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Recorded live at the RetailX FMCG Confex in London (https://retailx.events/fmcg-instore-ecommerce/), this five-episode podcast series from RetailX explores the world of FMCG through conversations with senior leaders from brands, retailers, and data specialists at Dunnhumby. Each episode tackles a different angle of the sector’s challenges and opportunities – from retail media and shopper behaviour to wellness trends, omnichannel strategies, innovation, and the role of AI.
Across the series, a clear theme emerges: FMCG brands operate in a complex environment shaped by shifting consumer priorities, disruptive technology, and increasingly fragmented purchase journeys. Guests discuss how brands can stand out in crowded markets by deeply understanding their customers, using data insightfully, and delivering consistent, personalised experiences across channels.
Key topics include:
- Retail Media’s rise as a strategic bridge between brand and retailer, providing data-driven targeting and measurement while requiring collaboration across internal silos.
- Evolving shopper habits, where sustainability is expected but value remains critical, and convenience channels (including quick commerce) are reshaping how and where products are sold.
- Wellness & health trends, from gut health to sports nutrition, and the importance of taste, efficacy, and authentic communication in winning consumer trust.
- Omnichannel experiences and ecosystems that integrate data from every touchpoint to anticipate needs, build loyalty, and create seamless brand interactions.
- AI and emerging tech as both operational tools and consumer-facing experiences, with the potential to deliver personalised recommendations and new product opportunities – but also raising challenges in trust, measurement, and readiness.
References:
- RetailX Events (www.retailx.events)
- the FMCG event (https://retailx.events/fmcg-instore-ecommerce/) and report (https://intelligence.retailx.net/report-hub/retailx-europe-fmcg-report-2025/)
- thanks to Dunnhumby (https://www.dunnhumby.com/)
Hi there, I'm Paul Skeldon from Internet Retailing and I'm here at the FMCG show in London
and I'm joined by Ciro Desgrovi who is Clarence Strategy Manager at Dunhumby
And Daniel Torres, the podcast founder and co-host at the FMCG guys who many of you listening
probably have listened to his many excellent podcasts.
And we're going to just be talking about some of the sort of changes in shopper habits
and what that means for FMCG.
So just to set the scene for people who don't know, Ciro just tell us just a little bit about
what you do at Dunhumbi.
Hi everyone, thanks Paul for the kind introduction.
At Dunhumbi I'm a customer strategy manager for Imiya and Appark.
So that means that I'm working with, spending a lot of time with retailers and brands helping
them to really put the customer at the centre of the decision using customer data science
and some of our propositions that we have at Dunhumbi.
Brilliant excellent.
And Daniel just for anyone who doesn't know all this is your podcast just a little bit about
your background.
Yeah I'm Daniel, I'm from Barcelona which is probably a rarity in our industry.
But yeah my background is in recruitment and consumer goods in retail and I started this
podcast coming up to five years now and yeah we are now 244 episodes in interviewing
leaders and consumer goods in retail in Europe and sometimes even outside of Europe and
also running some small community based events around Europe for now but soon in the US
as well.
Excellent, excellent, like I say anyone who hasn't listened to them check out Daniel's
podcast.
And Ciro is actually one of our industry.
And Ciro is alumni so.
He is indeed, he did to come on the podcast when it was nothing so even when we were four
people like Ciro we wouldn't be where we are now.
Well that takes, well you can have a truncated smaller version of that and then go and listen
to the original that set his all in motion.
I think what sort of interest he's starting point is really to look at how consumer habits
have changed around that sort of FMCG goods that they buy, they're more health conscious,
they're more sustainably minded, they're looking for novel and adventurous products.
What sort of impact is that having on the sort of FMCG brands do you think Daniel?
I think that now it's like all this like sustainability, ecological agenda I think it's kind of a given
we're talking before in a panel about like how the packaging reflects that or the packaging
itself is also equal friendly.
It's kind of a given and then I think there's also like a segment where that, where brands
kind of base themselves more on that but I think that the majority is just like an embedded
part but it's not necessarily the core of the product if that makes sense.
Yeah, no it does.
What's the sort of main do you think for the sort of FMCG brands that you work with zero?
Well for me is for what we see I look after different international research panels and
it's a complex equation, the FMCG and retailers need to solve because there is so customers
people in the last few years been bombarded with different tramas, different tramas, right?
So COVID first inflation and now other things going on.
So there is an element of health and environment that I usually refer to care and then there
is other two dimension these equations so one is a save and one is a side.
So I think I agree with Daniel when says that quoting a research that says in future every
product is going to be a health product.
We're going that direction.
However, at the same time there is a gap between what people say they want to be more healthy,
they want to be more sustainable and what they do which products they buy because you know
more sustainable products it's more expensive and if value is an important part of the
equation especially in some markets like the UK or other markets also in France in the
last few years that value is an indirect component of the equation that people are really
having in their decision making and therefore it's not that linear as it should be.
Yeah, I think it also like along these lines it's a matter of like brands maybe being sustainable
and eco-friendly without trying to make a killing out of it.
No, I think because Germany for example, very value driven market but it's a market also
where these more eco-friendly products have like a huge shelf presence and they've had
it for a long time as well.
Yes, it's a very good point.
Yes, Germany is infrastructure in a slightly different way, right?
So these counters taking the lead and therefore I think they come in with a value they mention
at the top and then they attach the sustainability on the back.
For customers maybe don't have to do the trade off between the two why in other markets
where there are brands and it's a different kind of ecosystem sometimes this sustainable
element is used to have a premium positioning and therefore that's why customers are left
with this trade off to do.
What couldn't FMCG brands do about that?
That's it's a trade off particularly here in the UK where the eco-friendly products
are a premium and the customers as you say are looking for value.
How can they do to cut through that and have to create products that consumers want to
buy and can afford to buy?
That's the question, that's the question that we have in the market because if you look
at the supply chain of a more sustainable product there are some, I'm not a specialist
in that right but I believe there are some elements of that value chain that they're
not coming cheaper and that's why the most sustainable.
However I believe there are elements in the packaging elements in the way that you create
a product that can be sustainable and using a cost effective way of producing that.
That's I think is the, actually I'm going to double down on the challenge and say it doesn't
have to be only value-driven so save it doesn't have only to be caring so care for the
environment for myself but needs to be also exciting because if you're not exciting, if you're
not excited on the shelf or whatever you know customer really want to have that a trend
in life so you know be, so these are the three dimensions that FMCG need to play with
and win on this.
One, there's also another thing which is like what company wants to trade down no?
Like what company wants to give up the margins?
Yes.
Yes, very.
I mean maybe a smart strategy in the long haul to like maybe make your proposition of like
this more eco-friendly product sustainable, more like competing with the others even if
it seems like it's a trade down and then make it more available to more people but I don't
think people are like in the mood for that right?
Like companies end the mood of doing that right now.
No, you're right and I think we are in one of those moments where you keep doing incremental
innovation but sometimes you need some more radical innovation and therefore that's why
I believe we are seeing more and more small brands taking the lead on these topics because
they're coming in with new business model where this one is already built in their business
model for they don't have to convert the existing cash cows of brands or of production
lines into it but they are almost like sustainable born in that way.
Yeah, no that's certainly a trend that's happening.
One of the other things that we're seeing is this sort of shift among consumers for convenience
and speed so convenience stores but also this online sort of cue commerce sort of thing.
What impacts that having on FMCG brands?
Well, I think this is some data that we are seeing also in our research in terms of the
after inflation we see more fragmented customers so different missions, different journey,
everyone has a different, I don't know if we talk about missions in each state.
So I think for brands it's really important almost to have this matrix where you map out
what are the different consumer needs states that you try to answer and what are the different
shopping missions that customer go through different channels and therefore you start mapping
out where I'm good at, where I'm not good at and where my customers are moving toward
and where they're moving from so that you can have a sort of a SWAT where basically you
can see where you need to double down the investment to grow your fair share in terms
of presence in terms of advertising and where you can actually pull some investment back
to reuse on the other side.
Daniel?
Yeah, I think it's another element in the equation.
However, I don't think that like leaning into convenience or cue commerce is going to
save FMCG, right?
I think it's a lever they can pull, they can get like from cue commerce, very specific data
sets but again, nothing, I think that they should focus more on like being relevant to
the consumers and what sort of things should they do to be more relevant then?
Yeah, I think that really working on like their brand proposition and why anyone should
spend more money on them, no?
That's simple.
But then on that point I have a question which, the first two questions that you asked
are, one was about sustainability basically and the second one was about convenience, right?
And quick commerce and everything.
So even this to me is the fundamental paradox, the contemporary customers are living in.
So for one side and I make sure to do the right thing for the environment, but the other
side it's hard for you to leave your convenience elements to get things done and sometimes your
convenience is not always the best option from a sustainability perspective.
So even being able to match these two is quite hard.
Yeah, because people that are like more sustainability oriented I think will be less likely to get
a driver to bring them like a small purchase, right?
Right.
Well, it should be like, it probably, from a coherent standpoint it should be like that, no?
Sure, I guess as well a lot of consumers are sustainable when it suits them if they're
at home and they want you know, a takeaway delivered, they're going to have a driver drive
it to them and they're not going to be so concerned about sustainability.
So they have different moods I suppose.
You know in many forums have been in Europe, there is this schizophrenic customers, so different
things.
I think it's in our reality we are really attracted by different input and trends.
And therefore I think that the role for retailers and for FMCG is to help customers, to educate
customers also on the narrative about, you know, there are different options for you but we
want to take their position because it's the right one.
So I would love to see friends, FMCG is also retailers to have a more voice in this educational
Absolutely.
One of the things that drives those trends obviously is social media and that's having
a sort of increasing sort of impact on the sector.
So really thoughts on where social media fits into this both as creating some of this chaos
because of the trends it drives but also perhaps in helping solve them by being a better
channel for getting your story and your brand identity across.
Well I mean I think there's a lot of possibilities on social media but again I think it calls back
to like, and I think I'm a big believer in like really like as a brand not looking at
the short term or like the data of today but really like thinking of like having a bit of vision
and taking the time to like think and stop of like where society is going, where the consumer
is going and what do you want to be as a brand in that configuration right because I don't
think if you do that exercise you're always playing catch up and you can do whatever social
media and business or campaigns or whatever but if you don't have like a bigger strategy
I think like with everything in life it's not, you're just winging it, no and it's a gamble.
Yes and with you on that I think the social media can provide a lot of data trends perspective
also channel to land your product, be part of a conversation, a community but the same
time I think for brands is important to be clear and decide on what is here to stay and
what is here just for the next three months.
I think it's important to be timely whenever we you know we launch a product we think about
to the communication stuff but at the same time I think more and more timeless brands are
the one here to stay so is that ability of surfacing the narrative but being coherent with
the value behind your brands I think that's the thing that they need to crack.
Yeah I totally agree and we've seen some brands like miss that point trying to go for like
and so on and all that not really having an execution that was coherent with their wider strategy
and their wider demographic and going very badly right we remember a specific beer that
did any social media but I know that cost them billions and value right.
Yes they do and damage their brand but their core customers and all sorts didn't it was quite
spectacular when it does go wrong.
So the drawing things to sort of close we've talked there a bit about what brands maybe
should be doing what are some of your final thoughts about what maybe is next for FMCG
brands.
We're going to be talking about here at this event next year for example do you think
Zero?
There's a hard question for next year I think topic one change match there are some artificial
intelligence is there so there is going to be about how to best use it in our industry
there's going to be you know how customers are evolving the mindset but then to close
of what we say I think it's been important for FMCG brands to be really clear on who are
the loyal customers coming from the Nhambe so the loyalty element is a must have is our
mindset but I saw it through the years and you know the more you know them the more you
innovate around them the more you do the right things for them the more you keep on winning
and then there are a lot of factors from other customers but that's your core customers
that you need to think of treat for the future and evolve over time with them.
Excellent.
Daniel?
I think also in the spirit of being coherent with what I said I think it's going to be
a lot about like like actually like more like the strategy part and the vision part
and maybe like how to apply these technologies but like I think that this should be more
of a conversation ideal ideal ideological conversation of how to build a brand.
Right interesting even for established brands how they especially for established brands.
Excellent that's an interesting point well that's something to look forward to I guess I look
forward to talking about that next year but Ciro Daniel thank you very much for joining us
thanks great to have you guys.
And thank you for listening and we'll see you again soon.
Thank you.