MINNEAPOLIS — Pet aisles are expanding, littered with eye-catching supplies and innovative nutrition. As offerings for consumers continue to expand, pet food brands face even more competition amongst the shelves. To fully understand how to compete in the dynamic pet retail landscape for optimum success, companies like The J.M. Smucker Company are tapping into data from SOLYS by Crisp, a retail reporting platform.
Katie Asleson, category manager for dog treats at Smucker, not only seeks to support the company’s hold in the pet sector, but is also responsible for supporting Target’s Pet category growth as a whole, through analyzing and optimizing shelf performance.
“Spotting trends with data is something that I love to do,” she said. “Specifically, it’s rewarding to leverage trends in making informed business decisions that see tangible results.”
Asleson has more than 10 years of experience as a Target Category Manager, formerly worked at Del Monte Foods, Inc., and has more than 20 years of experience in grocery retail. In order to help Smucker — and the overall pet category at Target — thrive, Asleson relies on an innovative retail platform: SOLYS by Crisp.
SOLYS by Crisp provides CPG professionals like Asleson with extremely detailed insights on Target’s sales, point of sale (POS) and inventory data, forecasting insights and much more. Though Asleson is specifically focused on Target, Crisp enables real-time reporting for other major retail chains, like Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General and others, according to John Zapfel, senior account executive at Crisp.
“You could spend days, weeks, months on analysis of raw data and still not get the level of visibility we have in SOLYS by Crisp,” Asleson said.
As a Target-approved, third-party provider, SOLYS is given a back door to a supplier’s Target data, allowing the platform to automate data collection in a more efficient manner, and sort it into pre-built or customizable reports, sent to companies like Smucker every Monday morning. Customizable reporting across 5,000 Target-specific metrics allows those in Asleson’s position to truly hone in on specific insights.
“When they open up their computers on Monday morning, those prebuilt reports are already sitting for them in their inbox. They can jump right in, looking for sales trends and insights in their business rather than struggling with data,” Zapfel said. “The time saving aspect of Crisp is one of the big selling points because it automates those reports.”
Seeing dollars
![SOLYS by Crisp sample KPI report](https://www.petfoodprocessing.net/ext/resources/Articles/2025/01%20Jan/012825_Crisp-Smucker-case-study_Embedded.jpg?1737756508)
Note: Graphs represent sample data.
| Source: CrispUsing weekly POS data in Crisp, Asleson is able to measure planogram (POG) performance down to the store level and individual item. For example, Asleson uses the platform to identify specific Target stores in which Milk-Bone’s dental offerings are experiencing high sales activity, enabling Smucker to strategically adjust its in-store offerings and reallocate shelf space.
With these insights, Asleson advocates for the category overall, not just Smucker’s products. Through this relationship with Target, she helps the retailer optimize its pet aisle offerings and also supports her company by proposing new products to keep pace in the competitive pet nutrition segment.
“Sales are improving, but expectations are always rising,” Asleson explained. “Manufacturers today recognize the importance of actively contributing to category growth overall at Target.”
Tracking inventory
As well as using Crisp to understand sales trends, consumer purchasing trends and how individual products are performing, the platform allows users to track their entire supply chain, ensuring inventory success.
“Another piece of Crisp that is pretty heavily utilized is the ability to understand the whole supply chain. That's a big, big aspect that people take advantage of,” Zapfel said.
SOLYS by Crisp data provides in-depth information on how much product Target has ordered, from which warehouses product is shipping from, what current inventory is and more, at an individual store level, enabling Smucker to keep up with forecasted inventory and ramp up production if needed to ensure fulfillment, Zapfel explained.
In staying attuned to inventory, Crisp also offers sales insights on in-store, pick-up, and online-only orders, allowing Smucker to make sure shelves, whether physical or online, are fully stocked. Additionally, using these insights, brands can optimize their omnichannel strategies by tracking where an order is started (online or in-store) and how it is ultimately fulfilled (shipped directly to the consumer, picked-up in-store, etc.), providing brands with ammunition as to where they need to target advertising.
“[Brands] want to get an idea of how purchasing is happening, if consumers are just walking and picking a product up versus starting that process online,” Zapfel explained. “If [brands] have seen a lot of people go on their phone to do drive-up, they might consider more advertising on Target’s website or the app.”
Since Asleson has joined Smucker and incorporated SOLYS by Crisp’s data into the business, she has been able to identify opportunities for the company’s pet brands, like introducing new training treat offerings, which continue to grow in popularity.
“It’s not just about increasing facings for our high performers, but about staying attuned to the market and making sure we’re ahead of trends, ready to deliver what shoppers want to see,” she explained.
Within product innovation, she can also use real-time insights from Crisp to gain an understanding of what products are working and what aren’t with consumers.
“With dog treats, it comes down to the connection between pet and owner,” Asleson said. “If a product creates a positive experience for both, we see that reflected in our data. It’s something I’m committed to capturing and growing.”
Find other articles related to pet retail trends and happenings.