Why FMCG brands love Open Commerce – A live conversation from the market

Every day, consumer goods manufacturers across emerging markets produce billions of consumer products that need to be moved to retailers’ shelves. However, the supply chain responsible for moving these goods is broken and no longer fit-for-purpose. The fragmented nature of the retail industry, lack of visibility across the supply chain, and an overwhelming reliance on cash payments have led to delayed delivery and increased prices of consumer goods.

Recent global supply chain disruptions have revealed the shortcomings of this broken distribution model, as over 40% of all FMCG brands have experienced supply chain disruption in the last few years. This has also slowed business growth, as larger FMCG brands have grown by only 0.4% in the last few years.

It is, therefore, no surprise that CPG companies in emerging markets now recognize the need to embrace digital commerce and digitally transform their supply chains to make them more effective and cost-efficient. A recent survey of over 500 FMCG CEOs showed that end-to-end visibility was ranked as the top factor responsible for a successful supply chain. Another survey also showed that 90% of FMCG brands plan to change their supply chain networks, and over 40% plan to increase their investment in supply chain management with the primary aim of increasing visibility and improving resilience.  

Open Commerce is the solution to building better supply chains

To build more agile and resilient supply chains, FMCG brands in emerging markets need a digital solution that connects all supply chain players and provides full visibility across the distribution chain. With these insights, stock shortages, changing customer demand, and other important information will be captured and communicated in real-time so that brands can adjust their distribution strategies.

The only platform that offers all these features, and more, is Open Commerce. RedCloud’s Open Commerce platform, Red101 Market, has helped numerous brands digitize their supply chains and gain valuable, real-time insights that can be leveraged to increase distribution efficiency, increase sales, and drive business growth.

How LATAM FMCG brands are using Open Commerce to grow their businesses

Recently, RedCloud’s CEO, Justin Floyd, and COO, Soumaya Hamzaoui, visited the LATAM region to speak with FMCG brands, distributors, and retailers to discover how they’re leveraging the trade freedom and powerful opportunities that Open Commerce provides. Soumaya talked at length with Gabriel Netto, the Sales Manager at Lagostão Pescados, one of the fastest-growing seafood distributors in Brazil, about the value that RedCloud brings to the brand.

Here is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation:

Soumaya: Why did you partner with RedCloud, and what do you expect from this partnership?

Gabriel: We’re happy with this partnership, as we had been searching for exactly what Red101 Market is offering us – greater visibility across the supply chain with a digital solution. We believe in embracing the latest market innovations, which is why we closed this partnership, and we’re confident that RedCloud will help us gain new customers and drive significant sales growth.

By partnering with RedCloud, we also expect to become a pioneer of supply chain digitalization in our market.

Soumaya: Would you walk me through how your customers use the product in their businesses?

Gabriel: For us, getting our customers to use the Red101 Market app is easy because we’re in the food business. Many of our clients are restaurants who need various types of food products and want to know the different matches they can do. So, when our clients need us, we would offer consultancy services.

Sometimes they’re looking for a specific product, but with our consultancy team, we can suggest other possibilities for food recipes that work better. With Red101 Market, the client can easily make an order for the suggested products right on the call, which has helped us increase our sales significantly.  

Soumaya: What features are you more excited about in the app?

Gabriel: Definitely real-time payments. With real-time, online payments, we get to receive orders with payments completed in full, which is a great improvement to the former manual payment method. Now, we don’t need to rely on only the CNPJ credit analysis, which means that we can process the order faster and deliver orders within 24 hours in most parts of the region here in São Paulo.

This feature allows us to meet our customer’s demands faster, make more sales, and get paid on time.

Soumaya: What new features do you want to see in the app going forward?

Lagostão Pescados spokesperson: We’d love to see credit card and credit analysis regarding CNPJ consulting on the Serasa platform for us to be more competitive and offer better price options to new, loyal customers as we do with our current customers.

It would also be amazing if we could cross-sell and upsell related products as our customers are checking out soon. That way, we could offer our standard consultancy through Red101 Market and present other food options related to the ones the customer was searching for.

(CNPJ is TAX ID used in Brazil that can be used to analyze a company’s credit rating via a national credit analysis database. Using this rating, distributors can then offer credit facilities and better prices to retailers.)

Soumaya: It’s interesting that there’s a difference between your prices and your competition’s prices. Can you tell me more about that?

Gabriel: Yes, there is a difference. Typically, it’s a small difference, and we advise our customers that if they notice a huge price difference, it’s probably a low-quality seafood product with high water level. Some companies deliberately input high water levels into their products, which is illegal, and then sell them cheaper.

We experimented a while ago, where we measured the difference in water levels in our products and that of other seafood distributors. We found that their products had up to 15% more water than ours, which is significant.

So, our customers know that with Red101 Market, they’re getting high-quality products from Lagostão Pescados.

Soumaya: What are the next steps your brand is taking with Red101 Market?

Gabriel: We plan to add Global Pescados as a brand onto the Red101 Market platform. Global Pescados is a second brand that we’ve built, which is associated with Lagostão Pescados, and focused on selling seafood in small quantities in supermarkets and malls. Of course, restaurants, hotels, and other market sectors can buy the brand, but we’ve packaged the products into little packs, which is more attractive to supermarkets.

These supermarkets will be able to order Global Pescados right on the Red101 Market app and pay online. This means that we don’t have to physically go into the supermarkets, saving us time and money.

Soumaya: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. It’s great to hear all the amazing ways Open Commerce is helping Lagostão Pescados digitize the supply chain and drive sales.

Gabriel: You’re welcome, Soumaya. It was great talking with you too. We’re excited about this partnership and its opportunities for the future!

Schedule a demo today to learn more about how Open Commerce can help your FMCG brand control the supply chain and increase sales.