Digital and data company TWC has said its partnership with CJ Lang & Son to develop SPAR Scotland Sales Track – a new wholesale and retail data reporting service – has proved successful.
CJ Lang & Son wanted a data solution that could combine its wholesale shipments data with EPOS sales data from company-owned stores – a first in UK wholesale – in order to make fast and accurate decisions. It was imperative that the platform was easy to use across the CJ Lang & Son business and its suppliers, recognising that data skills varied amongst users.
In only three months, the resulting SPAR Scotland Sales Track was developed and launched. The cloud-based platform reports wholesale shipments data as well as retail sales from SPAR Scotland’s company-owned stores. The system is supported by TWC in terms of demos, user guides, ‘how to’ videos and 1-2-1 training sessions.
According to CJ Lang & Son, TWC’s SmartView has helped the business commercialise its data with the two businesses working in close collaboration. Furthermore, TWC has converted 70% of the priority prospects identified by CJ Lang & Son into data contracts.
Colin McLean, CEO for CJ Lang & Son, said: “Incredibly, the implementation of the platform has had very little impact on our operational time, whilst generating a new revenue stream for the business.
“We are now able, for the first time, to share shipments data to all SPAR Scotland retailers, enabling our partner suppliers to monitor their performance through CJ Lang & Son at a total category, sub-category, brand and SKU level, including competitor data.
“In the three months since the platform went live, we have had over 40 suppliers sign up to the service. They’ve mainly accessed ‘NAM Dash’, however many suppliers are taking the time to dig deeper from here into the retail basket analysis.”
Sandy MacEwen, Head of Sales at TWC, added: “For the first time, stakeholders can view wholesale and retail sales performance on one, easy to use platform. Our platform has been built to give suppliers quick key facts ‘on the go’ via our NAM Dash tool, where you can view category performance right the way down to SKU level information, within a couple of clicks.
“We also have a wholesale analysis tool to help suppliers understand how their products are being bought by retailers within a category, alongside a suite of EPOS analysis tools to help suppliers understand how their customers are buying their products within the company-owned stores.”
She concluded: “The Retail Basket Analysis shows the importance of how data can be used to drive growth opportunities as it’s very easy to find trends that are specific to a category within the platform.
“Suppliers are already in conversations with the CJ Lang & Son’ trading team around cross-category promotions, through the insights they’ve found using the Retail Basket Analysis – watch this space!”