Industries · Consumer Products & CPG
Build a brand big retailers want to keep on the shelf.
From first PO to national rollout — packaging, pricing, supply chain, and the deduction discipline that protects margin.
- 17+
- Years of Walmart leadership
- 800+
- Store formats helped open
- 100+
- Speaking events
Overview
The consumer products landscape.
CPG founders win shelf with great product and lose it on the back office. We've sat on the Walmart side of the table for nearly two decades and now help brands show up ready: clean cost sheets, defensible margins, packaging that performs, and the operating rhythm to scale without breaking.
Industry Challenges
What's keeping leaders up tonight.
Margin erosion
Slotting, deductions, and promo spend quietly turn a profitable line into a losing one.
Retailer expectations
Modern vendor scorecards, OTIF, and category reviews require operational maturity most early brands don't have yet.
Forecasting and supply
Going from DTC volumes to retail volumes breaks most supply chains on the first reorder.
Packaging that converts
Shelf-set physics, planogram fit, and on-pack hierarchy decide whether the product moves in 4 seconds.
How Pivotal Helps
We sit in the work with you.
Strategy alone doesn't move a business. We pair the plan with the cadence, coaching, and accountability that get it across the line.
- Retailer-ready cost sheets, MAP, and trade architecture
- Packaging, planogram, and on-shelf merchandising review
- Forecasting, supply, and replenishment playbooks
- Deductions, claims, and chargeback recovery workflows
- Buyer pitch decks, line reviews, and JBPs
- Leadership coaching for founders entering big-box retail
Relevant Services
Practices most often used in consumer products.
AI Opportunities
Where AI actually moves the metric.
Vendor-neutral. Practical. Sequenced so the wins compound.
Demand sensing
Lightweight forecasting that blends POS, syndicated, and DTC signal — no data-science team required.
Content at retail speed
AI-assisted A+ content, copy variants, and Amazon/Walmart listings produced in a fraction of the time.
Productivity Systems
Personal AI workflows for leaders and teams that compound hours back into the week.
Knowledge Bases
Searchable, role-aware AI knowledge bases built on the documents your team already uses.
Workflow Automation
Zapier, Make, and native automations that retire the manual handoffs slowing your team down.
Engagement Process
How it runs.
Discover
Stakeholder interviews, data review, and a candid read on the real bottlenecks — not the symptoms.
Diagnose
A written diagnostic that names the constraint, the opportunity, and the two or three moves that matter most.
Design
A right-sized plan with owners, sequencing, and a 90-day execution rhythm leadership can actually run.
Deliver
We stay in the room — coaching, unblocking, and adjusting — until the work ships and the metric moves.
17+
Years of Walmart leadership
800+
Store formats helped open
100+
Speaking events
5
Countries — MOVE bestseller
FAQ
Questions we usually get.
We've never sold to Walmart. Can you really help?
Most of our CPG clients are pre-Walmart or early in their big-box journey. The work starts well before the buyer meeting — and the prep is what gets you the second order.
Do you take equity or commission?
No. We work on a flat fee or retainer so our advice is never tilted by a deal we'd benefit from.
How quickly can we start?
Most engagements begin within two to three weeks of a discovery call.
