From department and specialty big-box stores to grocers and independent retailers, the industry has been impacted by many challenges this year, much of which have been driven by an increase in digital shopping, Covid-19 and consumers’ weakening pocketbooks. The upcoming holiday season – including Black Friday and Cyber Monday – provides an opportunity for retailers to regain lost ground and perhaps even move from red to black in terms of profitability. In fact, Deloitte predicts that holiday sales this season will grow by 1.5% in the U.S. compared to last year.
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Brian Cluster

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Author’s note: Click here to see my updated post for 2021 and beyond
Making the most of today’s environment requires brands to enhance their data management capabilities with new innovations.
For consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, the only constant is change – especially as it applies to trends impacting the industry. While many of last year’s trends are just as relevant today, the difference is that consumer behavior and market changes are occurring at a much faster rate (approximately 2-3 months instead of 2-3 years). For the most part, CPG companies and their retail partners have made tremendous strides in addressing these trends. In fact, some of the best prepared companies have moved beyond surviving and are actually thriving during these challenging times.
Read MoreSince the outbreak of Covid-19, we have seen a dramatic shift in consumer shopping. More customers are focused on safety and convenience while price sensitivity has taken a temporary back seat.
Read MoreJust over a week ago the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a worldwide pandemic, calling on countries around the world to take drastic steps to slow the rapid spread of the virus.
Read MoreEven though CPG companies and other businesses are in the middle of the busiest time of the year, Thanksgiving and holidays provides us an opportunity to take a moment to be grateful for our companies, colleagues and wonderful customers. But what often gets ignored in this time of gratitude is the richness and value of the data that customers are sharing about the product and their purchase experiences.
Read MoreProduct Information Management (PIM), DAM, EAM, PII, data enrichment, matching and linking. Not quite sure what all those abbreviations, terms and hypes mean and how they relate to Master Data Management (MDM)? Get your Master Data Management definitions in one place in this A-Z of MDM.
Read MoreThe rise of food allergies
In fact, “The FDA estimates that food allergies result in 30,000 emergency room visits, 2,000 hospitalizations, and 150 deaths each year.”
Food allergies have been on the rise and continue to increase in developed countries worldwide; on average, 5.2% of children under the age of 18 in the United States have a food allergy and a recent study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that food allergies increased almost 50% between 1997 and 2011.
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