Leveraging cloud, AI for profitable growth in the consumer goods industry

Insights from PwC's Solver Series: Consumer Goods Roundtable

Hosted at Dreamforce 2023

PwC and Salesforce held a Consumer Goods Industry Roundtable at the recent Dreamforce 2023 event in San Francisco. Even through our client work we’ve seen CGC grow rapidly in a short time from offering retail execution capabilities to also now including a suite of trade promotion management (TPM) capabilities.

The roundtable discussion highlighted the need for consumer goods companies to develop customer-centric digital transformation initiatives that leverage the cloud, data, AI and other emerging technologies to help drive growth and innovation.

Attendees stated upfront they wanted to know about the roadmap for features and functions on the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, and hear from other companies about lessons learned.

One company that took part in the discussion — a large multinational consumer goods industry leader — also shared some insights into how companies can leverage cloud data to help develop customer-centric innovation, provided the right information can be delivered at the right time.

Other key points from the Consumer Goods Industry Roundtable include:

Digital transformation holds the key

From inflation bringing down consumer confidence to changes in consumer behavior and expectations, companies are battling to keep up with constant disruption. And the more disruptions emerge, the greater the need becomes for digital transformation. The challenges companies currently face can continue well into the future, making it essential for consumer goods and retail companies to embrace digital transformation and stay ahead of the curve.

Purpose-built cloud solutions are essential

While every customer is different and every company may be at different stages of maturity in their adoption journey, one thing is certain: companies should leverage many aspects of the cloud platform to help drive innovation and growth. This means bringing B2B and B2C planning and execution together with AI, data and CRM to enable consumer good companies to deliver profitable growth.

To win, prioritize integrated planning and execution

For companies using Salesforce for their consumer goods cloud requirements, the ability to integrate planning and execution on one platform is a game-changer. From increased intelligence in reporting and automation for sales functions to improved retail execution and higher levels of customer satisfaction, the top performing companies are leveraging cloud to help improve their planning and integrate various functions and data sources for better execution.

People, process and technology pave the way to the future

For one of the major global consumer goods companies that formed part of the roundtable discussion, three elements hold the key to successful digital transformation. Firstly, people should be supported with an agile culture, strong sponsor buy-in, engaged subject matter specialists and empowered product owners. Secondly, processes should be harmonized (especially big processes), benefits should be tracked and measured, and user feedback incorporated. Finally, by mapping integrations early and leveraging out-the-box functionality, companies can improve the implementation of their digital transformation initiatives.

What’s next

Did you know PwC has the largest consumer goods implementation for Salesforce of any systems integrator? PwC has been on this journey since 2018 and has both the technology and strategy for successful execution and innovation.

Reach out to us today to learn how PwC can help support digital transformation enabled by Salesforce for leading consumer goods and retail companies.