Unlock Retail Success: 3 Key Loyalty Data Insights CPG Brands Must Share with Retailers

As someone deeply involved with a consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand, you're constantly striving to drive growth and expand market share. Whether you're a founder, a sales leader, a marketing manager, or part of an agency supporting CPGs, you know the immense potential that lies within retail partnerships.

You're building brands that resonate and seeing real unit growth in your categories. But sometimes, winning at retail feels like you're missing a piece of the puzzle. You know retailers collect tons of loyalty data, but translating that into a winning pitch – one that clearly shows your brand's unique value to them – can be a daunting task, especially without a massive dedicated team. You might be asking, "What insights do they really care about? How can we use this data to strengthen our pitches and ensure our products fly off their shelves?"

Good news: Retailers aren't just collecting this data to hoard it. They want you to use it to drive their category growth. And they're looking for specific things from partners like you.

Stop guessing what retailers want to see. Here are three critical insights they are eagerly waiting for you to bring to the table, leveraging their own loyalty program data:

1. Identify Under-Indexed Shopper Segments for Their Stores

It's not just about who's already buying your product; it's about who isn't, and why. Retailers want to know which of their loyalty members are currently buying your product category elsewhere, or perhaps not engaging with it at all. Your brand can be the key to attracting these new-to-category or new-to-store shoppers. Show them how your unique value proposition can draw in new consumers, or encourage existing ones to expand their basket size within that specific retail environment.

• Actionable Takeaway: Request anonymized loyalty data on members who purchase similar products but not yours, or who show low engagement in your product category. Propose targeted promotions or product introductions designed to capture these specific segments and drive incremental foot traffic or digital engagement for the retailer.

2. Prove Incremental Sales, Not Just Substitution

One of the biggest concerns for retailers is "sales cannibalization" – when a new product simply steals sales from an existing one without adding net new revenue to the category. Loyalty data is your gold standard for proving incremental growth. Can your brand demonstrate that it brings new households to the category, encourages existing shoppers to buy more frequently, or increases the average spend per shopping trip? That's the story that truly captures a retailer's attention.

• Actionable Takeaway: When pitching a new product or analyzing an existing one, leverage pre- and post-launch loyalty data. Highlight purchasing patterns that clearly show net new transactions, increased purchase frequency across the category, or a higher average transaction value specifically attributable to your brand.

3. Validate Basket Affinity & Cross-Purchasing Opportunities

Understanding what else your customers buy when they pick up your product offers powerful insights for retailers. They want to see how your brand synergizes with other items in their store. Do your consumers frequently co-purchase high-margin private label goods? Do they cross-shop different departments after buying your item? This kind of insight helps retailers optimize store layouts, develop effective cross-promotions, and even inform their own private label strategies.

• Actionable Takeaway: Analyze (or request analysis of) common co-purchased items alongside your brand. Use these insights to suggest strategic product adjacencies on the shelf, or propose joint promotional campaigns with complementary products, demonstrating how your brand boosts sales for other categories within the store.

Don't let the vastness of retail data paralyze your growth efforts. By focusing on these three key areas, you can transform your conversations with retailers. Shift from simply presenting your product to showcasing how your brand directly contributes to their category growth, all backed by compelling data.

Ready to turn your data into powerful retail partnerships? Learn more about our data-driven retail strategy solutions. What are your biggest challenges in using retailer loyalty data? Reach out and share your thoughts!