-
Subscribe to Blog:
SEARCH THE BLOG
CATEGORIES
- Aerospace
- Asset Maintenance
- Automotive
- Blog
- Building Products
- Case Studies
- Chemical Processing
- Consulting
- Food & Beverage
- Forestry Products
- Hospitals & Healthcare
- Knowledge Transfer
- Lean Manufacturing
- Life Sciences
- Logistics
- Manufacturing
- Material Utilization
- Metals
- Mining
- News
- Office Politics
- Oil & Gas
- Plastics
- Private Equity
- Process Improvement
- Project Management
- Spend Management
- Supply Chain
- Uncategorized
- Utilities
- Whitepapers
BLOG ARCHIVES
- December 2024 (3)
- November 2024 (2)
- October 2024 (6)
- September 2024 (5)
- August 2024 (5)
- July 2024 (6)
- June 2024 (3)
- May 2024 (3)
- April 2024 (4)
- March 2024 (3)
- February 2024 (4)
- January 2024 (5)
- December 2023 (2)
- November 2023 (1)
- October 2023 (6)
- September 2023 (3)
- August 2023 (4)
- July 2023 (2)
- June 2023 (3)
- May 2023 (7)
- April 2023 (3)
- March 2023 (3)
- February 2023 (5)
- January 2023 (6)
- December 2022 (2)
- November 2022 (5)
- October 2022 (5)
- September 2022 (5)
- August 2022 (6)
- July 2022 (3)
- June 2022 (4)
- May 2022 (5)
- April 2022 (3)
- March 2022 (5)
- February 2022 (4)
- January 2022 (7)
- December 2021 (3)
- November 2021 (5)
- October 2021 (3)
- September 2021 (2)
- August 2021 (6)
- July 2021 (2)
- June 2021 (10)
- May 2021 (4)
- April 2021 (5)
- March 2021 (5)
- February 2021 (3)
- January 2021 (4)
- December 2020 (3)
- November 2020 (3)
- October 2020 (3)
- September 2020 (3)
- August 2020 (4)
- July 2020 (3)
- June 2020 (5)
- May 2020 (3)
- April 2020 (3)
- March 2020 (4)
- February 2020 (4)
- January 2020 (4)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (2)
- October 2019 (4)
- September 2019 (2)
- August 2019 (4)
- July 2019 (3)
- June 2019 (4)
- May 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (4)
- March 2019 (4)
- February 2019 (5)
- January 2019 (5)
- December 2018 (2)
- November 2018 (2)
- October 2018 (5)
- September 2018 (4)
- August 2018 (3)
- July 2018 (2)
- June 2018 (4)
- May 2018 (3)
- April 2018 (3)
- March 2018 (2)
- February 2018 (2)
- January 2018 (1)
- December 2017 (1)
- November 2017 (2)
- October 2017 (2)
- September 2017 (1)
- August 2017 (2)
- July 2017 (2)
- June 2017 (1)
- April 2017 (3)
- March 2017 (3)
- February 2017 (2)
- January 2017 (2)
- December 2016 (2)
- November 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (4)
- September 2016 (3)
- August 2016 (6)
- July 2016 (4)
- June 2016 (4)
- May 2016 (1)
- April 2016 (3)
- March 2016 (4)
- February 2016 (2)
- January 2016 (4)
- December 2015 (3)
- November 2015 (3)
- October 2015 (1)
- September 2015 (1)
- August 2015 (4)
- July 2015 (6)
- June 2015 (4)
- May 2015 (7)
- April 2015 (6)
- March 2015 (6)
- February 2015 (4)
- January 2015 (3)
CONNECT WITH US
Tag Archives: Food and beverage e-commerce
Businesses across multiple industries have embraced digital transformation (DX) technologies. In fact, an estimated 89 percent of organizations worldwide have embarked on digitization, according to the International Data Corporation, by reassessing their current assets and leveraging them in new ways.
But while these innovators swap manual processes for digital alternatives, companies in the food and beverage space preserve their existing processes, despite growing customer demand for more innovative services.
Modern consumers want convenient food purchasing experiences. Approximately 9 percent of American consumers, or 10.5 million households, purchased a meal kit between September 2017 and March 2018, and about 30 million more said they were considering doing so in the following five to six months, Nielsen reported. In addition to ordering ready-to-cook meals, many U.S. families are taking advantage of online grocery delivery services. As a result, web-based grocery sales are growing 10 times faster than in-store sales, Brick Meets Click found.
Despite these explosive developments, food and beverage companies have not embraced digitization en masse. Why? Because many operational challenges prevent these organizations from moving forward and meeting the needs of their tech-savvy consumers signing up for Blue Apron and Instacart. Here are three roadblocks of food and beverage digitization and how some innovators in the industry are working to overcome them:
1. Moving from in-store to online
Major food and beverage firms such as Coca-Cola have long relied on brick-and-mortar partners. This sales channel is no longer viable by itself. Businesses in the space must meet consumers where they are, which is online.
But how does an organization make this switch when their route to market has always run through grocers and other sellers? In the case of Coca-Cola, the answer is trial and error. The soda giant juggles multiple experimental initiatives aimed at engaging customers online, including partnerships with Amazon and Uber Eats, and direct-to-consumer order fulfillment for specialty products. In doing so, the brand hopes to pinpoint and cultivate a successful and sustainable web-based sales channel and carve out a clear path for moving past its traditional store-based business model.
2. Adjusting to consumer preferences
Consumers that shop for groceries online or cook with meal kits normally have good reasons for embracing these products and services. A single parent might get meals through HelloFresh to save time, while a young couple might choose to shop with Peapod out of the desire to buy local. Food and beverage businesses have to tailor their sales and distribution models to meet the distinct needs of multiple demographics, something that is not so easy for larger brands that have been selling the same products the same way for decades.
Campbell Soup Company grappled with this very issue in 2017, when it attempted to enter the digital marketplace, according to Bloomberg. To put it simply, its canned soups did not have a good reputation among the younger customers that populated the sales channels that Campbell pursued. So the company got creative and developed an artisanal soup delivery service that shuttled variations of its core products, made with fresh, local vegetables, to source-conscious consumers. The soups even arrived in glass mason jars. This move allowed the brand to meet the needs of new customers and move into the digital realm.
3. Getting digital face time
Workable application-based delivery workflows or an e-commerce presence is not enough for latecomers in the food and beverage sector. If these businesses are serious about looking to attract customers of the digital age, they must also roll out promotional efforts that draw clicks, likes and shares. For businesses that have banked on their decades of brand capital, the prospect of recultivating this cachet on new channels can seem daunting or even impossible.
General Mills recently faced this challenge when it began exploring new digital opportunities, Food Dive reported. Like Coca-Cola, the food and beverage conglomerate looked into multiple avenues and eventually found a way to form connections with online consumers through recipes and meal suggestions. The company hopes these relationships will serve it well as it traverses groundbreaking operational territory in an attempt to find success with digitization.
Here at USC Consulting Group, we’ve been collaborating with organizations in the food and beverage space for decades, helping them transform their operations and adapt to marketplace shifts of all kinds. Connect with us today to learn more about our experience in the industry and how we can assist your organization as it moves forward.