Consumer Goods Cloud Setup

Consumer Goods Cloud Setup

Activate when configuring Salesforce Consumer Goods (CG) Cloud for a consumer-packaged-goods company: retail execution, visit planning, in-store task capture, order-taking on the field, promotion compliance, and image-recognition-driven off-shelf detection. CG Cloud is distinct from Field Service — it is merchandising-first, not dispatch-first.

Before Starting

• Confirm the CG Cloud license and mobile offline package. The CG mobile app is its own download; reps cannot use the standard Salesforce mobile app for visit execution.
• Map the retail hierarchy. Retailer → Banner → Store → Shelf is the typical hierarchy. Modeling this as Account hierarchies drives visit targeting, route planning, and reporting.
• Know the visit cadence. Weekly, biweekly, monthly, or exception-triggered visits each imply a different Route Plan and Visit auto-generation strategy.

Core Concepts

Retail Store + Visit + Task model

RetailStore (typically Account with record type Retail Store) is the location. Visit is a planned interaction with a store, usually generated by Route Plan automation. Each Visit has a Task list — merchandising checks, compliance surveys, order capture, competitive data collection.

Route Plan

RoutePlan governs how reps visit stores: frequency, priority, territory rules. RoutePlanEntry lists target stores and their visit cadence. Route Plan feeds Visit auto-generation and backs the mobile offline agenda.

Visit Templates

Shared visit definitions with task lists, forms (surveys), and prerequisite steps. Templates are assigned to stores/segments so a beverage company's Tier-1 hypermarket gets a different visit template than a Tier-3 convenience store.

Image Recognition / Computer Vision

CG Cloud integrates with Salesforce Image Recognition for on-shelf photo analysis. It scores SKU facing counts, out-of-stock flags, and planogram compliance. Requires IR license and the shipped ML models.

Common Patterns

Pattern: Weekly route with in-store survey

RoutePlan runs weekly for a Tier-1 territory; each Visit auto-creates from a VisitTemplate with a merchandising survey, an order-capture step, and a compliance photo step. Rep's offline app caches the agenda at start-of-day.

Pattern: Off-shelf alert routing

Image Recognition flags a SKU out-of-stock; CG Cloud creates a Case routed to the retailer's category manager Account contact. Resolution SLA tracked via Entitlement.

Pattern: Promotion compliance audit

Seasonal promotion runs Aug 1–14. Visit Template set for that window includes a compliance check: "Is the endcap display up?" Photos are captured; IR scores planogram match. Results aggregate to a promotion compliance dashboard.

Decision Guidance

Recommended Workflow

1. Confirm CG Cloud license, IR license (if using), and mobile offline package are provisioned.
2. Enable CG Cloud features in Setup and create the RetailStore account record type.
3. Import the retail hierarchy (Retailer → Banner → Store) before any visit/route data.
4. Define Visit Templates per store tier; attach surveys, tasks, and prerequisite steps.
5. Build Route Plans per territory; assign reps; smoke-test auto-Visit generation.
6. Configure Image Recognition models (shipped or custom-trained) and attach to photo task steps.
7. Run a full round-trip in a sandbox: sync offline → execute a Visit → upload → verify KPIs populate.

Review Checklist

• CG mobile offline app installed on a rep test device
• Retail hierarchy loaded before visit/route records
• Visit Templates assigned to every active store segment
• Route Plan auto-generation validated for next week's window
• IR models trained / validated on agency SKU set
• Offline conflict resolution policy documented
• KPI dashboards render expected rollups per rep/territory

Salesforce-Specific Gotchas

1. CG Cloud uses shipped platform events for visit sync. Disabling the events breaks offline reconciliation silently; always check the Platform Events usage monitor after enabling.
2. Image Recognition requires pre-trained models per product line. Out-of-the-box models do not know your SKUs; budget model-training time before go-live.
3. Route Plan regeneration is expensive. Rebuilding routes on large territories can take hours — schedule off-hours.

Output Artifacts

Related Skills

• admin/sales-cloud-core-setup — account hierarchy foundation
• integration/platform-events-basics — CG visit-sync backbone
• security/field-level-access-for-mobile-users — offline security