The EFMP’s French partners, Impact Field Marketing Group question how the growth of e-commerce and the resulting shift by retailers to digitise their offerings is impacting on how field marketers operate.

In 2017, Grocery ecommerce grew by 30% to reach 4.6% of the world grocery market. The UK saw its penetration rate rise to 7.5%, France 5.6% and China by 6.2%. 

The shift towards e-commerce is enhancing the need for retailers globally to use an omni-channel distribution model which often involves mergers & acquisitions or partnerships. This multichannel approach to sales seeks to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience, whether they're shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, by telephone, or in a brick-and-mortar store. 

This increase in the online grocery market and the competition from ‘pure players’, such as Ocado, has forced the “classical” retailer to digitalize their shops or risk becoming obsolete. Retailers are going to offer their consumers many ways to shop, both on and off-line and there will always be value in an experienced brick and mortar retailer than can provide confidence and familiarity to consumers. The traditional retailers have a massive real estate footprint that needs to be leveraged and as 70% of total sales will remain offline in the next 7 to 10 years their bricks and mortar shops remain solid assets for them.

Click and delivery has seen massive growth over recent years, but its economics are weak, especially in rural areas where prices are increased to maintain margins, and it’s not seen as a viable solution.

In this context, Click & Collect is developing and growing at a fast pace with over 10,000 collection points worldwide, many of which are in France as they have been paving the way to cater to this ongoing global revolution. Click and collect is a win-win solution for both retailers and consumers.

From a consumer’s point of view, it is a quick option and due to the speed of fulfilment they can collect from store on the same day of ordering. It is also convenient as many standard groceries and fast-moving consumer goods, such as toilet paper, that people buy on a weekly basis can be easily collected at handy locations. Two of the biggest challenges with online shopping is assuring fit and discerning product attributes like feel and texture.  Completing the purchase in-store allows customers to inspect the product before committing to purchase.

From the retailers’ point of view, click and collect has a positive effect on sales as up to 49% of shoppers make unintended purchases while collecting their products. The lack of delivery costs can see margins increase by up to 30%. Retailers also get the chance to counter the rising power of Amazon and Alibaba.

The development of the omni-channel model could reinforce the role of the shops and they could become the centre of the different ways of purchasing. Delivery, Pedestrian Click &Collect, Crowd delivery and car Click &Collect could all revolve around the existing retailers’ shops.

Digitalization of sales will give others access to a shops data and this data will have an Impact on the field force and how they do business.

Without prior access to a shops data, Field Marketers are visiting locations ‘’blind’’ and need to collate the info during shop visits. Once they have access to this data they will be able to plan their trip based on facts derived from the data and dramatically enhance their productivity. Currently shops are prioritized once a year based on potential turnover but with a shops data this prioritization can be optimized by between 20% to 40%. Currently 30% of shop visit is dedicated to data collection and priority actions are set during the visit but with the data visit preparation can be automated and priority actions identified. Even follow ups will be automated and precise analysis of the actions and earnings can be given with up to date information as opposed to info collated during the visit.

FMCG brands can use this data to formulate the most effective model to optimize their distribution and field marketers can access this data to streamline their strategy and use different approaches depending on the maturity of the brand. The growth of e-commerce and the resultant access to data that comes with it is having a profound impact on the way field marketers do businesses and to operate efficiently they will not only need this data but also know what to do with it. 

At Impact Field Marketing Group we are tracking these trends and ensuring we are prepared to meet the requirements to continue to make field marketing successful in the French market.