 2. Connect digital engagement directly to retail execution. - Geo-target digital campaigns to drive foot traffic - Create "store-specific" digital content CPG brands using geo-targeted social ads see a 23% higher in-store sales lift in targeted markets. 3. Most important one; stop flying blind—measure digital influence on offline sales. - Implement unique promo codes for each digital touchpoint to track conversion paths. - Use customer surveys at point of purchase. - Partner with retailers on shared data insights Brands with proper attribution see 15-25% improvement in marketing ROI within 12 months. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟰,𝟲𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁® : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. #CPG #FMCG #AI #ecommerce Procter & Gamble PepsiCo Unilever The Coca-Cola Company Nestlé Mondelēz International Kraft Heinz Ferrero Mars Colgate-Palmolive Henkel Bayer Haleon Kenvue The HEINEKEN Company Carlsberg Group Philips Samsung Electronics Panasonic North America

CFO: We're shifting all marketing to DR. Brand building is a luxury we can't afford. CMO: That's exactly what Figs tried in 2023. Want to know how that worked out? CFO: They're a billion-dollar company, so probably great? CMO: Let me walk you through their 18-month brand journey. It's a masterclass in what not to do. CFO: I'm listening, but skeptical. CMO: Phase 1: February 2023. Figs was spending 15% of revenue on a balanced marketing approach—brand building and customer acquisition. CFO: Sounds inefficient. CMO: Phase 2: May 2023. They pivoted to "marketing efficiency" by cutting brand spend and focusing entirely on DR and immediate customer acquisition. CFO: That's exactly what I'm proposing! Smart move. CMO: Phase 3: February 2024. Their earnings call revealed the truth. They admitted they'd gone "too far" from their previous approach. CFO: Wait, what happened? CMO: Their growth stalled. They realized they needed a more balanced strategy with product launches and storytelling campaigns. CFO: But did they actually change course? CMO: Phase 4: Mid-2024. They completely reversed strategy, returning to balancing short-term acquisition with long-term brand equity. CFO: So they went full circle? CMO: Exactly. They're now emphasizing top-of-funnel marketing to enhance emotional connection and community engagement—the very things they cut a year earlier. CFO: But what about their bottom line? CMO: That's the point. When they abandoned brand building, their growth plateaued. The short-term efficiency gains couldn't sustain them. CFO: So you're saying we'd be repeating their exact mistake? CMO: It's the classic pendulum swing. Brands panic, cut brand spend for immediate efficiency, then realize they've damaged their growth engine. CFO: But we need to show results now. CMO: Short-term results at the expense of long-term health is exactly how brands get trapped in the discount-dependency cycle. CFO: So what's the alternative? CMO: Balance. We can optimize DR efficiency while maintaining brand investment. It's not either/or—it's both. CFO: I need to see the numbers. CMO: I've already modeled it. We can improve ROAS on our DR spend by 15% through better targeting, which gives us room to maintain our brand investment. CFO: This Figs case study is uncomfortably familiar. CMO: The best time to learn from someone else's mistake is before you make it yourself. CFO: Fine. Show me the balanced approach. But I'll be watching those numbers like Taylor Swift watches her backup dancers. CMO: And I'll deliver results faster than her ticket sales crash Ticketmaster.

#Amazon Growth Isn’t About Spending More, It’s About Spending Smarter. We recently completed a full-scale Amazon audit for a retail brand, and what we uncovered echoes what we’ve seen time and again: Many brands treat Amazon like a media platform. The winning brands treat it like a growth engine. 1. Ad Efficiency ≠ Account Efficiency Many brands have healthy ROAS on paper and think they are doing "great", but are unknowingly cannibalizing organic sales or overspending on branded terms. We deploy a layered campaign architecture that separates acquisition from retention, brand defense from conquesting, so every dollar has a distinct job and measurable impact. 2. Smart Media Spend Should Build Organic Equity Media shouldn’t be a crutch! In most audits, we find that ad budgets are overly concentrated on driving short-term ROAS, with little consideration for long-term keyword rank. Our approach strategically uses paid media to lift visibility on high-opportunity keywords, driving sustained organic growth. This way, over time, you reduce dependency on paid spend as your products begin to win share of voice organically. 3. Product Investment Should Match Lifecycle, Not Just Performance Too often, budgets are allocated based on yesterday’s result, not tomorrow’s opportunity. We utilize a quadrant model to assess each SKU’s role in the portfolio and allocate investment to products with headroom, seasonality, and strategic significance. 4. Content = Conversion Power Every asset (title, bullet, image) either builds trust or creates friction, and with Amazon’s shift to AI-driven and semantic search (hello, #Rufus), PDP content isn’t just SEO, it’s how your brand shows up and gets discovered. Optimizing titles, bullets, and imagery for consumer psychology and Amazon’s evolving algorithm increases visibility, click-through, and conversion in one unified motion. 5. Retail Media Should Power a Full-Funnel Strategy If your strategy begins and ends with Sponsored Products, you're leaving growth on the table. We connect #AMC, DSP, and real-time bidding to move beyond #ROAS, targeting new-to-brand customers, building loyalty loops, and optimizing to LTV, not just last click. Oh, and we track profit like a hawk! Top-performing Amazon programs are integrated, not siloed. They align retail readiness, media, creative, and data into one feedback loop that compounds over time. If you're rethinking how Amazon fits into your broader marketing strategy, I'm happy to have a conversation. If you know me, then you know - no pitch, just perspective.

Over the past 3 years, Walmart has increased its share of households earning over $100,000 by 2.26 percentage points – the highest increase of any income bracket. Our research has also found that, over time, higher income consumers have diverted an ever-greater share of their consumables spending to Walmart, which shows a broad acceptance of the proposition. While most higher income shoppers are satisfied with Walmart, the chain still has opportunities to deepen its relationship with them, especially in non-food categories, both online and in-store. Walmart is jumping on this. Stores are being refreshed to present an elevated, but still great value, proposition. And the marketplace continues to help broaden appeal. That includes the new partnership with Rebag to make its full catalog of about 27,000 luxury products available on the Walmart site. Walmart is not trying to turn into a luxury destination. It's making itself a more rounded destination for all kinds of consumer needs, especially since its core audience is now broader. I chatted with Glossy about the move. Link to article in the comments. #retail #retailnews #luxury #resale #massmerchants #grocery

While social media debates the aesthetics of Walmart's new minimalist logo, there's a deeper story of strategic transformation unfolding. The rebrand is just one piece of a sophisticated market positioning shift that's already showing impressive results. The retail giant is methodically reimagining its market position through several key initiatives: 🥤 Launch of their premium "bettergoods" line in 2024 - their most significant private label food launch in two decades 🏪 Store modernization featuring enhanced lighting and upscale visual merchandising 🤝 Strategic partnerships with celebrity brands and premium product lines (like W by Jake Paul - hi Woodie Hillyard) The numbers speak volumes: 75% of Walmart's recent food market share gains are coming from households earning $100,000+ annually. This isn't just a new logo - it's a masterclass in strategic market evolution. Thoughts on this retail transformation?

Over the past few years, the conversation around profitability in the consumer space has intensified, marking a sharp departure from the previous “growth-at-all-costs” mindset. This approach, borrowed from tech, simply doesn’t translate as effectively for consumer-focused businesses. Many founders who launched around 2019 are now facing a drastically different landscape—one that demands a complete overhaul of their models. Here’s a hot take: a down round may actually be the smart move to secure cash, reset expectations, and refocus on sustainability. This pivot isn’t just advisable—it’s essential for long-term success. McKinsey & Company recently released a report analyzing data from over 280 publicly traded retailers, and while the focus wasn’t exclusively on consumer companies, the insights are highly relevant. The report revealed that EBITDA margin was the single most important driver of success for top-performing companies. What’s interesting is that these businesses, which broke into the top quartile between 2019 and 2023, weren’t necessarily the ones with the largest annual revenues. This challenges the common belief that scale alone creates value. Instead, we’re seeing a new era of success defined by a delicate balance between growth and efficiency. What truly set these companies apart was how they managed their SG&A (Selling, General, and Administrative) expenses. The best performers grew these costs by only 0.9x, while others saw them increase at 1.2x the rate of their topline growth. What does this tell us? It’s clear that prioritizing cost control alongside growth is critical. Success today is not about choosing between profitability and expansion—it’s about mastering both. It’s not an OR, it’s an AND. Becca Coggins Steven W. Begley

This Starbucks designer's retail hack saved brands millions. She discovered how to test locations before spending big on permanent stores. After studying building codes, Megan Berry found a genius loophole: Structures under 8 feet tall and 50 sq ft weren't considered "buildings." They only needed sales permits and business approval. This became the foundation for ByReveal - her pop-up retail company that transformed an industry. Traditional retail costs are staggering: • Construction: $200K-$1.5M per location • Equipment: $80K-$150K • Inventory: $20K-$50K Megan's approach? Test locations cheaply first with portable mini-stores. Her method revealed which locations would succeed before committing millions. Pop-ups answer crucial questions at 1/10th the cost: • Is this the right neighborhood? • How long do people stay? • What actually sells? The most important signal for permanent investment? When customers recognize your brand without prompting, you're ready for that multi-million dollar flagship. Until then, keep testing. Context beats aesthetics in retail success. High dwell time is what you want - places people naturally linger. Smart retailers leverage existing events where their audience already gathers - SXSW, Coachella, Art Basel. This creates perfect testing conditions. Megan's brilliant example: At SXSW, her team put beauty brands in hotel lobbies with free champagne for returning festival-goers. Customers relaxed, tried products, and left with bounce-back offers. Post-COVID, retail shifted to contactless experiences with QR codes and minimal-touch to reduce friction. Smart retailers also match design to purchase frequency. Zara swaps merchandise every 2-3 weeks for monthly returns. Department stores keep inventory 3-6 months, then wonder why traffic drops. The future of retail testing gets smarter with AI analytics connecting all customer touchpoints. Today's winning brands use all channels - social media, pop-ups, events, flagship stores, and wholesale. This omnichannel approach maximizes discovery and conversion. Megan's advice to founders applies beyond retail: "If it's annoying, fix it." She went from youngest MBA student to successful founder by questioning legacy systems. This mindset works in any industry facing disruption. --- Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Kevin Henrikson for more. Weekly frameworks on AI, startups, leadership, and scaling. Join 1700+ subscribers today: https://lnkd.in/gstGkhJF

74% of shoppers expect you to lower prices to match increasing inflation in 2024. You need to re-think the value you offer to satisfy bargain-hunting customers. Instead of cutting profits with across-the-board discounts, get creative. → Run special deals on certain items.  → Improve loyalty programs.  → Surprise people with free perks.  Can't compete on price alone? Shift the spotlight to intangibles like great service and community that build loyalty over time.  Play up the value already there - outstanding quality, ethical sourcing, durable materials, etc. Understanding what customers want now is key. Tweak what you offer to give them the most mileage from every dollar spent. Do these things, and your business can ride out stormy economic times ahead.

Top-line growth through expansion areas is often the go-to but prioritising assortment optimisation can yield far greater benefits for long-term success. Attaining new top-line growth may seem simple—launching new categories or stores can quickly boost year-over-year revenue. However, without focusing on your business's current inventory health, such actions can lead to long-term complications and a less sustainable business. True merchandisers 🤓 find great satisfaction in revitalising and optimising struggling categories, locking in reliable and sustainable growth in a dynamic retail landscape. To safeguard profits, drive revenue, and enhance sell-through rates, all while maximising your product's potential, consider the following strategies: 💡 Leverage Inventory Health Check Metrics Gain a deep understanding and competitive edge when you have clarity on both driving factors and hindrances to business performance. Favourites include: Newness %, Sizing Availability, Core Line Out-of-Stock Rate, Markdown: Velocity & Depth of Discount, GMROI at all levels. 💡 Ensure Comprehensive Product Attribution Enrich product data with great attribution to accurately gauge customer demand by any product facet. This is invaluable insights for decision-making. 💡 Optimise Price Points Identify and capitalise on the pricing sweet spot, not only the sweet spot that’s acquiring you customers but also the sweet spot which is upselling and retaining customers for you. Invest and build on these and adapt as the market or customer base changes. 💡 Identify Core and NOOS Lines Prioritise Core and Never Out of Stock items to maintain consistency and meet ongoing demand. These items usually have higher margins and should have great stock turn due to predictable demand. 💡 Focus on Top-Performing Products Apply the 80/20 rule, concentrating efforts on the top 20% of products contributing to 80% of sales, while streamlining the long tail. The goal is to continually adapt and meet the customer where they’re at in terms of their demand for product. Focusing on key metrics that matter empowers teams to drive sustainable growth and adapt to the evolving market dynamics effectively.

The CPG world loves a good growth story. Big revenue numbers. Viral launches. Huge valuations. But behind the scenes? Many of these brands are burning cash at unsustainable rates, prioritizing top-line growth over profitability. At Plant People, we’ve taken a different path—one that’s less flashy but built to last. We operate at a pretty great EBITDA for our size, proving that you can scale a consumer brand while maintaining financial discipline. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way: 1️⃣ Growth isn’t everything—profitability is oxygen. • Raising money is easier than running a profitable business. But when capital dries up, what’s left? We’ve prioritized sustainable growth over “growth at all costs,” and it’s kept us resilient. 2️⃣ Retail isn’t the silver bullet. • Getting into stores is exciting, but many brands don’t realize the costs—slotting fees, chargebacks, marketing spend. It’s easy to scale revenue while losing money. We’ve approached retail strategically, ensuring it works for our margins -- it's really about ensuring you have volume moving. The entire network hinges on volume in so many ways.... 3️⃣ DTC isn’t cheap anymore. • Paid acquisition costs have skyrocketed. If you’re not thinking about LTV, community, and organic channels, you’re playing a losing game. We’ve focused on brand affinity and repeat customers over chasing one-off sales. 4️⃣ Operations and supply chain matter more than you think. • Great branding means nothing if you can’t fulfill orders, manage inventory, and keep COGS in check. We’ve invested in the unsexy parts of the business to maintain our margins and avoid cash crunches. Moving our super-hands-on vertically integrated warehouse to a hand-off 3PL has been huge for us 5️⃣ You don’t have to choose between growth and profitability. • The narrative that you either burn cash or stagnate isn’t true. Smart growth—measured hiring, disciplined marketing, and operational efficiency—can lead to both revenue and profitability. As the market shifts, profitability isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s survival. If you’re building a CPG brand, how are you thinking about balancing growth and profitability? Would love to hear your thoughts!!