A consumer goods company, FoodCo Nigeria, has advised on the use of innovative technology in customer service.
Chief Executive Officer, FoodCo Nigeria, Ade Sun-Basorun, in a statement on Wednesday, maintained that there was the need for operators, within Nigeria’s modern retail sector, to brace up to the rapidly evolving dynamics within the ecosystem in order to remain viable.
He said, “Operators within the sector should consistently innovate their processes around technology in order to serve customers faster, cheaper, with higher quality and less friction.
“Additionally, we are experiencing several digital revolutions going on within the space – from the growing penetration of eCommerce to rapid adoption of social commerce across a variety of channels.”
Sun-Basorun noted that even though the industry recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it, however, contended with a world, changed by a global economic contraction, significant supply chain disruptions and digitalisation.
The disruptions, he said, transformed the nature of consumer behaviour and accordingly business forever.
“The transformations have led to a number of trends within the industry which include; the commoditisation of products, democratisation of technology, and the explosion of brands.
“All across the globe, retail has been going through fundamental changes. Depending on the category and country, the pace, severity and impact of the changes has varied and we foresee that it will continue to accelerate into the future,” he said.
He explained that minimum efficient factory scale; cost of production, access to capital, and access to expertise had significantly increased global and local manufacturing capacity.
“For instance, there has been a dramatic increase in manufacturing efficiency across a vast majority of the consumer goods space. This has led to a surplus in some categories which is exceeding the consumers’ ability to consume. Think for a moment about how many T-shirts, water, and bread brands are available today in contrast to what was prevalent 10 years ago. The minimum efficient factory scale, cost of production, access to capital, and access to expertise have significantly increased global and local manufacturing capacity.
“The ripple effect of this is an explosion of brands; a broad diversity of brands such that retailers may even find it complex to stock the right assortment of products across different categories,’’ he said.
