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Agility has become a buzzword in the business world over the last decade, but what does it actually mean, especially in the context of ecommerce?
The basic definition of agility is two-fold: It’s the ability to move quickly and easily or to think and understand quickly. Both these capabilities are now vital in today’s ecommerce environment, as brands contend with converging headwinds related to driving greater profitability, improving the shopper experience, and optimizing their operations for future growth.
To achieve digital shelf success today, brands must build agile teams. Gloria DeCoste, digital shelf director at Nestlé, has firsthand experience making this happen. DeCoste has spearheaded process transformations within Nestlé over the last year that have helped the company build a more agile content supply chain.
DeCoste recently spoke at Salsify’s 2024 Digital Shelf Summit to share what she and her team have learned about what it takes to build — and maintain — business agility.
Creating a more agile team is difficult for brands, but it’s especially challenging for big companies. DeCoste says that with so many teams working within their own domains to drive ecommerce growth, it’s only natural that silos emerged within Nestlé.
“We have over 2,000 SKUs that we have to service. We have a team that's developing products. We have teams that are developing content. We have teams that are running through data. We have teams that are buying media,” she says.
As Nestlé worked to build its agility, DeCoste found that several factors, both internal and external, were roadblocks to creating a more agile team.
Some of the internal factors involve the silos DeCoste mentioned, but brands also have to confront a range of external factors. One is that the line between the physical and digital shelves is blurring, and brands must unify their data to develop a holistic view of their performance, DeCoste explains.
The shopping experience also is becoming blurred as consumers switch between online and in-store, which makes it difficult to appropriately attribute sales and understand incrementality.
Additionally, ecommerce is projected to grow 7.2% year-over-year, and retailers continue to invest in new technologies to improve the customer experience. All of these shifts have contributed to higher consumer expectations for value, personalization, and a seamless shopping experience across channels. The only way for brands to meet this moment is to be more agile.
This is why Nestlé embarked on a journey to transform its commerce operations.
Nestlé began its transformation by asking a simple question: “Are we agile enough?”
DeCoste says the company was agile, but needed to be better about operationalizing it. When it came to the 4 Ps — product, price, promotion, and placement — Nestlé’s operations weren’t interconnected or collaborative enough. This was especially true for placement on the digital shelf.
To address these challenges, Nestlé focused on improving process management to optimize what DeCoste calls its “content supply chain” — or every piece of information that appeared on its product detail page (PDP). DeCoste says the content supply chain for ecommerce is no different than the physical supply chain companies like Nestlé rely on every day to move goods.
“We would never forget to order the corrugate that needs to go into the boxes … we wouldn't do that because our supply chain is sophisticated. So, it's about thinking of the digital shelf in the same way and product information in the same way,” DeCoste says.
Nestlé leaned on its own process specialists, or internal experts, to begin making changes. The specialists started by interviewing all the different teams involved in Nestlé’s commerce operations, including digital, marketing, sales, tech, supply chain, finance, legal, and regulatory. Through these interviews, the process specialists discovered glaring inefficiencies.
“We found that people were spending upwards of 40% of their day chasing around missing information so that we could ultimately sell into the retailer and get our PDPs built. There was so much waste in there,” DeCoste says.
This discovery helped DeCoste build an even stronger case for process improvements that would increase the organization’s agility and a dedicated resource to oversee these changes.
To drive process improvements, Nestlé reviewed its processes in detail to better understand each step in its content supply chain, along with the technology it used to support these processes. It then determined whether each process and solution was really necessary to make each process more efficient.
Nestlé also has leaned on data. DeCoste has begun sending executives what she jokingly refers to as “shame reports,” which indicate whether their team is in the red or green as far as delivering the assets the organization needs to optimize its PDP.
“I started sending shame reports a year ago. I send them to the VPs and the presidents, and I'm like, ‘Are your people on time? Are they approving on time? Are they getting their assets done on time?’” DeCoste says. “Literally, one of our VPs said to his whole team, ‘Whatever it takes to not be red.’ That saved me hours of influence just by sending out a shame report.”
DeCoste and her colleagues also have focused on developing more effective communication with different stakeholder groups to build buy-in for process improvements.
“When we're working with these stakeholders, what do they care about? How do we talk to them? A master data team is going to have a really different set of variables that are important [to them] than a package design team. How do we talk in their language?” — Gloria DeCoste, Director, Digital Shelf, Nestlé
DeCoste adds that it’s crucial to tell the right story to the right audience to motivate them and help them understand the importance of their work to the overall process. This same principle applies to building agility with retail partners.
“Let's start pushing ‘What should the consumer experience be?’ We could wait for Target to create it. We could wait for Walmart to create it, or we could start to say together, what should it be?” DeCoste says.
As Nestlé illustrates, brands can’t build their agility solely by moving faster. They need to craft a thoughtful strategy that involves taking a hard look at their existing processes, dedicating resources to improve them, and then working to continuously build buy-in and engagement across every level of the organization and with external partners.
It’s a tall order, but one Nestlé proves is possible. Brands can no longer afford to be reactive. To win both the digital and physical shelf, they have to be forward-looking and maintain forward momentum.
“We have to be able to really see what's coming and get ready for it, rather than waiting for it to happen,” DeCoste says.
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