Retailers manage thousands of suppliers who collectively define the in-store and online experience. Meanwhile, brands are under constant pressure to deliver across retail accounts and their in-store and online channels, capitalizing on all placement opportunities, to grow their respective categories and safeguard shelf space.

Performance benchmarks like on-time in-full (OTIF) and out-of-stock percentage (OOS%) can make retailers' expectations of their supplier partners clear. However, only by providing reliable reporting on these metrics can retailers reallocate inventory if necessary, and keep distribution centers (DCs) stocked to meet regional demand.

Real-time and readily ingestible data play a crucial role in synchronizing supply chains and enabling suppliers to meet retailers' expectations. By providing timely and actionable insights, retailers can empower their suppliers to make informed decisions and respond quickly to market demands.

Examples of how suppliers can leverage retailer metrics for operational excellence include J.M. Smucker, who boosted pet seasonal sales by 65% year-over-yearwith assortment strategies rooted in data-driven in-store and .com channel assessments; and PopSockets, who achieved 97% average in-stock rates with tier-one retailers guided by real-time sales and inventory insights for proactive supply chain management. PopSockets is also able to make confident, category-growing recommendations to retail partners backed by data.

“Our relationship with Target is strong because we are able to speak their language with real-time data,” explains Kyle Chu, Senior Manager of BI and Financial Planning.

The way retailers and suppliers interact with data has transformed dramatically. Gone are the days of static reports and manual data pulls – today, real-time, collaborative data ecosystems are driving supply chain efficiency, revenue growth, and retail media success.

Digitally native reporting solutions offered by platforms like Shopify and Amazon have pushed traditional retailers to adapt to a data-first era, with significant investments in data infrastructure shifting the focus from legacy portal solutions to streamlined systems that extract and integrate clean, actionable insights. The idea is for retailers to implement scalable, customizable reporting systems that provide both retailers and suppliers with flexible, real-time insights – enabling informed growth down to the category, region, store, and even individual product level. If suppliers like Safe Catch seafood can improve fill-rates and recover over $1M in out-of-stocks while operating in the unpredictable, wild-caught seafood industry with clean retailer insights, consider the level of scaled success categories could see when suppliers are all operating from organized intelligence.

This interconnected data ecosystem lays the foundation for collaborative commerce. By increasing the accessibility and usability of retail data for suppliers, retailers themselves gain greater transparency into operations, account performance, and evolving consumer shopping behaviors. At the same time, these systems strengthen retailer ownership of first-party data intelligence, enhancing the success of revenue-generating retail media programs.

Streamlined reporting made available by KeHE and Whole Foods helped Instacart’s #1 fastest-growing brand of 2023, MUSH, to resolve long-standing out-of-stocks (OOS) and boost fill-rate averages to over 90%, improving inventory flow for both distributor and retailer. Similarly, UNFI Insights powered by Crisp, a breakthrough reporting tool, has enabled rocketship-growth brands like Chosen Foods to grow total UNFI sales 35% year-over-year while virtually eliminating waste through an integrated spoilage risk detection tool. Nestlé USA, an early adopter of the tool, streamlined real-time, granular reporting across 1,500 SKUs in its $300M UNFI business segment, allowing the Nestlé USA team supporting UNFI to focus on driving sales growth activities rather than data management.

In addition to helping suppliers keep their retailer’s shelves stocked and sales strong, retail data insights can drive organizational buy-in for increased supplier resources to drive retailer-targeted growth.. Brands with visibility into performance metrics can more easily identify media spend opportunities and allocate budgets to retailer-specific marketing programs. With retail media spend expected to account for almost a quarter of all U.S. ad spend by 2028, retailers enabling these campaigns through transparent data-sharing practices stand to gain significant, sustainable revenue.

This approach offers untapped opportunities for retailers beyond the big-box giants to differentiate themselves – particularly as cost-conscious consumers grow less attached to longstanding brand loyalties.

Wins like Mars’ Nature’s Bakery achieving triple-digit growth at regional chains like The Fresh Market and 80% YOY sales growth at Thrive Market further illustrate the benefits of effective data-sharing practices for regional and online retailers.

Collaborative data-sharing helps retailers and suppliers achieve shared growth targets, driving incremental sales and operational success. It also increases the availability and value of proprietary first-party data – putting consumer insights, category performance, and more, into the hands of retailers instead of extending a reliance on third-party syndicated market reports.

While syndicated market reports provide valuable category-wide trends, they often lag in timeliness and granularity, with latency of four or more weeks. This delay means opportunities to act on critical inventory or promotional shifts may have passed. In contrast, daily point-of-sale (POS) data offers immediate, actionable insights that enable swift responses to market changes.

Finally, for retailers aiming to capitalize on AI-driven efficiency and automation solutions, clean and structured data is critical. Investing in robust data-sharing systems today ensures they’ll be well-positioned to scale and evolve within the continuously expanding retail technology landscape of tomorrow.

About Crisp

Over $15T in goods flow through global supply chains annually. But the data required to optimize movement of goods is disconnected and siloed. As the leading retail data company, Crisp leverages AI to facilitate the integration, access and exchange of retail data between CPG brands, retailers, and distributors, providing unprecedented visibility to optimize retail sales and the supply chain infrastructure. Trusted by 7,000+ brands representing more than $2.5T in retail sales across over 250K stores, Crisp transforms a brand’s own retail data into a competitive advantage. Learn more