Modern omnichannel retail and consumer goods operations
AX3 Transformation Playbook

Retail Customer 360

Unify consumer, retailer, distributor and commerce data into one intelligent customer platform.

CPG & Retail Industry
Discuss This Playbook
In brief
What it is
A reference architecture that unifies consumer, shopper, retailer and store-execution data for CPG and retail organisations.
Who it is for
Commercial, trade marketing and customer experience leaders in consumer goods and retail.
The problem it solves
Consumer identity, retailer relationships and in-store execution data sit in separate systems, so trade investment and personalisation decisions are made without the full picture.
Technologies involved
Salesforce Consumer Goods and Marketing capability, Data 360, AI segmentation and syndicated market data.
Industries it applies to
CPG, grocery, specialty retail and consumer durables.
What AX3 provides
Consumer and retailer data unification, Salesforce implementation, AI personalisation and retail execution intelligence.
Business Problem

What is actually going wrong.

Industry: CPG & Retail

Consumer brands and retailers hold consumer identity in loyalty, transactions in commerce, retail execution in field tools and trade investment in finance. Personalization stays shallow because no system holds the whole consumer, and promotion effectiveness cannot be proven at the shelf.

Why this is hard

The constraints most programmes underestimate.

Two customers at once

The retailer and the end consumer both need to be modelled — most systems only handle one.

Identity is fragmented

Loyalty, e-commerce, service and social identities rarely resolve to one person.

Execution is physical

Shelf, promotion and availability data comes from field teams and third parties, not clean feeds.

Trade investment opacity

Promotional spend effectiveness is hard to attribute across channel and category.

The AX3 approach

How we sequence the work.

  1. 01

    Resolve consumer and retailer identity

    One graph spanning loyalty, commerce, service and channel relationships.

  2. 02

    Instrument retail execution

    Field visit, shelf and availability data captured in a structure that supports decisions.

  3. 03

    Personalise on governed data

    Segmentation and journeys driven by resolved identity and consented data.

Reference architecture

From business process to business action.

  1. 01Business process

    Plan → activate → execute in store → measure → reinvest

  2. 02Data

    Consumer identity graph, retailer hierarchy, syndicated category and shelf data

  3. 03AI

    Segmentation, next-best-action and promotion effectiveness signals

  4. 04Salesforce

    Consumer Goods Cloud, Marketing capability and Data 360

  5. 05Integration

    E-commerce, loyalty, POS and third-party market data feeds

  6. 06Engineering

    Consent handling, data quality pipelines and field capture tooling

  7. 07Business action

    Better targeted activation and more reliable retail execution

Workflow

The end-to-end path we design against.

  1. 01
    Unify
  2. 02
    Segment
  3. 03
    Activate
  4. 04
    Execute
  5. 05
    Measure
  1. 01

    Capture consumer identity and consent across owned and partner channels

  2. 02

    Resolve identity into a single durable consumer profile

  3. 03

    Plan trade investment and retail execution against demand signal

  4. 04

    Execute in store and online, then measure at the shelf

  5. 05

    Personalize service, loyalty and next-best offer

Technology involved

Industry expertise, applied through four connected layers.

Salesforce

Explore →
  • Consumer Goods Cloud for retail execution and trade promotion
  • Data 360
  • Marketing Cloud
  • Commerce Cloud
  • Loyalty Management
  • Service Cloud

Data

Explore →
  • Consumer identity resolution and consent state
  • Transaction and basket history across channels
  • Retailer, distributor and store hierarchy
  • Trade promotion spend and shelf compliance
  • Syndicated market and category data

AI & Agentforce

Explore →
  • AI Merchandising Assistant for assortment and planogram guidance
  • AI Sales Assistant for field rep store visits
  • AI Retail Agent for perfect-store recommendations
  • AI Customer Service Agent for consumer care

Engineering

Explore →
  • Commerce and POS data pipelines
  • Distributor and retailer EDI integration
  • Computer vision for shelf and planogram recognition
  • Consent, privacy and preference engineering
Industry application

Where this applies.

Consumer goods manufacturers and retailers managing both direct consumer relationships and retailer partnerships, where trade investment and personalisation decisions depend on data that is currently split.

SalesforceAI & DataData & Analytics
Expected Business Outcome

What changes when this works.

Unified dataImproved customer experienceBetter visibilityMore consistent execution
One consumer profile usable by marketing, commerce and service
Trade investment measured against actual shelf execution
More relevant personalization grounded in consented data
Field teams prioritised toward the highest-value store visits

These are the outcomes this solution concept is designed to produce. They are directional, not measured results from a named engagement.

FAQ

Retail Customer 360: common questions

What is the Retail Customer 360 playbook?

A reference architecture that resolves consumer and retailer identity and connects it to in-store execution data for CPG and retail organisations.

What business problem does it solve?

Personalisation and trade investment decisions made on fragmented consumer, retailer and execution data.

Which industries can use it?

Consumer packaged goods, grocery, specialty retail and consumer durables.

What technologies are involved?

Salesforce Consumer Goods and marketing capability, Data 360, AI segmentation, plus loyalty, commerce, POS and syndicated data integration.

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Apply this playbook to your business

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Related thinking

All insights
Industry InsightsJul 2026

Why CPG Companies Need Customer 360

Consumer, retailer and distributor data live in separate systems at most CPG companies. Unifying them is the precondition for retail execution, trade promotion return and real personalisation.

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Salesforce InsightsMay 2026

Quote-to-Cash: Where Revenue Transformation Actually Breaks

Deals stall and revenue leaks at the handoffs between CPQ, contracting, order management, billing and revenue recognition, not within any single system.

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Technology InsightsApr 2026

Data 360: A Practical Implementation Sequence

The order in which Data 360 capabilities are implemented determines whether the program succeeds. This piece lays out the sequence that holds up in practice and the failure that follows from skipping steps.

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