CJ Lang data platform allows wholesaler to “delve deeper”

An industry-first data solution between TWC and CJ Lang & Son is being celebrated by Spar’s wholesale partner.

The data solution combines CJ Lang’s wholesale shipments data with EPOS sales data for company-owned stores in order to make fast and accurate decisions.

And the results are proving highly successful, with the Spar Scotland Sales Track service being developed within three months – allowing the business to commercialise its data. TWC has also helped to successful convert 70% of the priority prospects identified by CJ Lang into data contracts.

“Incredibly, the implementation of the platform has had very little impact on our operational time, while generating a new revenue stream for the business,” said CJ Lang CEO Colin McLean.

“We are now able, for the first time, to share shipments data to all SPAR Scotland retailers, enabling our partner suppliers to monitor their performance through CJ Lang & Son at a total category, sub-category, brand and SKU level, including competitor data.

“In the three months since the platform went live, we have had over 40 suppliers sign up to the service. They’ve mainly accessed ‘NAM Dash’, however many suppliers are taking the time to dig deeper from here into the retail basket analysis.”

The service is hosted using TWC’s SmartView Technology, which has been used as a basis for several services launched by wholesale buying groups in the past year.

But TWC Head of Sales Sandy MacEwen says there are several unique aspects to the platform designed for CJ Lang.

“For the first time, stakeholders can view wholesale and retail sales performance on one, easy to use platform,” said MacEwen.

“Our platform has been built to give suppliers quick key facts ‘on the go’ via our NAM Dash tool, where you can view category performance right the way down to SKU level information, within a couple of clicks.

“We also have a wholesale analysis tool to help suppliers understand how their products are being bought by retailers within a category, alongside a suite of EPOS analysis tools to help suppliers understand how their customers are buying their products within the company owned stores.”