Industry Insights - Consumer Products & Retail Welcome to the December edition of Industry Insights for Consumer Products and Retail.As the holiday season twinkles to life, we’re wrapping up the year with a look at what’s lighting the way forward in CPG and Retail. This month’s newsletter unwraps our Top 10 in 2024, highlighting the most-read articles of the year—covering the trends, innovations, and ideas that shaped the industry in 2024.Wishing you a season filled with joy, innovation, and prosperity as we close out the year together!Subscribe to monthly insights Featured Insights E-commerce and Financial Crime: AI-Powered Detection and Prevention Financial crime professionals often struggle with timely detection of suspicious activity, despite efforts driven by compliance, reputation, and social responsibility. Traditional methods rely on hindsight and reviewing vast, often unproductive alerts. AI offers a transformative solution by enhancing detection, predicting suspicious activity, and improving compliance efficiency. This guide focuses on financial services and e-commerce, addressing common questions about AI’s role in combating financial crime. While not legal advice, it provides practical insights into navigating evolving regulations and maximising AI’s potential in compliance programmes. View the FAQ guide Top digital experience trends in 2025 and beyond Thriving in today’s fast-evolving digital landscape demands that marketing and experience leaders innovate continuously, adapt to emerging technologies, and prioritise customer experience, a key driver of loyalty over price, brand, and product. To stay ahead, organisations must identify current digital trends and strategically apply them. Here are five trends to watch and leverage for the future. Read more Learn more about Protiviti: BLOG | INSIGHTS | WHO WE ARE Top 10 Consumer Products and Retail Reads in 2024 Infographic | Top Risks in CPG and Retail 2024 Consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail executives identified the biggest threats impacting their organisations in 2024 and beyond as part of Protiviti’s 2024 Top Risks Survey. Their perspectives, highlighted below, reflect a growing uncertainty around market competition, the rising cost of goods and labor, and the increased need for new technologies to better manage risks and improve customer experience.Read more Harnessing the future: Protiviti’s research on AI adoption The rise of generative AI is driving organisations to adopt the technology across functions like finance, cybersecurity, and customer experience. Protiviti's global research explores how enterprises are leveraging AI to accelerate innovation and success in their digital transformation. Here’s a summary of their latest findings.Read more Global Retailer Goes Digital: Revitalise with Power BI Personal interactions have long been central to retail and consumer goods, but digitisation is now essential. Data modernisation underpins digital transformation, enabling smarter data collection and management as enterprises adopt advanced technologies. The future lies in innovative approaches to leverage data for better decision-making.Read more Internal Audit Survey on Technology Risks The 12th Annual Global Internal Audit Survey highlights cybersecurity, including data breaches and ransomware, as top risks. Emerging trends show AI's growing impact on tech auditing and associated risks. Auditors must adopt new strategies and increase audit frequency to address evolving threats, with high-frequency IT auditors perceiving risks differently from their peers.Read more Podcast | Sourcing: Advantage and Mitigating Risk Supply chain management continues to be a hot topic in countless organisations in light of ongoing geopolitical challenges, evolving impacts of climate change, new tariffs, changing labor markets, and much more. How can supply chain and procurement leaders attack these and other challenges? It starts with building and implementing a strategic sourcing strategy.Read more Design Thinking for Technology Modernisation: Driving Value, Reducing Technology Debt In the consumer products and retail sectors, the burdens of legacy systems and manual processes pose significant challenges for organisations across the value chain from store or online purchases to overall operations. Disconnected applications, error-prone tasks, technical debt and a lack of insight and intelligence can hinder efficiency and innovation. To address these pressing issues, a strategic approach to modernisation is essential.Read more Maximising CX: The Game You Must Win Engaging customers throughout their buying journey is key to delivering an exceptional experience and fulfilling a brand’s promise. Boards must understand how the organisation differentiates itself, as satisfaction and loyalty metrics—outcomes of the broader customer experience (CX)—are vital to performance management. CX spans all touchpoints, from marketing to digital interactions, shaping sentiment and loyalty in both B2B and B2C contexts.Read more Put Privacy First to Build Trust and Elevate the Customer Experience While businesses value data privacy and identity management, many overlook their critical link to customer experience. Trust in a company’s ability to protect personal data is foundational to brand loyalty and cost-effective customer retention.Read more Client Story: Multinational Company Modernises Financial Planning and Analysis with SAP Analytics Cloud Like many companies we work with, this multinational company recognised that its financial planning and analysis (FP&A) processes had gotten out of hand and subject to increased risks. Over time, planning and reporting had been developed locally, requiring multiple steps to aggregate and reconcile financial data.Read more Trump 2.0: Possible Winners and Losers President-elect Donald Trump will take office in January 2025 with Republican control of Congress and a conservative Supreme Court. Key initiatives include a Department of Government Efficiency and a cryptocurrency advisory council. CEOs are optimistic about business in 2025, despite warnings of inflation, high interest rates, and risks from policy changes. Progressive states may push back on federal actions, especially on civil rights and environmental issues.Read more Protiviti Services for Consumer Goods & Retail Pro Briefcase Consumer Goods Protiviti helps Consumer Goods organisations to rethink core business operations and transform for evolving customer needs and stakeholders’ expectations. Our expertise helps companies to respond quickly to challenges and identify innovative ways to embed resilience, optimise margin and improve operational performance. Pro Workflow Flowchart Retail Protiviti helps Retail organisations including apparel and specialty, food, beverage and tobacco, restaurants and food service, and home furnishings sectors reach customers where they are through business transformation efforts focused on evolving customer needs. Topics Internal Audit and Corporate Governance Risk Management and Regulatory Compliance Business Performance Industries Retail Consumer Products and Services
