In physical retail, one of the most important strategies that a CPG brand needs to get right is merchandising, along with all the elements that go with on-shelf positioning. 

Whether you are promoting a new product launch or you have an established and much loved household name, getting your merchandising strategy correct can be the single most important difference between selling your and your nearest competitor(s) product. 

And in the eyes of a busy consumer who is not particularly loyal to any one brand, your on shelf visibility is your primary opportunity to convert that consumer over to your brand. And your always-on availability is the only tool you have in store that ensures your loyal customers are not tempted to try competitor brands.   

Retailers Care About Your Product! But Not For The Same Reasons You Do.

Retailers are always ready to take advantage of CPG’s eagerness to win shelf space positioning and more than happy to work more closely with CPG brands who invest in prime shelf positioning… obviously. 

But winning the space is only the first step in the race for brand visibility, now CPG’s have to ensure availability and pricing strategy are always on and executed correctly to convert both loyal and new customers.

Many brands lose untold thousands in revenue every day by having poor on-shelf merchandising standards, a lost sale usually results in a win for your competitor and a huge opportunity to convert your loyal customer over to the “dark side”. This also means you run the risk of losing the customer lifetime value of that customer.

These are some of the more common problems that can restrict a customer from choosing your product…

• Incorrect pricing and label strategy which has not been updated
• Displays which do not reflect your tried and tested layout strategy
• Soon-to-expire products pushed behind newer stocks
• Empty shelf and full stockroom
• Promotions not executed correctly 
• New products not to arriving on-shelf at the correct time

While it may seem like common sense and easy fix, imagine what happens when you try to scale these simple fixes – in just one single chain with 2000 stores across the country? Impossible right? Wrong

This is why CPG brands lean on experienced merchandising partners.  

MS Services network of merchandising teams are helping to prevent and correct many of these issues for hundreds of leading brands on a daily basis right across Poland.

Retail merchandising versus CPG merchandising

Given the choice of investing in a national merchandising strategy or allowing the retailer to manage on shelf positioning, it stands to reason that some CPG brands don’t actively develop their own merchandising teams. Instead many are leveraging the retail chain’s in-house teams. 

And while this works to some degree (I don’t know a retail store manager who wants to see empty shelves). Initial warehouse to shelf placement not the real issue! That’s because Retailers and CPG brands have overlapping merchandising goals to CPG’s. 

Typical retailers are trying to create stickly shelves because this is what helps  to drive purchases… regardless of which brand the customer purchases. It’s even worse in a discount retail environment, as their primary goal is to convert your loyal consumers to their own label offerings.

And that is why it’s usually in a CPG brand’s interest to get the customer to quickly find their product and move on without very much effort. And also why retailer led merchandising strategies are not going to win your brand market share but will more likely ensure you are losing revenue potential.

What is Merchandising?  

From MS Services perspective, in-store merchandising is focused on perfect execution and consistency of a brand’s retail program, also known as our four P’s – place, price, product, and promotion. Our greatest strength is our ability to ensure that each client’s strategy is executed simultaneously and efficiently across a single or multiple retail channels.

While the full force of our merchandising efforts are still happening in physical retail locations, MS Services is also leading the way in digital – or eMerchandising, strategies and helping to future proof our clients online visibility and sales potential. 

However, so long as the in-store experience is still the all important first moment of truth for many CPG brands, MS will continue to grow our traditional army of merchandising professionals across the territory of Poland and beyond. 

What services do MS services offer?

We are experts at turning shoppers into customers. 

MS Services have a full and comprehensive range of “retail and CPG services,” and while we have developed experienced teams across traditional and emerging sales channels. Our foundation was built on CPG retail merchandising. 

As they – say you never forget your first love! It’s true at MS Services, no matter which industry or channel we take every success is underpinned by our experience and deep passion for the difficult but rewarding world of CPG retail merchandising. 

We love retail too! Although in many cases we are not directly employed by retailers, our teams have become a much needed extension of many retail businesses. We regularly work alongside retail teams to restock, position, assemble, organize, and fix retail displays and planograms.

 Why Do CPG’s Choose MS Services?

What makes MS Services Merchandising teams more successful than others in our industry?

• We are focused only on our clients brand, we will rebuild a shelf when needed to ensure that our clients needs are met above and beyond anything else on the shelf. 
• Accountability! We thrive on results. Our CPG partners have gone to a lot of trouble to win and plan their shelf space, it’s our job to ensure that we maximize our partners investment.  
• We have a scale and reach that few others can match, and we do it more efficiently than our closest rivals. 
• We have twenty plus years experience in retail merchandising, and have evolved to become a leading omnichannel service provider. 
• Our team has deep connections with retail teams, so we can move with ease and support in many retail stores.

We have evolved into a full service multi channel sales support team offering an assortment of solutions designed to deliver more for and demand less from our clients.

Our roots are deeply rooted in retail merchandising, we evolve each and every day to ensure we keep our partners ahead of the curve.

Contact us to learn how we can help turn shoppers into your customers.