Here’s How Danone and Brandbank Are Teaming Up to Win the Digital Shelf

The times they are a-changing, and brands that want to succeed in the new commerce world need to become masters of many different trades.

Customers are now interacting with brands in numerous ways and retailers need to make sure all bases are covered, or risk losing out on important sales. The physical retail space continues to be crucial – especially when it comes to grocery shopping – but it must now be supported by a robust a comprehensive digital presence as well.

This leads us nicely onto a concept referred to as the "digital shelf" which all retail brands need to be aware of and diverting resources to if they want to provide their customers with the kinds of experiences they expect when interacting with a contemporary commerce operation.

The Digital Shelf

In short, the digital shelf refers to anywhere your customers can view and/or purchase your products in the online space. It is made up of numerous channels, including search results, ads, product pages, social media accounts, mobile apps, and third-party sites, or any other place your products can be viewed through a screen.

Why is the digital shelf so important though?

We’re pleased you asked. Retail brands know how important shelf space is – in fact, they spend around $500 billion every year on physical shelving. Of course, this makes perfect sense as a brand because you want to be able to stock as many products as possible and display them in a way which will draw customers in and inspire purchasing decisions.

However, with an effective digital shelf strategy, this can all be for naught. Thanks to Google, we know that 84% of retail shoppers use their smartphones to help inform them when shopping in physical stores. They see a product on the shelf and they’re straight onto their phones to look up additional product information – ask any vegan who’s tried to buy wine – as well as things such as reviews and price comparisons – especially in the case of high-ticket items.

"As the internet has grown, it has transformed from a tool for comparing prices to a tool for comparing, well, everything," reports Google. "That’s clear in how we’ve seen purchase behavior change over the years on Google Search. Take the terms "cheap" and "best." Worldwide, search interest for "best" has far outpaced search interest for "cheap."¹ Those same dynamics hold true in countries around the world, like Germany, India, and Italy, for instance, when "cheap" and "best" are translated into local languages."

This means, digitally savvy retail brands are in a race to "win" the digital shelf – make sure their products feature highly on search results and have eye-catching displays such as with 360-degree images and video content.

Danone

One of the key tenets of winning the digital shelf game is through accurate reporting and measurement of results. There is no point going down a path or adopting a strategy if you don’t have a solid method of objectively evaluating its level of success.

As a world leading food company which focusses on everything from dairy and plant-based products to water and early life nutrition, Danone understands all too well the need to be able to accurately measure its digital shelf strategy.

This is why the Paris, France headquartered company has recently partnered with leading digital product content provider Brandbank to implement its innovative NielsenIQ eCI platform. NielsenIQ allows for real time and accurate ecommerce sales tracking and automatic uploading of their own products into the eCI system.

"The eCI tool helps us to understand the online channel and our own online presence," said Danone Junior Brand Manager, Sára Várkonyi. "Keeping track of the status of our ecommerce business is much easier and focused with eCI. The tool is easy to use and shows us the most important KPI’s, not only for our products but for our competitors too. The proactive support is also very helpful for us as it keeps our system constantly up-to-date."

"Danone were very pleased with the process of implementing eCI into the business as they found the platform to be easy to understand and use and also were very satisfied with the NielsenIQ Brandbank support teams who always were very helpful and fast to resolve any questions," added Brandbank. "Used by ecommerce teams at Danone and soon to be extended to other functions in the business, the eCI platform is used on a monthly basis to prepare the online sales reports and measure KPIs."

Final Thoughts

Winning the digital shelf game should be a top priority for all retailers. As the lines between physical and digital retail become ever more blurred, brands which fall behind in this regard are increasingly likely to remain left behind.

You can hear Danone Senior Customer Experience Center of Excellence, Katrina Schiedemeyer, speak at Digital Food and Beverage 2022, taking place in July at the Hyatt Regency, Austin.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.