Chris has a commitment to providing software services that help suppliers and manufacturers’ representatives in the CPG industry execute their business strategies effectively and efficiently by providing best practices reporting and analysis tools. Chris has 20+ years of experience in the retail software market and leads the strategic initiatives at SetSight. Chris enjoys downhill skiing, golfing, getting outdoors, and fishing with his kids in Minnesota when the snow finally melts.
Edris Bemanian: What is SetSight? How did the team get started?
Chris Lohn: SetSight is a demand signal repository for sales agencies and mid-sized brands in the retail market. We started serving sales agencies across a variety of markets, but years ago narrowed our focus to just serving the retail market.
EB: What problems does SetSight solve today and what types of customers do you have?
CL: Brands and Agencies struggle to get timely, accurate and detailed information from a complicated retail system. Retailers have their own systems. 3rd parties have their own systems, and these systems and connections are changing rapidly. Our job is to maintain the connections, get the data and normalize it so our clients—agencies and brands—can determine how best to move their products through the various retailers. We take away the data problem and let them focus on their core business.
EB: That is great, Chris. Can you give us an example of a win that one of your customers generated using your solution that you and the team are particularly proud of?
CL: As a recent example that comes to mind, one of our clients demonstrated remarkable attention to detail by identifying and rectifying invoices that were generated with inaccurate pricing details. These invoices mistakenly referenced incorrect product prices, leading to significant financial discrepancies totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thanks to our system, these pricing errors were promptly detected and corrected, underscoring the importance of our continuous verification process for all transactions with our valued partners.
EB: Why is 1 + 1 > 2 between Engage3 and SetSight?
CL: One of the key challenges for agencies and brands is getting hyper local information. This is one of the connections critical to good assortment, packaging, and pricing information.
EB: I agree. What types of decisions does having that data at your fingertips allow your customers to make?
CL: Our customers will now be able to see where their products are over or underpriced relative to market. This allows them to become better advisors to their retail partners across all their markets. We’re extremely excited about the opportunities and conversations that will open up as the data is omni-channel, high frequency, and can be used with confidence given the breadth of the database.
EB: What major shifts or trends do you foresee in the retail technology sector over the next few years?
CL: More data from more places to help understand the path of the retail purchase and optimizing the various sales channels that each retailer has.
EB: How has technology transformed the retail landscape, and what emerging technologies do you believe will have the most significant impact?
CL: More detail is helpful in predicting and serving consumer data, but many brands and agencies are challenged with keeping up with the volume and breadth of where it all comes from.
EB: What innovative technologies or solutions is your company focusing on to revolutionize the retail experience?
CL: Integrating additional data points around pricing and advertising into one system that also includes sales and inventory information to paint a more complete picture for the brand and the retailer.
EB: Can you discuss any recent technological advancements or developments your company has introduced to enhance retail operations or customer engagement?
CL: More flexibility around data visualization and ad hoc analysis. We spend more time working on the data structure so that from the user’s perspective it is more intuitive to work with and less intimidating to improve customer engagement.
EB: What are some of the biggest challenges retailers face in adopting new technologies, and how is your company addressing these challenges?
CL: Training on new technologies is almost universally viewed as a negative thing, who has the time, so avoiding a lot of training and a steep learning curve.
EB: Could you share examples of how your technology has helped retailers overcome specific industry challenges?
CL: Use of our collaborative forecasting tools has been very important as retailers have such a large focus on avoiding out of stock situations.
EB: How is technology being leveraged to improve customer experience and personalize services in the retail space?
CL: More personalized promotions with high engagement rates.
EB: What role does data analytics and AI play in enhancing customer engagement and tailoring experiences?
CL: As AI continues to evolve, we can use it to help analysts find patterns to better serve, engage, and get consumers the products they want.
EB: It’s all about time-to-value these days for Retailers and Brands. How do you help deliver a strong time-to-value ROI?
CL: We get people data they can’t readily access at the transaction level, saving analyst time, avoiding out of stocks, and improving sell-through with retailers.
EB: What strategies do you believe will be essential for retailers to remain competitive in the evolving technological landscape?
CL: Having the data to understand how people shop in an increasingly diverse and changing environment.
EB: As technology continues to reshape retail, what ethical considerations do you think companies should prioritize in their technological advancements?
CL: Balancing how to use data to provide the products that consumers want, and where they want it, without giving away individual information that can be used for harm.
EB: How do you see retail technology addressing societal and environmental concerns in the future?
CL: Capturing more detailed information so brands can adjust to the changing needs quicker.
EB: What is your vision for the future of retail, considering the ongoing evolution of technology and consumer behavior?
CL: Creating a seamless buying experience by getting brands and agencies the data they need to understand what the consumer wants navigating every retail channel.
EB: How do you anticipate the role of retail technology evolving in the coming years?
CL: Data and data points will keep expanding and simplifying a view into that complicated ecosystem will be a major focus.
About SetSight
SetSight is the best all-in-one retailer relationship tool in the business. It has all the sales, supply chain and category management tools and reports you could ask for AND its user interface is easy to access, easy to use, and customizable. And that’s just for openers.
What really sets SetSight apart are three things:
One – it’s a true cloud-based system, so all the data security, hardware and software headaches are our problem, not yours.
Two – SetSight does all data management. Virtually all you have to do is log in and start working.
Three – Data harmonization, Report Automation and Visualization.
About Engage3 Powered by Dexi
The price optimization pioneers behind KhiMetrics (acquired by SAP in 2006) created Engage3 to revolutionize how brands and retailers engage with their shoppers. Engage3 provides the industry’s most comprehensive omnichannel competitive intelligence solution, combining best-in-class AI-enabled web crawls, professional in-store audits, and self-serve in-store and online data collection into a single source of truth. Leveraging advanced algorithms and the Nobel Prize-winning Efficient Frontier theory, Engage3 helps retailers and brands track and optimize their Price Image to profitably accelerate revenue growth, drive incremental store trips, and increase margins. Engage3 serves over 300 customers in 182 countries, including 8 of the world’s top 10 retailers, and supports over $4 trillion in global retail revenue. Engage3’s leadership team comprises former executives from KhiMetrics, Mozenda, Dexi.io, SAP, Revionics, dunnhumby, KSS Retail, IBM/DemandTec, and Nielsen.
