Competitive Analysis For Retailers

Demand Capture 101. This is actual data from a $60MM ARR SaaS company. Let’s break it down 👇   How a lead/account enters your pipeline is the biggest predictor of sales velocity metrics - win rates, sales cycle lengths, even ACVs.    Because how they enter your pipeline is a surrogate for buying intent & indicator of how far they are complete in the buying process.    Here’s how to measure it & use it to drive your revenue strategy:   1. Measure the Opportunity Source in Salesforce on the opportunity record.    Campaign Source = What campaign type did they convert on to move this opportunity into pipeline? (e.g. demo request, e-book download, cold call, trade show, etc.)   Source / Channel = What source or channel did they come from in order to convert? (e.g. LinkedIn ad, organic search, account intent data, ZoomInfo, etc.)    Using both of these data points combined will literally guide your strategy.    This shows you the optimal paths to *capture demand* and is easily measurable using software-based attribution.   2. Separate conversion sources between *Declared Intent* and *Low Intent*.    Declared Intent = The buyer declares intent to buy from you (e.g. Demo Request, Contact Sales) Low Intent = You assume the buyer has intent based on their digital behavior (e.g. ebook download, webinar attendee, trade show badge scan, intent data, etc.)    3. Calculate core sales analytics between the two sources.    Calculate conversion rates, lead-to-win rate, net new ARR, sales velocity, and more.    4. Visualize how much conversion intent matters to sales velocity and sales productivity.    149X higher lead-to-win rates for declared intent conversions   Declared intent = 26 “leads” to win 1 deal for $54k ARR Low Intent = 3,868 “leads” to win 1 deal for $130k ARR   18X greater sales velocity for declared intent conversions   Declared intent = $14.2MM annual sales velocity Low intent = $781k annual sales velocity 5. Recognize not all MQLs are created equal Measuring on MQLs incentivizes teams to get the most volume of MQLs for the lowest cost (low intent conversions), which is entirely misaligned with sales productivity and sales goals. Separate these into two Pipeline Sources (Declared Intent, Low Intent). Plan and build your goals for these two sources separately.   __   Now you know exactly HOW you want buyers to enter pipeline (capture demand) for maximum sales velocity & sales team efficiency. You also know exactly WHY buyers choose to take those paths to enter pipeline & WHAT triggers / channels / tactics move them to conversion. And with all of these insights, you can re-architect your strategy that optimizes for REVENUE. #revenue #sales #marketing #b2b #gtm p.s. Every SaaS company’s data looks like this, because it’s universal to how buyers buy. Most just don’t take the 3 hours of time to analyze their own data and see it for themselves.

Dunzo’s collapse isn’t the story. The real story is the rot inside Reliance’s retail leadership. It’s official. Reliance has written off its ₹1,645 crore stake in Dunzo. Value? Zero. On paper, it’s just a bad investment in a struggling quick commerce startup. But if you’ve ever worked with Reliance’s retail teams, you know this isn’t an isolated misstep. It’s a symptom. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Reliance Retail is run by teams that behave like they’ve already won— but operate like they’ve never learned. I’ve seen category heads at Reliance Digital who don’t understand their own categories, yet speak to partner brands with arrogance that far exceeds their competence. I’ve seen leaders at Reliance Smart desperate to outgrow D-Mart—by imitating them—without the faintest clue of how D-Mart actually works. No innovation. No insight. Just demands for better pricing from brands, without delivering them the one thing that matters: footfalls. Money flows in. Customers don’t. The result? Retail built on ego, not empathy. Strategy built on imitation, not innovation. Teams rewarded for posturing, not performance. The tragedy here is that Reliance was built on boldness—on outthinking and outworking the competition. Mukesh Ambani’s vision changed industries. But in retail, that vision is being suffocated by a culture of mediocrity and managerial hubris. If Reliance wants retail dominance, the answer is simple: – Sack the leadership layer that confuses authority with ability. – Build teams that respect brands as partners, not prey. – Hire operators who understand customers, not just spreadsheets. – Stop copying D-Mart. Start building the next D-Mart. Because if ₹1,645 crore can vanish without accountability, it’s only a matter of time before customers do too. #Leadership #OrganizationalCulture #RetailStrategy #BusinessTransformation #RelianceRetail #CorporateGovernance #BusinessLeadership #RetailInnovation #FMCG #GrowthStrategy #LinkedInWriting #ExecutionExcellence #Meritocracy

#lidl’s highest ever market share, and #aldi losing share for the first time since March 2021, are the highlights from Worldpanel by Kantar's UK market data for 12 weeks ending 17th March released this morning. 12-wk sales grew by 4.2%, down from the last 12-wk period figure of 5.1% as 4-wk grocery #inflation fell from 5.3% to 4.5%, its lowest since February 2022.   Of the £1.355 Bn. sales growth year-on-year, 77% has been driven by just three retailers – #tesco (with sales up 5.8%), #sainsburys (up 6.7%), and Lidl (up 8.8%). All three retailers have increased their market share by 0.4% points year-on-year.   Aldi, with sales up just 3.1%, has seen their share fall by 0.1% point from 9.9% this period in 2023 to 9.8%. They have contributed just 7% of the market value growth, with sales up £97M year-on-year. Store numbers have grown from around 985 last year to 1015 now – around 3% - suggesting that like-for-like store sales are flat. Quite a few empty spaces on shelf have been seen recently. Their roll-out of a new SAP system worldwide may be proving a challenge from a stock availability perspective.   Total discounter share has nevertheless rebounded from 16.9% in the 12 weeks to 18th February to 17.6% this period. One reason is that Christmas sales were included in the last 12-wk period, and these have now dropped out of the latest period – discounter share always falls over Christmas. Furthermore, Lidl continue to grow ahead of the market, at +8.8%, giving them their highest ever market share of 7.8%.  Kantar state that their baked goods are up a huge 24% YoY. Their impressive in-store bakery will be helping this, and Lidl are promoting many in-store bakery products through the Lidl Plus app. Oh, and Aldi doesn’t have an in-store bakery… or app... #morrisons and #waitrose are enjoying an upward trend in sales growth. Although they still lag behind the total market, their growth rates are now ahead of Aldi’s for the first time since the pandemic. Waitrose and Ocado are the only grocers to boost their number of shoppers in the last 12 weeks, according to Kantar. In the last 4 weeks #branded sales growth (6.1%) is ahead of #privatelabel (4.7%) – a significant shift considering the strong gains made by private label over the last 2 years. The increasing use of promotions (many through loyalty apps) and some very strong instore merchandising of some brands will have fuelled this. Within private label, the premium tier is flying with sales up 16.1%. Premium tier features strongly in Meal Deals which have been heavily promoted leading up to Easter. Kantar has revealed that #easter treats are up by £88M compared with the same period in 2023, although a major factor behind this will be that Easter falls one week earlier this year. With two weeks to go from this latest data date to Easter Sunday, the next data set should reveal who the real winners are this Easter - a key trading period for retailers to retain customer loyalty.

A new ad placement looks like growth. It’s usually just more runway. When an airport builds a new runway, airlines gain more flight capacity. That does not increase profit. It increases potential supply. Empty seats still burn fuel. Airlines don’t obsess over runway count. They obsess over yield per seat. Because capacity without profitable demand destroys margin. Retail has the same problem with media. Every new placement promises: • Lower CPMs • Early-mover advantage • Incremental reach But reach is infrastructure. Profit comes from yield. If the signal inside that placement is weak: • Traffic converts below blended average • Discounts increase to compensate • Contribution erodes quietly • CAC drifts away from LTV Cheap attention with poor signal is the equivalent of flying half-full planes. It looks active. It looks expanded. It looks like scale. But yield tells the truth. Strong retail teams don’t chase new surfaces. They ask: • Is the intent commercially useful? • Does this improve contribution per order? • Does it expand profitable demand or dilute it? • Can our measurement model actually read the impact? Platforms measure inventory growth. Retailers must measure margin growth. New placements are runway. Signal quality determines yield. And yield determines profit. #retailmarketing #ecommerce #performancemarketing #growthstrategy #decisionmaking #digitalmaturity #retailstrategy

As a CFO, can you report profitability in ways that actually make the Board lean in? Let me share one metric that never fails to spark conversation — Customer or Channel Profitability. Imagine I’m buying a pair of glasses from Lenskart through two different channels: Channel 1: Online Purchase I visit the Lenskart website or app, browse through frames using filters, optionally try them on virtually, select the one I like, upload my prescription, choose a lens package (blue-cut, photochromic, etc.), and proceed to checkout. Payment is made digitally, and within a few days, the glasses are delivered to my doorstep. Channel 2: In-store Purchase I walk into a nearby Lenskart store, get my eyes tested by an optometrist, try on multiple frames with the help of staff, finalize my lens and prescription details, and make the payment. The glasses are then custom-made and either delivered to my home or collected from the store. While the product is the same, the cost of operations — store infrastructure, staff time, equipment — is significantly higher than the online channel. So, if I see from the cost standpoint: The product is the same. Even the material and production costs are the same. But from a profitability standpoint, the two experiences are radically different. Why? Because of operational costs. In-store transactions include: [1] Retail infrastructure costs [2] Salaries of store executives [3] Equipment & maintenance [4] Utility overheads [5] Inventory handling costs In contrast, online sales operate with leaner overheads — primarily driven by technology infrastructure and a centralized development team managing the backend. Same revenue. Very different profitability. And here's the catch — you can’t charge the customer differently just because they chose a different channel. That’s why channel-level profitability analytics is a critical tool in the CFO’s reporting arsenal. It helps uncover insights like: [1] Which channels drive true profitability [2] Where operational inefficiencies lie [3] Which customer segments are sustainable to serve Boards don’t just want toplines and bottomlines anymore — they want clarity/focus on where the real value is being created. This is Sankalp, signing off for Week 28/52 of Value Accounting – Part 6.1: Customer and Channel/Market Profitability Analytics (PA). Next week, we’ll dive deeper into the underlying system structures required to build a robust profitability analytics framework. #linkedin #finance #accountingandaccountants #startups

Most food brands still say retail media is “important.” But the 2026 data says something else: If you’re still treating retail media like a test budget, you’re already behind. We just released our 2026 Global Retail Media Budget Allocation Benchmarks report, based on inputs from 305 digital commerce, retail media, and marketing executives across 41 global brands. And the Food & Beverage numbers jumped out immediately: 📍Retail media now accounts for 8% to 26% of total ad spend in Food & Beverage, with an average of 17% in 2026. That’s up sharply from 12% in 2025. 📍As a % of net revenue, allocation now ranges from 0.7% to 6.8%, with an average of 3.2%, up from 3.0% last year. 📍The U.S. is still playing a different game: highest observed levels hit 26% of total ad spend and 6.8% of net revenue. 💥 Meanwhile, the low end of Europe sits at 8% of ad spend and 0.7% of net revenue. That gap is not just a benchmark difference. - It is a capability gap. - A mindset gap. - And in many companies, a leadership gap. Retail media is no longer a sideline item owned by one team with a dashboard and a prayer. It is becoming one of the clearest signals of whether a food brand actually understands how modern commerce works. A few blunt takeaways for FMCG leaders: 1. Search-only retail media is not a strategy. If you’re not building full-funnel plans across onsite, offsite, display, video, and seasonal moments, you’re underplaying the channel. 2. ROAS is not enough anymore. The next budget unlock comes from proving incrementality, not just harvesting demand that already exists. 3. One global playbook is lazy. Market maturity, retailer capability, and shopper behavior vary too much. Your investment model should, too. 4. Retail media is now a commercial growth lever, not a media experiment. The brands winning here are not just spending more. They’re operating better. Download link for the full report in comments. 👇 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟵,𝟯𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁® : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. PepsiCo The Coca-Cola Company Mondelēz International Danone Ferrero Mars Nestlé Procter & Gamble Unilever Kraft Heinz General Mills Post Consumer Brands The Hain Celestial Group Kellanova Kellogg Company JDE Peet's Starbucks Chobani The Hershey Company Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Coca-Cola FEMSA pladis Global Lindt & Sprüngli Ghirardelli Chocolate Company Russell Stover Chocolates Bimbo Bakeries USA Tyson Foods

Walk into any major retailer in the US or Europe right now and you can feel it. Shelves look tighter. Assortments feel cleaner. The long tail is disappearing. We are entering the era of the shrinking SKU. For years, FMCG growth was driven by proliferation. More flavors. More formats. More line extensions. More “innovation” that often meant incremental differentiation. It made sense when shelf space was abundant and capital was cheap. That world is changing. Retailers are rationalizing aggressively. Private equity backed brands are cutting complexity to protect margin. Supply chain volatility has exposed how expensive bloated portfolios really are. McKinsey has reported that top performing CPG companies often generate over 80 percent of their revenue from less than 30 percent of their SKUs. The rest? Operational drag. And here is where it gets interesting from a leadership and talent perspective. When portfolios shrink, expectations rise. Fewer SKUs mean each one has to work harder. Fewer launches mean each bet has to be sharper. Fewer people in the structure mean each hire carries more weight. I am seeing this shift across beauty, food, and consumer electronics. Boards are asking tougher questions. Commercial leaders are being challenged not just on growth, but on simplification. Supply chain and sales need to be in tighter sync than ever before. The days of hiding under portfolio complexity are fading. The leaders who thrive in this shrinking SKU future are not just great marketers. They are operators. They understand margin architecture. They can make hard calls on discontinuation without ego. They are comfortable killing “pet projects” in favor of clarity. And culturally, this changes teams. When you move from abundance to focus, you need leaders who can prioritize without paralysis. Leaders who can say no. Leaders who understand that simplification is not contraction, it is strategy. From a hiring standpoint, I now probe differently in interviews. Can this person operate in a leaner structure? Can they grow with fewer resources? Have they ever simplified something instead of expanding it? Because the next wave of high performing FMCG businesses will not win by offering more. They will win by offering better. Curious what you are seeing in your own categories. Are you adding SKUs this year, or quietly taking them away? #FMCG #CPG #PrivateEquity #Leadership

Here's a thought for recruiters from industries OTHER than retail: Not sure if that store manager who applied has strong enough team building and HR skills? After all, they only fold clothes all day, right? What would they know? Hold on. Store managers and other #retail leaders have considerable experience in HR-related functions. They don't have a full HR team back there in the stockroom - any help is often hours away. They do it themselves: ✅ They assess their talent needs. What do they have now? What do they need soon? What about peak season fluctuations? ✅ They actively recruit day after day. They source top talent, relentlessly. ✅ They hire and onboard people. Lots of them. ✅ They train staff in classrooms, on the sales floor, in the warehouse, or in other locations. Wherever they can and need to. ✅ They create complex employee schedules week after week. ✅ They manage payroll budgets, wage scales, and labor efficiency. ✅ They oversee the performance of each member of their team. They do performance reviews and coach struggling employees. ✅ They create and manage succession plans to ensure a strong leadership bench for their location and the rest of the district/region/company. ✅ They identify, develop, and promote top performers within their store and for the company as a whole. ✅ They maintain a strong understanding of, and strict compliance with, local employment laws and regulations. ✅ They plan and facilitate team building events to improve the culture and employee engagement, recognition, and retention. ✅ They routinely demonstrate strong conflict resolution skills. They problem-solve several times a day. ✅ They manage severe weather events, active shooter situations, civil riots, and other crisis situations with exemplary leadership, communication, and compassion. Retail leaders have a wealth of experience to offer in HR, team building, operations, sales, customer engagement, and so much more. It's time to cast aside your outdated perceptions of what store managers are.

During my four years at Amazon Ads, one thing brands could never get enough of was benchmark data. March 2026 just delivered a massive efficiency breakthrough: Google ROI surged +291% (from 4.23 to 16.55) while Walmart Connect Onsite Display ROI exploded by +166%. I can’t wait to see what the Q1 numbers look like. Retail media continues to drive significant results, but performance is concentrated in a few top channels. The gap between these high-efficiency channels and where most teams are still allocating budget is widening. Here's what the data is actually telling you: Retail media has become the primary growth driver. In CPG and Food & Beverage, Amazon Search and Instacart conversion growth is running +30% to +100%+ YoY. Walmart Search is up +59%. This reflects a true structural shift, not outliers. Reallocating budget is answer. Several channels in this benchmark show the same pattern: spend up, clicks up, conversions flat or down. This indicates low ROI despite higher engagement.. The brands winning right now are moving budget toward proven efficiency breakout channels, not simply adding investment across the board. Last year’s channel mix is already wrong. If you're still running the same allocation you built in 2025, the data says you're behind. Google (16.55 ROI), Walmart Onsite Display (19.34 ROI), and MSN (10.50 ROI) are pulling away. Low-ROI, high-click-volume channels are pulling in the opposite direction. Three things worth acting on now: Scale what's working. Double down on Google and ADSP. Google’s 291% ROI surge shows massive intent momentum, while ADSP CPCs improved by 55%, proving offsite efficiency is scaling. Cut the false growth. Social media is currently the False Growth trap, as CPCs dropped 20%, but ROI remained flat at 0.43. It's efficiency without effectiveness. Capitalize on the Local explosion. Local channel ROI grew from 1.73 to 90.07 this month. If your brand has a physical footprint, the window to move efficiently is now. Join Josh Dreller (Skai) and Kelly Gerrard (Marshall Associates) on April 23 for an in-depth look at Q1 digital advertising performance, featuring our exclusive data on retail media, paid search, social, and GenAI-powered marketing.

Pressure does not create leadership. It reveals it. When business is stable, many leadership styles can appear effective. Sales are moving, the team is calm, and the operation carries a lot of its own momentum. But the real test begins when pressure enters the room. That is when people see who becomes clear and who becomes reactive. Who protects standards and who starts making emotional decisions. Who steadies the team and who quietly adds more weight to an already difficult moment. I have always believed that teams do not expect perfection from a leader. They expect steadiness. They want to feel that someone is still thinking properly when things get tense. That matters far more than volume, theater, or authority for show. In retail, pressure travels fast. One anxious leader can disturb an entire floor. One grounded leader can settle it. That difference is felt by the team, the customer, and eventually the business itself. This is why I have little patience for leadership that only looks strong when conditions are easy. Real leadership is not measured by how visible it is when things are smooth. It is measured by what it does to people when conditions become difficult. Pressure has a way of making the truth visible. #Leadership #RetailLeadership #TeamCulture #LuxuryRetail #ExecutivePresence #Management