Getting the right products to the right people at the right time

For global food and beverage brand PepsiCo, Mexico plays a critically important role. In fact, it’s the company’s second-largest market after the U.S. But while the U.S. market is tilted toward big grocery chains and convenience stores, Mexico’s retail landscape is filled with small customers. “It’s one of the markets in the world where you have a huge amount of small mom-and-pop stores,” says Johannes Evenblij, senior vice president of commercial and consumer transformation at PepsiCo. “There are millions of them.” That made the job of a PepsiCo salesperson especially busy. Each week, they’d visit the stores on their route, meeting with owners, taking orders, and suggesting new products. They’d also let owners know which snacks or drinks seemed to be flying off the shelves at a store across town, although that advice was anecdotal at best—getting precise sales information to its sales team on the ground was a constant challenge. In recent years, PepsiCo has taken big steps to change the equation for both its customers and salespeople. The 2022 debut of the MiNegocio+ app provided customers with an easy way to place orders from their smartphone and learn more about products they m…