Driving Retail Success
01 _ About the project
FrontNow was founded with the goal of helping consumer goods producers sell their products at retail, while enabling retailers to offer the right products to their local clientele. Data processing systems and technologies based on machine learning provide recommendations for action and future predictions for both sides, retailers and producers. For this, FrontNow offers a unique SaaS solution with a clear focus – to increase customers’ sales.
The first step is to address the question of how everyday products can get onto the retail shelf and thus into the consumer’s shopping cart by optimizing transaction costs. The primary focus here is on digitizing the product discovery and listing process for consumer goods at retailers such as supermarkets and drugstores. FrontNow seamlessly connects suppliers with retailers for this purpose. The current process of getting new products onto shelves is inefficient and often leads to wastage on both sides. Nearly 300,000 new products are added to retailers’ shelves in Europe each year, 75% of which are removed within a year. As a result, constant scouting processes have to be carried out to find new products.
FrontNow solves the problems for the retailer and the supplier. This is done with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Among other things, this processes information on the socio-demographics, income structure and general ordering and purchasing behavior of consumers on site, i.e. in the retailer’s local catchment area. From this information, FrontNow can deduce that product A will sell better than product B on the shelves of a specific retailer. Accordingly, product A is suggested to the retailer’s buyer for listing on the shelf before product B.
FrontNow provides the AI on which the prioritization is based with significantly more macro- and micro-economic information. The AI uses this data to predict the future of end-customer buying behavior at the local level. This creates a massive competitive advantage for manufacturers and retailers. In addition, FrontNow offers solutions to questions and problems faced by suppliers of all sizes, which they can use in a modular fashion.
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Company Foundation
December 2020
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Partner since
December 2020
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Management
M. Funk, B. Lihotzky
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Form of Enterprise
GmbH
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Location
Berlin
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Industries
SaaS
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More information
frontnow.io
From my work as the founder of a food manufacturer, I have experienced first-hand how time-consuming and energy-sapping the path to stationary retail and the identification of meaningful product developments can be. From this, the basic concept of FrontNow was developed from the producer's point of view.
Bernhard Lihotzky
Managing Director & Founder
02 _ Highlights
What sets FrontNow
apart
Disruptive Technology
FrontNow operates in a market that generates annual sales of EUR 200 billion in Germany alone and only on the retailer side. The digitization of the procurement process on the basis of an AI is groundbreaking in terms of the technologies currently in use.
Scalability
FrontNow's business model allows for rapid geographic scalability as well as in terms of the depth of services offered.
Objective Decisions & Product Innovation
FrontNow enables objective decision-making for retailers through its data-driven predictions. At the same time, suppliers can adapt their product portfolio to actual market conditions.
Experience & Know-How
The founding team combines many years of experience on both the supplier and the retailer side. In addition, the founders already have three exits to their credit.
Lead Investor
Patentpool, with over 20 years of experience in management and financing of disruptive technologies, is involved as a lead investor and supports the company both strategically and technologically.
We founded FrontNow to create real and sustainable added value for our retail and industry customers. I myself come from the retail sector and know how important it is to offer consumers the products they want. The better the offer matches these wishes, the higher the sales. In retail, they say, "The margin is in the buying." That's true! However, not only in the purchasing conditions, but much more in the right product portfolio on the shelf.
Marc Funk
Managing Director & Founder
