Human-to-Human Beats Algorithm-to-Anything

In retail, data tells you what happened. People tell you why. If you’re betting your next quarter on dashboards alone, you’re solving yesterday’s problem with yesterday’s answers.

Here’s our position: human-to-human intelligence is the missing layer in FMCG decision-making. Not as a substitute for data, but as the interpreter that turns signals into action-fast, contextual, and commercially grounded.

The problem with “what”

Artificial Intelligence and standard analytics are good at describing events: sales spiked, stockouts rose, service level dipped. That’s table stakes. But “what” without “why” is noise.

• Covid example: Some suppliers saw a surge in categories like sauces, flour, and frozen meals. Why? Consumers substituted restaurant spending with home cooking. The why mattered for pack sizes, ranging, and DC replenishment.

• Load-shedding example: Out-Of-Stocks wasn’t just “demand volatility”. It was power-dependent cold chain variability, generator costs, delivery rescheduling, and store-level shrinkage. The why determined whether to adjust forward cover, reformulate promo grids, or shift DC allocations.

Conclusion: Knowing the event is insufficient. You need causal context to decide what to do next.

What “human-to-human” looks like in practice

1)      Customised reporting that reflects commercial reality

We build reports that mirror your actual targets, trading terms, calendars (our unique 445 calendar, aligned with the retailers’ calendars vs the Gregorian), and execution constraints. Generic templates will add no value to the KAM, Sales or supply teams if the information doesn’t reflect the true circumstances

2)      Kept, structured, and interrogable historical influencer data

We don’t just store up to 36 months of sales. We store the influencers of the result: Out-Of-Stocks, OTIF, strike rate, ranging, price, promo mechanics, DC issues, returns, waste, and more. That’s how we can say, “This happened last Easter in this region for these SKUs-andhere’s why. Let’s repeat or change the plan.”

3)      Local context built-in

South Africa is not a copy-paste market. Demographical changes, load-shedding, regional shopper behaviour, DC constraints, forecourt channels, and informal route-to-market realities all change the global model. Our team - real humans who work on your account - know the difference between a stock problem and a demand problem, and the cost of both. More important: A lot can be done about it!

4)      Actionability over ornamentation

Our view is blunt: if you can’t act on it this week, it’s decoration. We structure insights around who needs to do what by when, aligned to Rate of Sale and your KPIs.

Why “why” wins commercially

• Faster root-cause → fewer claims: Pricing mismatches, wrong status products, misaligned NOD/NDD, and DC parameter issues are spotted and corrected before they snowball into month-end deductions /claims.

• Better stock economics: Distinguish real demand from phantom demand driven by past OOS or one-off promo blips. Right-size cover pre–Black Friday and re-balance for festive trading without paying for your own forecast error.

• Negotiation leverage: Buyers respect facts. When a KAM walks in with till-aligned insight on OOS/OTIF/strike rate and clear causal analysis, the conversation shifts from opinion to outcomes.

Strong opinions we stand by

1. Generic AI without local context will mislead you. Models trained on different markets don’t understand South African constraints.

2. “What” is commoditised; “why” is competitive. Everyone has dashboards. But very few can prove causality at store-article level and tie it to accountable action.

3. If it’s not measured against your target, it’s trivia. Visibility without target alignment wastes time.

4. History is not a warehouse, it’s a teacher. Keeping influencer history is non-negotiable. You can’t explain variance or build credible plans without it.

Human + machine: the only model that scales

We are high-tech and high-touch. The tech gives you speed and coverage. The people - locally experienced account teams - give you accuracy, accountability, and decisions that stand up in a buyer meeting.

We’re the only provider that:

• Customises reporting around your commercial reality.

• Hosts historical influencer data to explain why, not just what.

• Operates with South African context and human oversight on every account.

If you want better outcomes at shelf, the conversation must shift from “what happened?” to “why did it happen - and what must we do next?”

Ready to move from “what happened” to “why it happened”? Speak to us. We can map your last 36 months of retailer-aligned data to the real-world influencers behind your results, and show you where to act next for measurable impact.