By Aaron Gottlieb, Vice President – Africa and International Retail Services
After 15 years with Daymon and nearly 10 spent overseas, one of the biggest frustrations I continue to see in many emerging international markets is the massive disconnect between retailers who seem perfectly willing to spend millions to develop category systems and planograms, only to have their plans all fall apart at the last 100 yards—in other words, the layout and assortment customers actually see on store shelves. It’s a tremendous waste of capital and human resources.
That tide is beginning to turn with some retailers, like our primary partner in South Africa, as they come to understand that taking control of their shop floors is the only way their strategies will ever be realized by the customers. They’ve chosen to partner with Daymon because we’re able to help service the whole retail ecosystem—from strategy to execution.
Having an end-to-end spectrum of services is critical in these markets. Replenishment systems are not as robust in markets like South Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, so we can’t just be focused on promotions, new item cut-ins and similar services that are most common in our business in the United States. Instead, we have to work with retailer and supplier teams from start to finish—getting the product, bringing it into the store, putting it on the shelf and then getting it into shoppers’ baskets. We’re able to do this because we work as true partners with our retailers. We get entrenched into their systems and operations so that we can affect change at every step.
While many retailers believe in this approach, they are not always able to see past issues of cost. Some seem to think along the lines of “well if I can partner with suppliers to get this money for your services, I might as well just get lower prices instead.” But every retailer needs to understand that competing on price alone is not going work in today’s retail environment.
The retailers who will be successful going forward will be those who focus on the sales side by delighting customers every time they come in the door. That’s something we at Daymon can help them deliver at every step in the retail process. And when we partner with a retailer throughout the whole retail ecosystem—that’s where we can truly deliver the greatest value.