If you are a seasonal CPG business, you may have grown due to word of mouth to this point in growth, primarily through B2C channels. While B2C has its nuances for planning and procurement due to the unpredictable consumer demand, the drivers and consequences are not as severe as B2B once you have landed a few large enterprise customers. Also, if you want to have fast growth, you will need to sell through marketplaces and large retailers. While onboarding them could provide sustained growth of 2-3x without much marketing efforts, meeting their delivery and fulfillment expectations is hard. And you need much superior control of both the first and last mile to serve these key customers and avoid losing after you have landed them.
In today's episode, our guest, Colby Young, shares his insights on the nuances of PO lifecycle and why it is critical for seasonal businesses such as cosmetics. He also discusses the role of the first and last mile and why the first-mile planning and collaboration are critical as the last mile to ensure timely delivery of goods to key customers, avoid inventory stockouts and missed opportunities due to disconnected processes. Finally, he discussed the planning and supply chain challenges associated with onboarding enterprise customers and how to avoid disruptions caused by sudden growth spikes.
For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.