Supply Chain Optimization With Kyle Gustafson - Episode 182
DESCRIPTION
Today we’re sharing some knowledge about the ever-changing climate that we face in eCommerce, especially on the supply chain side of things. Our guest is Kyle Gustafson from Simpactful and recently he has done a few studies on high-impact areas, including things like trade terms with retailers, sales, organization design, management, and data management.
Make sure to tune in to find out more!
Kyle Gustafson is a Sr. Consultant at Simpactful, a unique CPG/Retail Consulting Firm built on "been there" industry expertise. Simpactful offers solutions that are proven in areas like Commercial Strategy Revenue Management, eCommerce, Organizational Development, Omni Channel/Seamless Shopping, Shopper, and Consumer Insights. Prior to joining Simpactful, Kyle held executive roles at Amazon Europe, Office Depot, and Staples leading commercial efforts including multi-channel private brands.
“I think the beauty of eCommerce is that there’s tons of data that you can harvest to see and you can try it at a small scale. ”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Typically some of the highest impact buckets of opportunities for brands who are looking to improve profitability is to create and revise their overall vision and approach to eCommerce.
Brands are faced with a huge adaptation to a big change in customer demand and it's really hard for them to make that change quickly, knowing how much investment they're going to make, all the while maintaining their current business.
eCommerce is becoming more and more apparent that it needs to be integrated and needs to have access, insight, and impact across all functions: sales and marketing, shopper insights, supply chain, sales… It has to be invested at the top and aligned with the corporate vision.
Now, brands are just trying to adapt and grow their sales and adapt to the changing customer shopping, especially due to the Pandemic.
eCommerce has always been a long-term strategy.
Amazon is a pretty tough negotiator with their trade terms with vendors, but there are still levers that can be pulled.
One vendor to improve their profitability with Amazon should have a strategy and it should be a pretty defined strategy. They need to understand what purpose Amazon's going to serve for them. Otherwise, Amazon has many strategies that ladder up to one and they're going to drive the Amazon strategy. So either you will define your strategy or Amazon will build a brand strategy for you.
Advertising is kind of on the frontier for Amazon.
If you're selling a product on the shelf that needs a hanging tag or packaging, that's going to attract an in-person shop but that's not necessarily the best way to package something for eCommerce.
If you're going to have different packaging for stores versus Amazon, then that increases the complexity of your operation as well.
Most retailers are humans managing machines.
Depending on your product, size, scale, distribution, and customer set, you can optimize your supply chain to cut down the costs.
Amazon has a flat fee for fulfillment every time, regardless of whether they're shipping to the next state or across the country and that's not really typical in the world of logistics, where it's all billed by distance.
You want your product to be in the eyes of the customer.
Success in the future is a lot of niches, so finding your niche and then where your customers are in that niche.
To fulfill one package to one customer across geography should be a goal.
There so much data and data needs to be used, there is a lot that can make companies profitable.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Connect with Kiri Masters
Connect with Kyle Gustafson
Learn more about Bobsled Marketing
Learn more about Simpactful