The stakes
Why small trade leaks are a grocery-sized problem
Grocery net margins run roughly 1 to 3 percent — an industry reality, not a DemandTec number. Trade spend, meanwhile, runs 15 to 25 percent of gross revenue. When a flow that large leaks even slightly into a margin that thin, the leak is the difference between a good year and a bad one.
$500B
in annual trade spend between retailers and CPGs
72%
of trade promotions fail to break even (Nielsen · McKinsey)
~1–3%
typical grocery net margin — the room for error (industry context)
The grocery reality
Where the week gets away from grocers
The weekly ad never stops
A new circular every week, across thousands of items and dozens of categories. At that cadence there is no slack for re-keying deals or reconciling versions by email.
Calendars built on assumed dollars
Promo plans lock before vendor funding is committed. When the dollars come in different, the gap lands on a net margin measured in single pennies.
KVIs vs. vendor deals
Price perception is built on key value items. A vendor-funded deal that undercuts a KVI position gives back trust the banner spent years buying.
Settlement drag at scale
Thousands of vendor events a year mean thousands of chances for records to disagree. Disputed deductions pile up at settlement, months after the shelf moved on.
The full platform
Grocery gets both suites, on one shared data model
Grocery is where the two halves of the platform meet hardest: the demand science that prices the shelf, and the bilateral deal layer that funds it. The weekly ad is planned once, by both sides.
Illustrative product composition with representative data.
The collaboration gap
Both sides name the same #1 gap
IDC finds that 55% of grocery retailers and 40% of food & beverage manufacturers name insufficient retailer–CPG collaboration their #1 supply-chain gap. It is the exact disconnect a shared data model closes.
Download the IDC Snapshot55%
of grocery retailers name insufficient retailer–CPG collaboration their #1 supply-chain gap (IDC)
40%
of food & beverage manufacturers name the same gap (IDC)
Proven in grocery
Northeast Grocery, running on DemandTec
NGI — parent of Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Friendly Markets — runs pricing and promotion on DemandTec across nearly 300 stores, protecting margin at grocery scale.
Stop letting pennies decide the year
A 30-minute trade briefing against your own deal, fund, and settlement workflow.