Profitability: The Elephant In The Ecommerce Room With Sri Rajagopalan - Episode 141

INTERVIEW WITH CPG LEADER SRI RAJAGOPALAN

 

DESCRIPTION

We are diving back into conversation with CPG leader Sri Rajagopalan and talking about the dirty secret of eCommerce - is it really less profitable for CPG brands than for other categories?

In this episode, Sri gives us a detailed explanation of why some brands need to reconsider their approach to eCommerce, and why large brands turn to the D2C model.

Make sure to tune in and listen to what Sri has to say about the elephant in the eCommerce room!

Sri Rajagopalan is an experienced consumer packaged goods eCommerce leader who has been leading the industry in much needed digital transformation as retail shifts to adapt to the consumers changing shopping habits and the path to purchase.

He has most recently led Revlon’s growth in eCommerce in beauty as Senior Vice President, including direct to consumer leadership, incubated, and scaled digital eCommerce for Frito-Lay PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson consumer Inc as Vice President of Digital.

His knowledge of Amazon business development, omnichannel needs across grocery retailers and direct to consumers are well known in the CPG industry. He is an active LinkedIn blogger, and you can find several of his featured podcast interviews on YouTube. He is a board advisor to several CPG startups and is focused currently on launching his own supplements startup – Zenfuel.

“Winning in eCommerce is very different from winning in-store, your skillset and your entire strapline are built around the 360 of marketing and selling across a wide spectrum of ecosystems.”
— Sri Rajagopalan

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Sri answers the question is CPG more challenging when it comes to eCommerce.

  • In CPG the models were optimized from a PNL perspective - if you can't supply a truckload of innovation on day one, the model will break.

  • The big difference between digital selling and offline selling - digital selling is the business of individual units at the transactional level.

  • E-commerce is the business of understanding retail, and very few brands over the course of time have that skillset.

  • One-on-one consumer engagement coming from data is not a traditional strength of CPG brands because it's the retailer that closes the deal.

  • In the D2C model, the brand takes upon itself the carrying costs of being a retailer. 

  • Sri explains the above the line and below the line concept.

  • The biggest strength of PepsiCo is that they have mastered the art of supply chain.

  • A large brand gets into D2C to build a one-on-one relationship with the consumer, to understand what they want longterm.

  • If a brand wants to be successful in the long run, they have to design a purpose of why they're in E-commerce in the first place. 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

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