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PepsiCo's E-commerce Investments Pay Off in Wake of COVID-19

PepsiCo’s head of global ecommerce shares how its earlier investments in ecommerce helped the CPG giant handle a surge in orders across online channels as consumers shifted to online shopping because of the pandemic.

PepsiCo develops ecommerce-only packages, such as this Doritos 3D variety pack, for some products.
PepsiCo develops ecommerce-only packages, such as this Doritos 3D variety pack, for some products.
Digital Commerce 360

Reprinted with permission from Digital Commerce 360 -

Author James Melton - to see original post click here.

PepsiCo Inc. doesn’t sell much directly to consumers online. But it sees ecommerce as a vital part of its future and credits digital sales with helping it—and the retailers it works with—stay competitive and connected with consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The consumer packaged goods (CPG) giant set up a dedicated ecommerce team about five-and-a-half years ago in 2015, says Vince Jones, head of global ecommerce at PepsiCo. Those ecommerce investments put PepsiCo in an excellent position to ramp up distribution to online channels once the pandemic hit the United States in early 2020, he says.

“I give PepsiCo credit for recognizing that ecommerce disruption was coming, and it was going to happen, although we didn’t exactly know when,” Jones says. PepsiCo tasked that group with working with retailers to “develop the online channel” by figuring out the kinds of technologies and other changes that transformation would require and investing as necessary, he says.

Those investments, Jones says, allowed PepsiCo to be ready for the surge in orders across all ecommerce channels as consumers shifted to online shopping because of the pandemic. During 2020, sales via ecommerce channels nearly doubled, he says. And PepsiCo’s research finds that about 50% of new online grocery shoppers will stick with it because they like the convenience grocery ecommerce offers.

Jones joined PepsiCo in 2017 from Bluestem Brands Inc., where he was executive vice president, chief operations officer and chief digital officer. Bluestem (No. 56  in the 2020 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000) is the parent company to seven ecommerce retail brands. Prior to that, Jones was president and CEO at eBags, an online retailer of bags and travel accessories now owned by Samsonite International S.A.

How PepsiCo approaches ecommerce

As a CPG company, PepsiCo looks at ecommerce differently than retailers. It defines online sales as those made online through retailers—including Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1). Walmart Inc. (No. 3) and other merchants’ web operations. It typically does not sell its products directly to consumers from a websites it operates for major brands. For example, Doritos.com provides information to shoppers about the chips and directs shoppers can buy them online or offline, but does not allow shoppers to purchase on the website.

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