Storelink is one of New Zealand's leading FMCG sales, merchandising and distribution agencies, bringing ambitious brands into the NZ market and getting them onto shelf, fast. With dozens of brand partners and a constantly evolving promotional calendar, Storelink's lean, high-output team is always looking for ways to sharpen how it manages spend, pricing and promotions — and to give its brand partners an even stronger commercial edge.
The Opportunity
Spreadsheets had served Storelink well as the business grew, supporting trade spend, pricing and promotion plans across a large and expanding portfolio. But with dozens of brand partners in play, the team saw a chance to go further: bring spend visibility together in one place, back its pricing experience with modelled scenarios, and spend less time on formulas and more time on the commercial call.
The Solution
Storelink chose CauSelf and moved fast — within a few weeks the business had the system ready to go and had smoothly transitioned from spreadsheets to a purpose-built platform. Tier-one TPM/IBP/RGM solutions typically take upwards of six months to implement, at considerable expense. Storelink reached a comparable level of capability in a fraction of that time, with no lengthy, disruptive rollout and no change-management headaches. With CauSelf bringing DP, TPM, IBP and RGM together in one place, trade spend, promotion planning and pricing now sit on a single, unified platform — and the benefits are already clear:
- Gained clear visibility of financials and spend. Trade spend is now visible in one place, giving Storelink a sharper view of where money is going, including promo profitability and retailer performance — and streamlining the accrual process.
- Improved demand planning and visibility. With promotion, pricing and spend data in one system, the team has a clearer, more reliable view of demand across brands and customers.
- Run scenario analysis on price rises. Building on its deep market experience, the team can now model different price-rise scenarios before committing — powered by CauSelf's causal price-volume modelling engine, which turns pricing decisions into a confident, data-backed conversation.
- Simplified promotion planning. After looking at other tools, Storelink chose CauSelf for how easy it is to work with. The platform is structured around how people in FMCG actually think about promo planning, so the team can get straight to the commercial decisions rather than adapting to a complex TPM.
- Leveraged scan data. Storelink already invests in scan data, and CauSelf's causal modelling engine now turns it into price-volume curves for their brands — improving forecast accuracy and giving the team real insight into how a promotion should be designed, not just how it performed after the fact.
The Impact
For a business built on bringing brands into a new market quickly and cleanly, that shift matters. CauSelf has become part of how Storelink streamlines the process of launching and managing brands in NZ — pairing the team's commercial expertise with financial visibility and modelled decisions, without adding complexity to an already fast-moving business. And because CauSelf is built to bring enterprise-grade TPM/IBP/RGM capability to mid-market teams, Storelink gets the depth of a big platform without the cost, complexity or lengthy rollout that usually comes with one — a smart move for a lean team, as Tony explains below.
About Storelink
Storelink is a sales, merchandising, distribution and market insights agency servicing the New Zealand FMCG industry, helping brands grow through national field sales, key account management, merchandising and importing/distribution services.
About CauSelf
CauSelf is a TPM/DP/IBP/RGM platform built for mid-market FMCG and CPG companies. Its causal price-volume modelling engine gives teams enterprise-grade scenario planning and scan-data insight, with fast implementation and real visibility and control over trade spend, pricing and promotions — without enterprise-level cost or complexity.
