This follows the 5 key onboarding steps to success as outlined in the training implementation guide:
- Connect Retailer data sources
- Product mapping up to date
- Sharing your historical promotional calendar
- Scope, goals and objectives set with key stakeholders
- Initial training session
1. Reviewing your promotional data input (following calendar upload)
To ensure that your data and promotional forecasts are accurate following initial upload, we recommend a regular sense-check across your historical, active and planned promotions. These include:
- Checking the start and end dates are accurate
- Checking promotional names and including key descriptors if helpful (Supplier Promo ID, internal structures of names)
- Ensuring promotional space funding has been added against the promotions
- Ensuring retailers are correct mapped against the promotions
- That the promotions appear in the correct status (i.e completed, active, proposed or planned).
As a reminder you can access each individual promotion by clicking on the Promo ID next to the ‘eye’ icon and it brings you into the full overview.
2. Reviewing predictive forecasts
Once you start analysing each promotion with our AI uplift agent, we recommend reviewing these forecasts for any upcoming promotional activity, comparing these to your internal forecasts and adjusting assumptions if necessary (i.e does this logic and outcome make sense based on past behaviour?).
3. Adding or updating promotions
If any new promotions are confirmed post onboarding, we recommend:
- Adding them manually via the +Create Promotion button if there are just a few
- Using ‘Upload Promotions’ functionality if there are many
- Repeating the above data checks once uploaded to ensure consistency and data accuracy
4. Reviewing performance post promotional activity
After key promo and trading periods, ensure to check on ‘Completed’ promotions for:
- Forecasted volumes to actuals
- Reviewing performance at the promotion level
- Identifying where forecasts were most accurate
- Reviewing store-level performance where enabled by retailer to understand over and under-performance and start to explore potential wastage opportunities
5. Evaluating efficiencies during the process
We recommend that you evaluate the efficiencies, such as:
- Time: forecasting and quick results vs your previous processes
- Reduced manual effort across your team
- Retailer negotiations: How quickly you can respond to changes vs previous
💡Want a better understanding of how prices, customer discounts and promotions connect to sales, margin and ROI? Click here to access our data glossary.