You already know that CPG e-commerce has taken a leap forward during the pandemic—and that business intelligence has become table stakes for success. This is because knowledge is power, and what you don’t know is hurting you. In such a dynamic market, you must monitor changing demand patterns and analyze the risks of CPG e-commerce without business intelligence. We’ve gone beyond analyses and caution, though, to share how the right business intelligence platform can help you sell more on Amazon and Walmart, the giants that control the retail market. And we’ve shared an overview of the good, better, and best tools for e-commerce e-analytics to show how Line Item helps CPG and e-commerce marketers master their market with insights to drive sales growth. Now to complement our industry-specific articles, we’re offering live webinars and product demos so you can see Line Item in action. Why watch a live webinar, or tune into an on-demand session? Simply put, a live product tour brings Line Item’s features to life in specific ways for your category or product portfolio. It’s a way for you and your colleagues to understand the power of business intelligence for your business, not just for CPG and e-commerce in general (though of course that’s important, too). Here are four reasons to join us for a live Line Item webinar or product demo. #1: Understand value through product attributes. Line Item’s deep insight into product attributes is what sets it apart from other analytics platforms. With a single tool built specifically for CPG and e-commerce, marketers can improve performance and profitability by understanding exactly what’s driving value. Line Item’s proprietary AI engine can calculate attributes for every item, even across hundreds of items in a category. These include form (like liquid or powder), size, flavor, and packaging (like pouch, box, and more). With a live product demo, you can see how Line Item enables visibility into this granular detail for business intelligence that powers better decision-making. See when competitors are coming out with new items that could threaten your sales. Detect new attributes that drive value. Know what consumers value about your product and your brand. #2: Learn how to truly optimize your search results. Search results matter. They can make or break whether your product makes it into customers’ carts, in-store or online. There can be many reasons why your product isn’t getting its share of page one, but if you don’t know them, you can’t address them with a fix. And it’s not enough to look at them as separate. A smart and successful digital strategy is built and optimized across all selling platforms. You need to know if your e-commerce SEO is working across all sites and all search terms. In a webinar, you can understand the power of Line Item in optimizing SEO strategy across all keywords, retailer websites, and online marketplaces. Line Item provides insight into how your brands and items are ranking and analyzes page share, rank by item, brand, form, and other attributes. You can also ask questions specific to your brand or category on SEO strategy and how Line Item powers it. #3: Discover how to drive sales with smarter insights. How do you know if your promotions are performing? Which search terms are working across all retailers and platforms? Which keywords are worth investing in? This level of detail is where the battle for the digital shelf is won, but it’s impossible to access without deep insight. And it’s not actionable without the kind of visibility into your e-analytics that Line Item enables. This is just one example of how smarter insights can drive sales growth in the fiercely competitive e-commerce market. Here are some others. Are your out-of-stocks hurting revenue? Are they giving competitors the edge if you don’t maintain inventory on Amazon? Optimizing inventory is enough of a challenge without having to second-guess your strategy. Line Item gives you the insights to understand how inventory is affecting your sales and ultimately your profitability. A webinar or live demo can show you how Line Item can be a game-changer for your e-commerce portfolio. #4: Level up your ability to monitor third-party activity. Amazon may be the world’s biggest marketplace, but it’s also the world’s most competitive. Keeping tabs on authorized and unauthorized third-party activity is key to success on the platform, but it can be complex even with the right tools. Unless, that is, you’re using Line Item. In a webinar or live product demo, you can see how a deep dive with Line Item can reveal when an unauthorized third-party seller starts selling your product online. With Line Item, you can understand when your items are priced correctly as well as when competitors or third-party sellers are undercutting your price. From pricing to competitor activity, see how Line Item can help you understand more about your market. Actions speak louder than words. Join us for an upcoming webinar or request a live product demo to see how Line Item can transform your CPG e-commerce. You’ll understand why Line Item is your best option for mastering your market. It’s a single platform with comprehensive capabilities purpose-built for CPG e-commerce. In today’s competitive and uncertain e-commerce market, Line Item is your lifeline to more profitable e-commerce.

From its humble origins as an online bookseller, Amazon has already ridden the rise of e-commerce. According to new research, though, it’s on track to overtake Walmart as the largest retailer in the US by 2025. By then, Amazon will also account for nearly two-thirds of the estimated $1 trillion in online consumer goods sales. For consumers, it makes sense: with one-click ordering, access to products from over 8 million sellers, fast shipping, and (often) the best price, buying on Amazon is an easy choice. It’s not as easy for sellers, though. Yes, Amazon opens the door to millions of additional buyers, but it controls the marketplace and introduces new competitive pressure. It’s important to protect your brand on Amazon, especially from third-party sellers that can undercut your sales or damage your brand loyalty. There’s more, though: retail arbitrage is an ecommerce business model that’s growing rapidly, and it’s important to understand it and protect your brand against it. Put simply, retail arbitrage is when people buy retail products (online or in person) and resell them on Amazon and other online marketplaces for a higher profit. It’s happening all the time, to brands that are sold regularly on Amazon as well as those that are restricted—which means that they’re not to be sold on Amazon. Because third-party sellers and retail arbitrage are widespread, you must have visibility into your product and brand portfolio. This is where the performance analytics Line Item can be essential for monitoring your e-analytics to protect your portfolio. Let’s look at why. Amazon third-party sellers Third-party sellers are growth drivers within a rapidly growing market. In fact, according to research from Planet Retail RNG, third-party sellers on Amazon already account for more than half of all sales—and by 2022 will account for as much as $130 billion of total gross merchandise value on the platform. This means they are a force you can’t ignore—and more sellers open accounts every day. Before looking further at the risks, let’s define terms. First-party sellers are brand manufacturers that sell their inventory directly to Amazon. Amazon then sells to customers. Second-party sellers are Amazon suppliers that are not the product’s manufacturer; Amazon often relies on second-party sellers to buffer inventory. Third-party sellers strategically use Amazon as a marketplace for direct-to-consumer sales. Amazon buyers may be indifferent about purchasing from these different types of sellers. But brand manufacturers are not. Think of it this way: every third-party sale of your products is a sale you lost out on. And these sales are only projected to grow. Why? It’s become very easy to resell on Amazon. All you need is an Amazon Seller account and products to sell. To make it even easier to net a profit, there are price-tracking apps that give resellers real-time info simply by scanning or entering product codes. Third-party seller risks to your brand Third-party sellers can cost your brand, so monitoring and acting on any activity is critical. The risks include:

• Unauthorized sales
• Price undercuts
• Losing the buy box
• Lower search results, ranks, and conversions
• Losing control of your curated detail page because of Amazon Fulfillment Center out-of-stocks
• Quality problems with selling condition
• Erosion of brand equity and consumer loyalty

Restricted brands Amazon tries to control counterfeiting through restricting certain brands or even certain products on Amazon. But third-party sellers have found many ways around this, so even if your brand or product is restricted on Amazon, that doesn’t mean it isn’t being sold. What brands can do about third-party activity CPG and e-commerce brands must understand the scope of any third-party sales on Amazon and other platforms. To tightly control the supply chain, you must evaluate:

• How many resellers will your brand authorize, who are they, and on what retail sites are they selling
• Whether authorized resellers are upholding your brand, including product quality, customer service, and pricing
• If customer reviews are trending negatively, including unaddressed customer service needs that may ultimately damage consumer confidence—and your brand.

Line Item can help by identifying third-party activity as well as verifying pricing, including list price, selling price, and price undercutting. Let’s look at how Line Item can help when it comes to third-party activity on Amazon.

• Line Item can help you identify new, unauthorized third-party activity on Amazon.
• Line Item can track e-analytics related to item pricing, helping you understand if your products are under- or overpriced, or when a third-party seller undercuts your price.
• Line Item captures e-analytics including e-tailer, review score and count, selling price and more, so you can gain visibility via a single platform into every aspect of your online sales.
• Line Item can identify if your reviews are letting you down, giving you insight that can help you address brand loyalty and consumer confidence for online sales.
• Line Item can tell you if out-of-stocks are hurting your revenue, helping you track inventory to retain greater control over your sales, curated detail page, and more.

With Amazon on track to take over as king of global retail, now is the time to put the right safeguards for your brand in place. It’s not just about Amazon sales; with Amazon a major driver of online sales beyond the platform, it’s about ensuring your brand viability and sales across all online channels. This is where Line Item can be a game-changer for your Amazon and online sales, helping you protect your brand from third-party seller risks and giving you e-analytics insight to grow your loyalty alongside your sales.

What does the emerging “next normal” look like for the CPG industry? In an uncertain world, it’s been difficult to determine, as the pandemic simultaneously accelerated digital transformation and forever changed consumer behavior. More than 18 months on, as the world moves into a post-pandemic phase, we’re seeing signs of changes to CPG demand patterns and consumer shopping habits. If there has ever been a time when business intelligence will make a difference, this is it. Businesses need it to make better decisions, retain or reclaim competitive advantage, and tap into changing demand patterns to drive growth. This is where the performance analytics platform Line Item becomes a lifeline for CPG and e-commerce marketing managers. With Line Item, CPG brands can harness insights into shifts in demand and new trends in the market to be agile in response to ever-changing dynamics. Changing they are. Let’s take a closer look at four key trends to watch in the second half of 2021. Multi-channel purchases are on the rise Consumers are resuming more active lifestyles as the pandemic recedes. According to data on US consumer mobility, at-home CPG demand will wane in the second half of 2021. As consumers become more comfortable with quick trips and in-store shopping, they will revert to multiple channels. Other consumers will continue buying online, meaning savvy omnichannel marketing will be critical to successful omnichannel sales. Consumer demand remains idiosyncratic Indicators suggest that many consumers are somewhere between pandemic at-home patterns and resuming pre-COVID consumption habits. Some of us will retain hybrid work schedules, and we’re still working on enhancing our home environments. This mix of new activities and old tendencies is driving idiosyncratic CPG demand. For example, demand for baking ingredients and home cleaning supplies will likely fall from peak, while cosmetics and clothing purchases are on the rise yet remain below pre-COVID sales levels. In such a volatile market, insights are essential to retaining or improving market share and meeting consumers where they are. Price sensitivity is a factor We’re getting ready to gather again—and holiday celebrations in 2021 are predicted to be larger than in 2020. At the same time, national brands are raising prices because of supply chain pressure and fluctuating demand. Store brands may have an opportunity to recover in the second half of 2021 as consumer price sensitivity continues. Understanding new trends in consumption and demand will be foundational to defending market share and maximizing growth going forward. So will key insight into pricing, the lever that ultimately drives profitability. Pricing too low cuts into profits, while pricing too high means your brand may lose out to competitors. Digital opportunity abounds Consumers are loyal to brand experiences, not brands. And many brand experiences begin in digital channels. In 2020, consumer loyalty softened as shoppers adapted to new ways of buying, new shortages, and new needs. In a world where brand loyalty matters in the digital realm as much or more than in-person, you must ensure digital content is seen. Research reveals that as much as 45% of content goes unseen by visitors—meaning there is a huge opportunity available to brands that can get it right. Identifying gaps that are keeping your content off page one in search results is a necessity. How CPG marketers should respond Given these emerging consumer trends, what can CPG marketers do to position brands for success? We suggest four key opportunities. Closely monitor changes in buying behavior. First, CPG brand managers and marketers need business intelligence to dial into changes in consumer buying behavior. Line Item can track hundreds of items in each product category, helping marketers see which items are newly trending and monitor third-party and competitor activity. With insight into e-analytics across a product portfolio, Line Item can enable marketers to detect shifts in consumer preferences and demand. Understand what’s driving value. In a market where consumer demand is less predictable than ever before, CPG brands need next-level business intelligence. Built for CPG and e-commerce, Line Item can capture all product attributes for insight into what is driving value—from flavors to sizes to packaging. Line Item also integrates data with AMZ Brand Analytics, Retail Link, Partnersonline and more for faster, better insight—so CPG marketers can understand how their marketing mix is performing and detect shifts in consumer mobility from in-home/online to out-of-home/in-person purchasing. Track pricing. Actionable business intelligence on pricing is essential, but it can be a challenge. As significant shelf price changes loom, CPG marketers need granular information to manage their revenue strategies. Line Item makes crucial insight possible, including verification of item pricing, selling price, and list price across your portfolio and your selling platforms. This will help to price products correctly and monitor third-party and competitor activity to ensure you’re driving profitability. Optimize your search results. Despite our new willingness to pop over to the store, online shopping will remain a force in the CPG market. Superior e-analytics insight at every level from portfolio to product attributes will help CPG marketers adjust their mix of online and in-store promotions. Monitoring whether brands are getting their share of page one search results also helps, including detailed insight into what may be keeping products off page one. Though in many ways the world may be stabilizing in the second half of 2021, the CPG market is still an uncertain place. Brands need business intelligence to thrive. This is where Line Item is a lifeline as a single platform with insight into what’s driving sales and what’s shaping the consumer demand curve—so you can grow your sales and profitability across your portfolio.