Tips for CPG Companies to Grow Their Online Sales

1. 3 Tips to Improve
Digital Channel
Conversion & Grow
Your Sales with Online
Retail Partners
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2. About Us:
Clavis Technology
Clavis Technology is at the
forefront of the consumer
goods eCommerce
Revolution, delivering
eCommerce Insights and
Online Store Audits to Food
& Beverage, Personal Care
and Household Products
manufacturers and brand
owners. Our solution
analyzes your products’
Placement, Portfolio
and Integrity across
leading online stores to
enable you to optimize your
digital channel distribution,
integrity and presentment,
and grow your online sales.
Follow @clavistech on
Twitter for daily CPG
eCommerce news and
information.
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3. TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Groceries Fast Becoming a
Common Online Purchase
4
The Size of the Prize
5
Always-On Multichannel
Consumers
6
Tip #1: Online Store Product
Portfolio
7
Tip #2: Online Store Product
Placement
8
Tip #3: Product Information and
Content Integrity
9
More Resources
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10

4. Groceries Fast Becoming a
Common Online Purchase
Consumer packaged goods, food & beverage, personal care and household
products companies are seeing unprecedented growth in sales via the online
channel. According to global information and measurement company Nielsen,
online CPG sales are expected to grow at a 25% compound annual growth rate
from 2012-2015. The issue for brand owners and manufacturers now is how to take
advantage of this market shift to grow their overall business and make the
transition from a traditional retail channel to the multichannel world and the
“endless aisle” of the online store.
Today, in some categories, up to 20% of purchases are conducted online and about
80% of in-store retail sales are affected by online research; these numbers will
inevitably climb as the younger, always-on, generation grows up to start families.
There is incredible opportunity for companies to benefit from the growing online
channel - however with it come new challenges. The brand image, description and
marketing content that your company spends so much time and money on is
becoming increasingly out of your control.
When selling on sites like Amazon.com or Walmart.com, your product is only as
good as the content representing it on each product web page. New data shows
that the quality of this information is not always up to scratch. A recent Clavis study
of 17 top online retail sites found that over two thirds of product pages failed to
meet expectations.
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// Page 4

5. The Size of the Prize
A recent study by top UK supermarket Sainsbury’s compared two brand
manufacturers, both generating 2% growth in sales across Sainsbury’s bricks and
mortar stores in the first three quarters of the 2012 financial year. However
Supplier A, which focused on the digital channel, saw a 30% rise in its business
through Sainsbury’s online store. And rather than cannibalizing in store sales, as
some might expect, Supplier A actually delivered overall sales growth of 4.2% for
the period, compared with just 2.6% total growth for Supplier B.
We applied the Sainsbury’s model to the example of a grocery supplier which
does $1billion dollars in annual revenue and starting with just 3%, or $30 million,
in online retail channel sales. This shows that by putting in the effort to achieve
an annual online growth rate of 30%, the manufacturer could generate over $240
million in additional top line revenue over four years.
// Page 5
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6. Always-On Multichannel Consumers
Despite the growth in online sales of groceries and consumer goods it can be a
challenge to get consumers all the way through the path to purchase in the online
retail and clicks & bricks stores where your products are sold.
At every step from Demand creation, through Research and Evaluation to
Conversion there is potential for something to go wrong that stops the consumer
from adding your product to their basket.
In the bricks and mortar world your sales teams invest a lot of time and effort into
managing shelf-presentment with top retailers and the visibility of your products in
leading stores. Similar effort needs to be invested by brand owners when it comes
to managing product listings and product information across online and mobile
channels.
To achieve success in a changing marketplace where online retail stores account
for an ever growing proportion of revenue, brand owners and manufacturers need
to ensure that:
•
•
•
You have the right assortment of products in the online channel.
Consumers can easily find your products using search or menus.
And the information about your products is accurate, complete and properly
presented.
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// Page 6

7. Online Store Product Portfolio
Just as the starting point for the
traditional retail channel is
getting your products into the
right stores, the first thing to get
right in the digital channel is your
Portfolio of available products.
You need to ensure you have the
appropriate assortment to meet
the needs of online consumers
and increase their propensity to
buy.
The right portfolio of products in
the online channel may well be
different from your offline
distribution – maybe there are
product sizes or variants that sell
better online that would increase
consumers’ propensity to buy.
Start by tracking your
online portfolio with a few
key online retail partners
and compare your
distribution to your
competitors. Then work
with your retail partners to
optimize your portfolio by
e-store.
However, just discovering and
tracking which of your
products/brands are available in
the myriad of online retail stores
can be a challenge – and even if
they are listed in a dot com store
are they actually available for
purchase online? If your product
is listed, but not available when
the consumer wants to buy, it
can lead to more than just one
lost sale. If the consumer
switches to an alternative brand
their business could be lost for
good.
// Page 7
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8. Online Store Product Placement
Once you have your products available in a traditional store, it’s time to start
thinking about shelf placement and promotions to drive sales. The same applies
online, but with the endless eCommerce aisle and a different approach to
categories Placement becomes an issue of Search and Category/Menu ranking.

You want consumers to be able to find your products easily among all the
options they have in the online store. If they can’t find them they can’t add
them to their baskets and favorite-lists. Numerous studies have been carried
out that show the different behaviours of online shoppers: It turns out that
in most online grocery stores between 30 to 40% of adds to baskets involve
products that are found through free text search, while a further 20 to 30%
come direct from consumers navigating down the menu structure. The rest
of “basket adds” are usually from regular shoppers’ saved favorite items.
This means it’s critical that your product content is optimized for search
performance in these stores and that your products are listed in an
appropriate range of categories and sub-categories.

At the same time your promotions need to be properly executed and in the
right place at the right time to ensure you beat the competition and get the
lion’s share of impulse buys, adds to baskets and adds to favorites.
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// Page 8

9. Product Information and
Content Integrity
On the internet
information is the key
to success.”
Equivalent to and yet more important than product quality in the off-line world,
your products in the online channel are only as good as the information available
about them on the sites. On the internet information is the key to success. For
brands to win online they must ensure that the information available about their
products is more complete, more widely available, better presented and more
accurate, than that of their competitors. Online shoppers may be keen to buy, but
because they don’t physically see or hold your products, manufacturers need to
work with their retail partners to make sure their product information is complete,
accurate and properly presented in order to improve online sales performance,
protect brand integrity and grow market share across all channels.
Product Information and Content Integrity is important at every stage of the path
to purchase. Your product pages in online retail stores at the start of a consumer’s
path must have internet friendly titles, images and complete descriptions. These
need to include the most relevant marketing bullets/feature benefits to help
ensure you rank high in search. At the end of the path where the consumer is
ready to purchase many sales are lost because some vital nugget of information,
such as a nutritional panel or directions detail, is missing, incomplete or
inaccurate.
// Page 9
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10. More Resources
The tips on the previous pages are a good jumping off
point to start thinking about optimizing your product
across leading online retail stores. Why not register for a
demonstration of how Clavis Technology can help you
audit and analyze your products' Placement, Portfolio and
Integrity in leading Online Retail stores.
Interested in finding
out more about the
problems we found
with consumer
packaged goods data
online? Get a FREE
DOWNLOAD of our
recent study of
consumer packaged
goods brands on the
top 17 eCommerce
sites.
Get this
informative
infographic
to learn more
about the
state of CPG
eCommerce
right now.
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// Page 10

11. Ready to start improving
your online conversions?
If you’re interested in
improving your online sales
by as much as 30%, request
a custom demo of Clavis
eCommerce Insight today!
www.clavistechnology.com