Analyst Insight: While e-commerce is buzzing, it's still only 6 percent of total U.S. retail spend. For CPG companies, the Online Search to Offline Purchase (O2O) market (30 percent to 40 percent of retail spend) growth is driven by mobile commerce. Some 74 percent of smartphone owners use their device while shopping with 79 percent ultimately making a purchase as a result, according to Retailigence. As the "moment of truth" shifts to the "point of demand", more information is available to support supply chain decisions. – Rich Sherman, author and founder at Gold & Domas Research
Analyst Insight: Consumer products companies are making far greater use of alternative sales channels than ever before. They are proactively reaching out to customers, whether in B2B or B2C environments, to gain share of mind and increase sales. Consumer products companies have also become much more active using their own websites and utilizing marketplaces as a means to increase their product's visibility and availability to potential customers. – Bruce Tompkins, Executive Director, Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium
Consumer packaged goods companies have a big problem: They have almost no idea which of their new products will end up being popular with consumers. Despite big data, despite a decade of heavy investment in innovation, despite chief innovation officers and efficient R&D, failure rates for new products have hovered at 60 percent for years. Two-thirds of new product concepts don't even launch.
Retailers, particularly big box stores, are demanding more customized packaging of products, which increases demand for contract packaging services, says Dave Mabon, president of contract packaging at Genco. With margins that average 30 to 40 percent, this presents a huge opportunity for service providers.
The popular online purveyor of skin care and beauty products undergoes a natural process of maturing. Rapid sales growth dictates that the Seattle-based merchandiser hire an outsourcing partner to handle order-fulfillment duties in the eastern U.S.
The digital revolution is penetrating the consumer packaged goods space more and more, says a report that highlights how CPG companies can best position themselves for growth and unlock digital and e-commerce opportunities.
Huhtamaki Inc., a producer of consumer-goods and food-service packaging, was looking to expand its international activities. Scott Stuckenschneider, vice president of North American supply chain, is joined by Sheila Hewitt, vice president international with Transplace, to discuss how the company formalized its global logistics program.
Big Heart Pet Brands is the parent company for many of the biggest selling pet foods, including Kibbles 'n Bits, Meow Mix, Milk Bone and 9Lives. Ryan Dimond, manager of supply chain optimization, discusses how Big Heart uses supply chain design to support its many brands and employs supply chain modeling to make better decisions.
The Coca-Cola Co.'s $100m plant in China's South Harbin Industrial City, reportedly to be LEED-certified, is designed to accommodate nine production lines for both sparkling and still beverages, including Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid and Ice Dew.
The total natural capital cost of plastic in the consumer goods industry is more than $75bn per year, according to research released by the Plastic Disclosure Project, the UN Environment Programme and natural capital analysts Trucost.