CPG Growth Strategies for 2025 and Beyond

CPG dollar sales rose only 2.5% in 2024, the slowest annual increase in three years, while volume growth remained flat or negative. 

This reveals a deeper issue: pricing strategies are concealing weakness. Despite increased marketing and promotions, many CPG brands continue to lose market share, primarily due to inconsistent shelf execution and limited product visibility in stores.

CPG brands are shifting their focus from pricing tactics to execution-led growth to stay competitive. That means improving how products show up on shelves for consumers, how marketing activations are implemented, and how quickly teams can respond to gaps in retail execution and operational performance. Ensuring ‘Perfect Sales Execution’will define brand success in 2025.

From retail execution to five actionable growth strategies, we break down how leading CPG brands are using accurate, store-level shelf data. Their goal is to safeguard availability, ensure compliance, and improve shelf performance in physical stores.

Key Takeaways

• As price sensitivity rises and retailer resistance grows, CPG brands must shift from reactive pricing to catch demand and proactive in-store execution.
• Shelf KPIs like on-shelf availability, planogram compliance, share of shelf, and promo implementation directly impact conversion and hence, must be prioritized and improved going forward
• Outdated, siloed execution data collected manually slows action. Structured, real-time store-level insights enable brands to localize interventions, better communicate, align their teams, and respond more effectively.
• With AI image recognition, ParallelDots’ ShelfWatch helps CPGs monitor, verify, and optimize execution in real-time, close gaps that undermine pricing, promo, or innovation.

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What Are the Most Effective CPG Growth Strategies for 2025?

Price-based growth is losing momentum as value-conscious consumers and margin-focused retailers challenge traditional tactics. To thrive in this changing environment, CPG leaders are shifting focus from reactive adjustments to proactive strategy. They’re investing in innovation, execution precision, and AI-powered insights to build sustainable, profitable growth across every market.

Here are five forward-looking growth strategies that leading CPG brands are prioritizing in 2025 and beyond. 

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1. Rethinking Growth Beyond Pricing

Traditional pricing-led strategies have become less effective in driving CPG growth. Consumers are resisting price increases, and retailers are increasingly resisting efforts that compromise shopper value. This signals a clear shift: pricing alone is no longer a reliable lever for sustained growth.

Why Pricing Strategies Are Losing Steam?

The era of inflation-driven price hikes is fading, but prices remain elevated compared to pre-2020 levels. In response, shoppers have become more cautious and more willing to explore alternatives.

Here’s why depending solely on price adjustments no longer works:

• Consumers are increasingly price-sensitive and brand-agnostic. Even in premium segments, shoppers are switching to private labels or lower-cost substitutes when value expectations aren’t met.
• Retailers are pushing back. With consumers demanding better value, retailers are under pressure to control shelf prices. Many are rejecting CPG pricing proposals or demanding trade-offs such as deeper promotions or higher marketing support.
• Promotions alone cannot offset poor execution. A discount won’t help if products are out of stock or poorly placed on the shelf. Without consistent availability and visibility, promotional investments often go to waste.
• Shelf-level disruptions directly impact growth. From stockouts to incorrect placements, any execution gap can derail conversion, regardless of pricing strategy. Even the best-priced SKU can't perform if it’s missing from the shelf.
• Uncertain tariffs: Tariffs manipulations are the new reality for an interconnected and interdependent world. This directly impacts supply chain disruption, as inflation rises and prices increase, forcing shoppers to seek cheaper alternatives or local brands. Understanding consumer preference, purchasing power, and new local or competitor entrants on the shelf becomes important

The Shift Toward Volume-Driven Execution

Leading CPG brands are now prioritizing repeat purchase behavior and in-store execution precision as core growth drivers. Instead of focusing only on price points, they are:

• Improving on-shelf availability (OSA) ensures shoppers can find the product when and where they want it.
• Strengthening planogram compliance to protect prime shelf space and maintain merchandising consistency across locations.
• Benchmarking the share of shelf (SOS) to understand how visibility compares to competitors and where action is needed.
• Tracking promotion execution at the store level, making sure price tags, endcaps, and POSM are actually implemented.

These execution-focused strategies are about maximizing every moment on the shelf. When products are well-placed, well-priced, and well-stocked, conversion becomes a function of presence, not just price.

In 2025, CPG growth will belong to brands that stop relying on reactive pricing and start building a proactive in-store presence through actionable shelf data.

How Shelf Execution Supports Volume Growth?

• Real-time shelf data identifies where products are missing.
• Gaps in availability can be fixed before they impact sales.
• Visibility at the SKU level helps brands prioritize high-impact interventions.

With ParallelDots ShelfWatch, CPG brands can track exactly which SKUs are missing at which stores. This enables faster, localized responses to availability issues, making pricing strategies more effective through consistent in-store presence.

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2. Prioritizing Retail Execution for Physical Store Wins

The retail shelf remains the most critical battleground for CPGs aiming for profitable growth in 2025. No matter how strong the product or how compelling the campaign, sales only happen if the execution is right on the shelf.

Unfortunately, many brand teams still lack visibility into store activity. Without real-time data, execution gaps often go unnoticed, resulting in missed sales, wasted trade investments, and underperforming SKUs.

The High Cost of Poor Shelf Execution

Execution failures in-store are rarely visible from headquarters. Yet they can derail even the best-planned retail strategy:

• Display materials may never reach the floor. Without verification, brands can’t know if endcaps, shippers, or other assets are deployed as intended.
• Promotions can be mistimed or mispriced. A national promotion, scheduled to launch on Monday, may not appear until Wednesday, or not at all, at many outlets.
• Products are often out of planogram. SKUs may be shelved incorrectly or placed in low-visibility locations, diminishing their impact and cannibalizing facings.
• Stockouts can occur even during key periods of activation. No product on the shelf means no sales, no matter how attractive the offer.

These issues compound when teams rely on manual audits or third-party reports with long lag times. By the time problems surface, the campaign window may already be closed.

Shelf-Level KPIs That Matter Most

To improve execution outcomes, CPG teams must focus on four measurable KPIs that directly reflect in-store conditions:

• On-Shelf Availability (OSA): Are products actually present on the shelf when consumers look for them? OSA shortfalls result in lost revenue and shopper dissatisfaction.
• Planogram Compliance: Are products placed according to agreed schematics? Poor compliance can negatively impact brand visibility and store-level consistency.
• Promotional Implementation: Are discounts, tags, and displays live as per plan? Improper rollout reduces promotional ROI and weakens shopper impact.
• Share of Shelf: How much physical shelf space does the brand occupy versus competitors? A lower share often means reduced visibility and sales velocity.

Tracking these KPIs manually is inefficient and unreliable. As brands re-prioritize physical stores in 2025, execution visibility has become the foundation for converting in-store opportunities into reliable growth.

Also Read: Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail: A Changing Dynamic

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3. Using Clean, Actionable Data to Guide Strategy

CPG teams generate large volumes of data, from field audits to sales reports, but much of it lacks immediate utility. Dirty, outdated, or fragmented data slows decision-making and causes disconnects across departments. In 2025, sustainable CPG growth will depend on access to clean, real-time shelf data that teams can actually act upon.

Why Clean and Realtime Data Drives Better Decisions?

Data issues don’t just slow down analysis, they compromise execution at the shelf:

• Delayed reporting leads to missed opportunities: When shelf or promotional data takes days or weeks to surface, decisions become reactive instead of timely. Campaigns underperform before anyone notices.
• Disconnected systems reduce alignment: Marketing, sales, and operations often operate in silos. Without a shared view of store-level realities, strategies stay misaligned and execution suffers.
• Inaccurate shelf insights waste resources: Investing in visibility or pricing campaigns without knowing what’s really happening in-store can misdirect budgets and effort.

To overcome these issues, CPG brands need a single source of truth built from current, store-level execution data. This foundation improves collaboration and accountability across teams.

Turning Shelf Data Into Strategic Insight

Real growth begins when raw data is transformed into actionable insights. That requires clean inputs, centralized access, and contextual analysis. Here’s how well-structured shelf data becomes a strategic advantage:

• Unified dashboards simplify execution monitoring: A central interface showing availability, facings, and compliance enables brand teams to track performance without digging through spreadsheets.
• Filtering by SKU, geography, or channel improves targeting: Brands can localize actions, whether it’s sending reps to high-priority stores or adjusting facings in underperforming regions.
• Pattern recognition enables proactive action: Spotting repeat issues, like recurring out-of-stocks at specific chains, helps teams correct problems before they escalate.

ShelfWatch powers this transformation by converting in-store photos into structured shelf KPIs across thousands of stores. Instead of relying on lagging reports, CPG teams gain up-to-date visibility that informs trade, sales, and marketing workflows.

When data becomes accurate and accessible, teams act faster, align better, and drive growth from the shelf up.

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4. Embedding Predictive Analytics into Execution

Predictive analytics has become a crucial tool for CPG teams aiming to improve efficiency and anticipate demand. But these models are only as strong as the data behind them. Without accurate, real-time execution data from stores, predictions remain disconnected from shelf-level realities.

Why Predictive Tools Fall Short Without Execution Data?

• Demand forecasts miss the mark when they rely on outdated inventory systems that don’t reflect actual shelf conditions.
• Store-level risks go unnoticed when stockouts or display failures aren't captured in time.
• Merchandising efforts lose impact when models assume execution has occurred, but in-store validation is missing.

Many analytics systems are built on assumed conditions, like product availability or pricing accuracy, that don’t always hold true at the shelf. This creates blind spots that distort projections and limit strategic value.

How Image Recognition-based Retail Analytics Strengthens Forecasting?

• Real-time, photo-verified data confirms which SKUs are actually on shelf, helping refine demand models based on current availability.
• Early detection of non-compliance or delayed promotions enables teams to adjust their plans before sales are impacted.
• Location-specific visibility allows teams to tailor merchandising strategies and rep visits with precision.

Predictive models incorporating verified shelf data shift from theoretical to practical. This creates a clearer picture of where risks exist and what actions are needed, whether it's adjusting distribution, reallocating marketing support, or targeting in-store execution more effectively.

By embedding execution insights into predictive systems, CPG brands can transition from reactive planning to proactive control, enabling smarter and faster responses at every level of retail strategy.

Also Read: Image Recognition: Business Applications and Use Cases for CPGs

5. Accelerating Innovation with Faster Feedback Loops

Innovation will continue to drive CPG growth in 2025, but the winners will be those brands that learn quickly and adapt more rapidly. Traditional reporting cycles often delay insights, revealing issues only after launch momentum has been lost. In today's competitive environment, speed to shelf must be matched by speed to insight.

Why Speed to Insight Matters?

• Shelf life is shrinking. New SKUs have less time to prove their value before being rotated out.
• Retailers expect faster proof of performance. Without early results, shelf space for innovations becomes harder to secure.
• Early execution errors are costly. Missed facings or non-compliance during week one can undermine even the best product launch.

Waiting weeks for sales data means acting too late. Brands need to know within days whether a product is present, visible, and correctly merchandised.

How to Close the Feedback Loop Faster?

• Track execution from day one. Don't wait for sell-through reports; verify that the SKU is correctly placed and priced immediately after launch.
• Monitor on-shelf presence and visibility. Knowing how often and where new products are actually seen helps identify gaps before they impact sales.
• Catch early-stage compliance issues. Fixing misplacements or missing POS materials early can rescue underperforming launches.

When feedback is fast and at the shelf level, brands can course-correct in real-time, adjusting their strategy, reallocating support, or pulling back if traction is weak. This reduces the cost of failure and increases the chances of product-market fit.

Fast, actionable feedback turns innovation from a gamble into a measurable, manageable growth lever.

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How Does ParallelDots Help CPG Brands Drive Execution-Led Growth?

Execution issues at the shelf remain one of the biggest barriers to CPG growth. Even the best promotions, pricing strategies, or innovation efforts will underperform if products are not present, visible, or correctly placed in stores. That’s where ParallelDots makes a measurable difference.

ParallelDots’ ShelfWatch enables CPG sales and marketing teams to track in-store shelf conditions in real time, using AI-based visual recognition. With image-based data collection, brands gain immediate access to execution KPIs that are often delayed or missed in manual audits.

Here’s how ShelfWatch supports retail execution at scale:

• On-Shelf Availability: ShelfWatch identifies stockouts at the store SKU level, so teams can respond before lost sales accumulate.
• Planogram Compliance: It detects whether products are placed as per agreed shelf schematics, helping protect brand visibility and consistency across retail chains.
• Promotional Implementation: ShelfWatch verifies the presence and accuracy of price tags, POS displays, and promotional endcaps.
• Share of Shelf: Brands can benchmark their physical presence versus competitors, store by store, across markets.

By capturing store-level conditions from shelf images, ShelfWatch removes guesswork from execution tracking. Field reps, trade teams, and brand managers all work from a unified, verified view of what's actually happening on shelves.

This data is structured, visual, and actionable. Whether the goal is to fix execution gaps, prioritize rep visits, or align with retail partners on compliance, ShelfWatch provides the shelf intelligence needed to act with confidence.

Also Read: How is AI Helping CPGs Stock Shelves with the Right Products

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Conclusion

The CPG industry is entering an era where execution quality will differentiate the winners from the rest. Retail environments are complex, competitive, and constantly changing.

To succeed, brands must operationalize growth strategies through real-time insights and flawless execution at the store level. Pricing, promotion, and innovation will only deliver returns when matched by accurate, clean, and timely shelf data.

ParallelDots offers CPG teams a scalable, AI-powered solution to close execution gaps, detect issues early, and improve key shelf KPIs. With better visibility into what’s really happening on shelves, your teams can plan better, act faster, and grow smarter.

Ready to turn shelf data into growth?Request a demo of ShelfWatch today and see how real-time retail execution insights can fuel your 2025 growth strategy.