How Technology can Drive Growth in Food and Beverage

If you're a sales leader in a food and beverage company, growth and profitability are always challenging, even with the ongoing boom of online sales in the grocery category. 📍With the ongoing CAGR of 19.2% between 2022-2025, global eCommerce food and beverage total sales is expected to reach $857B next year. Traditional sales growth levers such as increasing the sales headcount, increasing marketing spend, or adding more training programs to the existing salesforce will not cut it. Instead, it will only increase the cost of sales in the current environment of price wars between the omnichannel commerce giants. Concentrating on the identification and thoughtful segmentation of new customers can eliminate the need for additional sales personnel or costly training programs for expansion. Even better, advanced pricing technology solutions allow sales leaders to maintain a growth-oriented sales team by providing clear insights into pricing strategies and discount practices. Technological solutions play a pivotal role in maximizing the utility of #data and maintaining awareness of financial metrics, enabling businesses to focus on areas that require more attention. ++ What I see in Food & Beverage Space Today ++ 📍Not every omnichannel retailer is the same; deep customer understanding, not just in company size or industry segment but also the department level, purchase behavior, and market positioning granularity, enables more precise targeting and personalized pricing strategies for F&B brands. 📍Utilization of robust pricing solutions that integrate internal and external data is highlighted to automate decision-making processes. These technologies will reveal insights into #sales and discounting practices, leading to more efficient #revenuemanagement. 📍The discussion has been pivoting away from traditional methods of revenue growth, such as increasing headcount or training. Instead, it's concentrating on pricing solutions that make the existing sales force more effective without additional costs. ++ 🔭 What's On the Horizon 🍻 ++ 💡Focus on 4 essential KPIs with the power of data and pricing technology solutions: win rate, revenue vs. discounts, sales size, and customer lifetime value. This will provide a clearer picture of where to focus sales efforts and how to adjust pricing strategies with each client. 💡Food and beverage brands should invest in advanced pricing software that optimizes pricing based on real-time market conditions and customer data, optimizing profitability. 💡Building predictive analytics capabilities will enable brands to forecast future purchasing behaviors and price sensitivities. This forward-looking approach should anticipate market trends and customer needs, allowing for proactive rather than reactive pricing decisions. Follow #ecommert for daily #ecommerce #digitalshelf, #retailmedia and #brand insights. #pricingoptimization #pricinganalysis #cpg #foodandbeverage

In the fast-food industry, speed and adapting to culture and technology are crucial. This week's M7 Unlock explores Taco Bell's use of Voice AI in drive-thrus, enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. This initiative streamlines ordering, allowing staff to focus on higher-value tasks, and showcasing the power of innovative technologies for growth. ⚙️ Efficiency and Experience: Taco Bell’s Voice AI in drive-thrus automates order-taking, cutting down on repetitive tasks. It speeds up service and ensures accurate orders, boosting customer satisfaction. Smart resource management and ongoing AI refinement are crucial, demonstrating how tech integration drives growth and competitive advantage. 📈 Scalable Innovation: Taco Bell's Voice AI rollout, with global expansion plans, highlights the importance of scalable tech. Early deployments provide data for continuous improvement. This 'learning by doing' method ensures the AI evolves to meet diverse needs, placing Taco Bell at the forefront of digital transformation in fast food. ⚒️ Proprietary Tech Power: Taco Bell's investment in proprietary systems like Voice AI shows a deep understanding of innovation. Collaborating with franchisees ensures benefits for both staff and customers. Integrating AI with digital infrastructure optimizes operations and enhances customer experience, positioning Taco Bell as a fast-food leader. 💡Brand Lessons: Taco Bell’s approach offers key insights: 1. Employee Engagement: Automating routine tasks lets employees focus on value-added activities, boosting job satisfaction and service. 2. Resource Allocation: Reallocate time saved through automation to maximize efficiency. 3. Feedback Integration: Continuous feedback from customers and franchisees ensures technology aligns with needs, driving successful adoption and high service standards. Lawrence Kim

The bigger a restaurant gets, the smaller it needs to act. Consider the simple yet powerful moments: a barista remembering your order, calling you by name, or a friendly drive-thru worker who brightens your tough day with a smile. It’s these gestures that make guests feel valued. This is the “Cheers effect”—the feeling of being a regular, welcomed, and remembered, regardless of how big the business gets. While small restaurants can create this effect organically, technology becomes crucial for larger brands to replicate it. Digital orders allow guests to easily personalize their meals, reducing errors and improving accuracy, enhancing the dining experience. Technologies like VoiceAI in the drive-thru or digital profiles that save favorite orders also add convenience, freeing up staff to focus on genuine human connections. By automating transactional tasks, tech empowers staff to spend more time greeting guests, delivering food, and creating memorable interactions. Even in moments with no direct interaction—like cleaning, packaging orders with care, or ensuring a pristine environment—these details contribute to an overall feeling of being well-cared for. As restaurants scale, the secret is using technology as the foundation to act small. This enables operators to stay true to the hospitality in their DNA, ensuring that every guest, no matter where they are, can feel like a regular.

McDonald's latest tech investments underscore a growing reality for the restaurant industry: AI is moving beyond the drive-thru and into core operations. Predictive maintenance for fryers and ice cream machines, AI-powered order accuracy, and even generative AI restaurant managers are no longer hypothetical—they’re happening now. The value here isn’t just efficiency. These capabilities have the potential to tackle some of the industry’s biggest challenges, from reducing operational friction to improving customer experience in ways that drive long-term loyalty. But rolling out AI at scale isn’t easy, especially in a franchise-heavy system. Success will depend on how well brands integrate these tools into existing operations without adding complexity for employees or customers. This shift raises big questions: How do brands balance automation with the personal touches that define great hospitality? What investments will actually drive impact versus just adding tech for tech’s sake? AI isn’t coming—it’s here. The brands that figure out how to use it effectively will set the standard for the next era of restaurant operations. #AI #DigitalTransformation #RestaurantIndustry #CustomerExperience #Innovation https://lnkd.in/gQCMZWXn?