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everything from replenishment to building ends/displays and promotional tie-up,” Mr Feehan said. “For high consumable products, we increased visitation to replenish to multiple times per week and included weekend visits. This was in addition to extending regional support with increased visitation.” Meanwhile, with clear growth also in online shopping, Mr Feehan says the frustrations people experience with delivery slots and availability can be amplified. “We’ve seen there’s been an increase in top-up shops where people have placed their primary order online,” he said. “This in turn has seen a rise in the importance of off locations to maximise impulse purchases. “For a number of our suppliers, their foodservice business shrunk significantly, and they needed to bridge that gap in supermarkets, putting greater emphasis on visibility and availability of product every day of the week.” Is outsourcing for you? Retail World asked Mr Feehan how companies can benefit from the services of outsourced sales and marketing. “With an inhouse team, you have fixed overhead costs and inflexibility to adapt the model,” he said. “Using a third-party marketing partner, this allows you to move to a variable costing model and evolve your execution plans to align with your strategic changes to realise sales growth. This was a key factor throughout 2020 and we see this likely to continue. “There’s also added expertise in field management and the ability to scale up/ scale down. For example, the number of calls we took during the pandemic was significant, asking us to help wind down, scale up, fill a cover gap, and so on. We were able to redeploy our teams, while our scale gives us the ability to service over 98 per cent of the geographical footprint in Australia and New Zealand. “In addition, we have access to leading edge technology for insights and analysis across multiple channels, with over 30 years in the market.” Clearly, there are compelling reasons to consider outsourced sales and marketing support, with a wide range of services available to retailers. As long as customers continue to shop both locally, and in supermarkets, and embrace new products, merchandising and outsourced sales and marketing are a valuable and worthwhile option to meet the challenges retail faces. SALES & MARKETING YOUR #1 RETAIL PARTNER in Australia and New Zealand Whether you are looking for ... Merchandisers Sales Teams Brand Ambassadors Mystery Shoppers We’ve got you covered. We cover >98% of the ANZ retail footprint and provide flexible visit cycles that work in with your needs. We work with you in partnership and take full ownership of instore outcomes to drive your sales. Our teams are enabled with the technology to deliver the right actions in store and to report in real time. CALL US ON 1300 027 328 www.creativeactivation.com.au STANDARDS MATTER Increasing levels of collaboration between retailers, the outsourced sales and marketing organisations in the store environment and the multiple supply chain partners upstream means clear, consistent product labelling is vital. Recent examples of own-brand products appearing on a competitor’s supermarket shelves highlight the importance of this, further demonstrating the importance of having a global standard for barcodes, as advocated by GS1 Australia. “Any process that involves the ordering, delivery and receipt of goods is, by definition, enhanced through the unique identification of the product being ordered, delivered and received, and allows the effective consolidation all of those three transactions”, GS1 Chief Customer Officer Marcel Sieira said. “If you have ambiguous identification of the product, where the product is not accurately identified or where the organisations involved have made mistakes, the cost of rectification can be really significant, and it happens.” To ensure there’s no ambiguity and all products are uniquely identifiable, Mr Sieira recommends all manufacturers use the GS1 barcode check. “Without an accurate and scannable barcode, you can’t sell your products, retailers can’t stock your products on their shelves, and customers can’t buy your products,” he said. To date, GS1 has tested more than 1.5 million barcodes to ensure they are accurate, licensed, correctly orientated and scan first time, every time in the various environments through which the products will pass. More details of this GS1 service are available at gs1au.org/our-services/ barcode-check. MAY, 2021 RETAIL WORLD 47