New PepsiCo Solution Offers Tailored Insights to Retailer Partners

PLANO, Texas — In today's world, where technology is advancing faster than ever and retailers have more data at their fingertips than they could ever access in the past, convenience store operators can leverage this for success in the crowded, competitive market — if they know how.

To help its retailer partners reach their full potential, PepsiCo Inc. launched Pep Worx, a cloud-based data and analytics solution that identifies valuable shoppers by location and develops insights to help retailers make decisions on things like product assortment, merchandising, marketing and other needs at the point-of-sale. The solution functions through a cross-divisional team of experts who use analytics to forge a greater connection with consumers.

Taking a retailer-centric approach, Pep Worx generates granular insights that PepsiCo can use to make store-level recommendations to its retailer partners, from product assortment to merchandising to the next best action.

"The advanced analytics Pep Worx utilizes enables PepsiCo to address static changes that happen a few times a year, such as changing assortment or permanent displays," Jeff Swearingen, senior vice president of marketing at PepsiCo, told Convenience Store News. "The analytics also help address dynamic changes, such as promotions and marketing events. Because of this, PepsiCo is better able to assess emerging situations and adjust plans in real time."

Tailored insights mean that rather than target Pep Worx toward a particular size of c-store operation, PepsiCo can implement it for retailers of all sizes, from small operators to the very largest chains. Circle K is one c-store retailer partner taking advantage of the Pep Worx solution. 

"Our mission at Circle K is to make our customers' lives a little easier every day," said Kevin Lewis, chief marketing officer for Circle K. "Through this valued strategic partnership with PepsiCo, we are able to leverage these best-in-class insights and analytics to more effectively anticipate the needs of our customers and drive more traffic to our stores, as we continue our journey to be the world's preferred destination for convenience and fuel."

To achieve the best results, Pep Worx does take continued investment, rather than acting as a one-and-done solution, according to Swearingen.

"Given the speed of change in the marketplace, granular and fresh data is better. However, there is not a one-size-fits-all answer," he said. "PepsiCo approaches each retailer challenge individually and assesses available data to make the best possible recommendations to retailers."

PepsiCo is continuing to evolve the solution over time. Since its initial launch, the biggest change has been the way the company partners with its customers, focusing on strong, highly collaborative partnerships in order to achieve better collective thinking and overall programming.

"Our customers are looking for every opportunity to better meet the needs of their shoppers and unlock faster growth," said Chad Matthews, senior vice president of sales, small format channels, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division. "More and more, they see Pep Worx as an important enabler to delivering the precise insights, assortment, merchandising and marketing to enable these goals."