Can We Please Get Back to Work? Yes, Yes We Can!

Please allow me to lay the foundation for this blog post — in the context of the pandemic we’ve been fighting for the better part of 2020. It wasn’t that long ago we had “flattened the curve” and from the perspective of both on and off-premise beverage alcohol sales, it was starting to look like we could begin to return to at least something that resembled “normal” — then certain areas of the country started back up again with an increase in COVID-19 cases.

 

Out of an “abundance of caution,” some states, notably in the American Southwest, either tapped the brakes or, in some cases, began reversing some of their “reopening” considerations. Now in mid-August, beverage-alcohol consumers, wholesalers, and suppliers alike are again seeing local and state improvements as COVID-19 cases are again falling meanwhile economic activities are likewise on the rise. As of Friday, August 14, 2020, the relevant data now shows:

 

• 85% of reporting jurisdictions report a steep decline in COVID-19 cases, despite almost 70 million tests. BTW: This number of tests is greater than those administered in all of Europe combined.
• Nationwide, COVID-19 cases have declined by 6%.
• Test positivity is now 6.5%, which is a 71% reduction from April and a 15% reduction from mid-July.
• Hospitalizations have been cut in half since April.

 

The economic impact of the decline in COVID-19 is, as you would imagine, positive:

 

• Retail spending is at an all-time high, with auto production alone surging 28%.
• The stock market is peaking again, and the NASDAQ is at an all-time high.
• China has been buying massive amounts of corn, soybeans, and cattle from America.
• The business regulatory climate continues to improve.
• Small business optimism is higher than at any month since the Great Recession.
• Industrial production is increasing at the fastest rate ever recorded.

 

Americans are getting back to work, earning, and, you guessed it, we want to spend. We want to spend at restaurants, clubs, bars, and social settings of all sorts. Social settings where there’s a good chance we’ll be buying beverage alcohol products. And, for those who want to continue “social distancing” just a while longer, well, they’re also stocking up on beer, wine, and spirits.  

It’s almost Dickensian, you know, “The best of times and the worst of times.”

 

One thing we can all agree with — Americans love to tipple.

 

From an industry perspective, now’s the time to start (or restart) or accelerate your point-of-sale (POS) marketing engine. Retail customers are a “fixin’ to come back” — and there’s more than a little pent up demand. Now is the time to get your piece of the pie. Now’s the time to focus on POS marketing initiatives. And, now is the time to automate your POS ordering and tracking — and it’s also time to know not only how much your distributorship is spending on POS overall, it’s also important, critical really, to know your POS ROI.

 

It is important to know how much you’re spending at a more granular level, i.e., at each account; and to know which of your sales reps are using POS most effectively and efficiently. Likewise, in some ABC controlled locations, it’s also critically important to know if your permanent POS placement is in compliance with state regulations.

 

If you don’t have the right digital tools in place, your sales teams might be siloed, making it difficult to calculate marketing spending let alone know the ROI of your efforts.

 

Measuring your POS spend and sales performance together shows you which campaigns work and which ones don’t, which ones have been most effective and which ones the most expensive. POS tracking, measuring, and managing tools further help you to gain and retain competitive advantage — thus helping you further optimize your POS efforts and tweak them over time. Finally, even automating the POS ordering and reporting processes can help you identify what will have the best and most direct impact on sales and POS ROI.

 

Spend smarter at-Retail with POS digital tracking tools. A product demonstration takes about 30-minutes. Click here to learn more.