Winning with retail

JBP was consistently rated by retail and CPG respondents as the most impactful area of collaboration, yet it remains one of the least transformational in practice.

While JBP is nearly universal, it often reinforces existing ways of working instead of driving breakthrough growth. As a result, joint business planning becomes an annual negotiation, not a mechanism for continuous, profitable growth.

Retailers and CPGs can redefine JBP as a real-time alignment system, supported by shared data, transparent targets, and AI-enabled decision-making. 

Retailers and CPGs are increasingly focused on utilizing RGM levers as a primary mechanism for commercial growth. Deloitte analysis indicates more than 80% of CPG companies highlight revenue growth management (RGM) as an important focus, based on publicly available comments.

However, the analysis and execution of these decisions remain somewhat disconnected across retailers and CPGs.

When retailers and CPGs align on a common RGM vision, they can improve not only price perception and promotional efficiency, but also category growth, profitability, and the shopper experience. 

With price-led growth reaching its limits and competition intensifying, especially from private labels, innovation is a strategic lever for market performance. Yet often, the innovation process is built around late-stage retailer engagement, limiting both relevance and speed to market.

CPGs often collaborate more deeply with retailers on incremental innovation (e.g., pack-price architecture), proving the foundation exists for a more holistic, joint approach. A more collaborative innovation model could include broader use of first-party data, joint ambition-setting, and AI-enabled concepting and design. 

RTM decisions affect availability, cost-to-serve, and service levels—core drivers of margin and overall shopper satisfaction. Both retailers and CPGs cite operational efficiency and profitability as key aspects of an effective route-to-market strategy. However, these organizations also recognize this as the area with the largest gap between current and desired level of collaboration.

An RTM opportunity begins with a shared view of priorities and a commitment to building a lower-cost, higher-service value chain together. Improving RTM outcomes involves a strategic, multi-year approach grounded in transparency and joint decision-making.

As growth becomes harder to unlock, both retailers and CPGs are increasingly constrained by capacity bottlenecks and low-value work. These constraints can directly limit collaborative potential.

This environment fuels a broader perception gap: While roughly 90% of retailers want stronger collaboration with CPG partners, CPGs perceive “a lack of desire” from retailers as the most prominent barrier. Capacity constraints, not willingness, may be the true culprit.

Closing the perception gap may require new ways of working and modern technologies that free teams to focus on value creation rather than administration.