Each retailer is unique in terms of how they promote and price items, but they all have the same question for vendors: “How will you help grow the category?” Whatever strategy you have in mind, answering this question will require analyzing specific sets of CPG data visualizations, and every Bedrock customer uses our platform specifically for this task, among others.

To find out how Bedrock customers are answering this question from retail buyers, we surveyed Bedrock Analytics’ usage metrics to highlight the most frequently accessed visualizations of Q1 2020. During a recent webinar, we explored these results in more detail to share how manufacturers can answer the following questions from retail buyers…

Of all sales stories retailers need to hear, the most vital is how your product compares to others in the same category. You can frame this answer in terms of revenue, velocity, or other critical metrics, provided you show that an item drives category growth.

Bedrock’s Product Comparison Drill Down visualization answers this question by populating charts with competitive sales data. This bar graph lets CPG sales and category managers:

• Use a pull-down list to pivot between markets automatically
• Compare products by metric — such as dollar sales, units sold, or others — within a selected timeframe
• Click on any brand to look more closely at individual products within the segment.

Retailers don’t just want to know that a product is doing well — they need to see that sales are trending upward. This detail is especially vital for emerging brands who must prove that item performance within a given market is expanding.

The Change vs. Year Ago visualization presents the overall growth of a given product alongside the growth percentage of the prior year. This chart lets retailers look at your product from different competitive angles. For example, while a new product may not be a dollar driver just yet, the Change vs. Year Ago visualization can establish whether it is a growth driver for the category.

Retailers will need to know that your product represents a good fit for their category — just like you must be sure that a retailer is an excellent opportunity for your brand. Vendors can best summarize these traits as opportunity gaps using this popular visualization.

The Opportunity Gap Report is a visualization that calculates the estimated value of a product once its ACV reaches a particular value. For example, if your product has an ACV of 30% with Walmart, Bedrock can project additional revenue you would earn with an ACV of 90%.

With this visualization, you can create tables that measure the distance between current and projected dollar sales by retailer. These opportunity gaps highlight the dollar value of each point of distribution so you can target the most significant gains. The Opportunity Gap report can also output your brand’s potential growth rate if you were to close the ACV gap with specific retailers.

While these visualizations represent Bedrock’s most-used features in 2020, they represent only a fraction of our capabilities. Using our platform, CPG vendors can also:

• Easily export visualizations for use in reports and sales decks
• Anonymize retailers to focus on your brand versus competitors’ performance during sales presentations
• View opportunity gaps by growth rate instead of ACV

For a closer look at these features in action, watch the full Bedrock webinar or contact our team for a demo today!