Are You Maximizing Your Downstream Data?

Consumer products manufacturers have had access to point-of-sale data from retailers for decades, but very few of them have figured out how to leverage it to their advantage. Defined by Supply Chain Insights LLC as "data that originates on the downstream or demand side of the supply chain," downstream data's biggest selling point is the fact that it offers immediate feedback regarding demand and buying patterns.

The problem, says Lora Cecere, Supply Chain Insights' founder and CEO and author of Integrated Demand Management: When Will We Start Using Downstream Data?, is that organizations use internal "pockets" of data to improve sales reporting, category management, or replenishment. "No consumer goods manufacturing company has designed and implemented an end-to-end value network to fully utilize the data," says Cecere, who adds that market adoption of downstream data has been slow.

While 31 percent of companies believe that they utilize the data well, all agree that the data's current use is only the "tip of the iceberg." According to a fourth quarter downstream data study from Supply Chain Insights, point of sale data from retailers was the most common type of data used in such initiatives (100 percent), followed by warehouse withdrawal data from retailers (86 percent), and loyalty data (52 percent). Technologies used to help with downstream data included Nielsen (59 percent), IRI (52 percent), spreadsheets and/or Access databases (52 percent), and retail solutions (45 percent).

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