Transforming for growth in Consumer & Retail

The disruptions of the past few years forced consumer and retail companies to transform operating models, reimagine ways to connect with customers, and rebuild supply chains. Now, consumer spending has revived, the threat of recession seems to have receded, and inflation is moderating. So, is it a good time for C&R companies to ease up on transformation? No. They shouldn’t, and they aren’t.

Consumer brands and retailers are still squeezed between rising input costs and high labor costs, so there is still work to be done on the cost side. But increasingly, C&R leaders are pursuing transformation for growth. In a KPMG survey of C&R executives, respondents said the top reasons for transformations now are initiatives that enable growth: delivering better products and services, understanding customers better, and responding to market changes with greater agility.

Leading organizations are looking closely into three areas:

• Value: Consumer products and retail companies are building upon foundations of historical customer and product data-"leaning forward" in their investments to anticipate and manage the impact of sustained inflation on purchase behavior.
• Purpose: Culture and employee buy-in are crucial for a high-stakes business transformation. Transformations are more likely to succeed when jobs are redesigned to give employees a greater sense of purpose, which drives engagement and performance. 
• Data and analytics: Companies that have built a robust technology and data foundation are able to implement transformations more effectively and deal with the new phenomenon of continuous, overlapping transformations. Democratizing data and analytical tools also helps employees succeed in their “transformed” roles.

Download our report to learn more about anticipated market changes and how they would shape consumer products and retail business transformations for years.