Retailers and Manufacturers See Moderate Shelf Price Increases and Steady Consumer Demand Ahead

SAN MATEO, Calif., Aug. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- DemandTec, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMAN), the collaborative optimization network for retailers and consumer products companies, today released results from a new poll uncovering industry perspectives about the future of shelf prices and consumer demand.

With prices for food ingredients and other commodities expected to continue their rise, it is especially important for retailers and manufacturers to plan ahead. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts 2012 food prices to increase 2.5 to 3.5 percent. With the holiday season right around the corner, success for both trading partners comes from a deep understanding of the shopper and making superior decisions about how to segment, reach, and influence those shoppers to generate increased loyalty and share of wallet.

Through the new QuickPolls service deployed directly on the network to a community of 16,000 leading retail and consumer products users, DemandTec can rapidly gauge community sentiment on a variety of relevant industry topics. Key findings from the latest two polls include:

• Nearly 50 percent of respondents agree that shelf prices will rise moderately as both retailers and manufacturers absorb some margin compression in the coming six months.
• More than 70 percent of respondents see consumer demand and overall spending as relatively flat or moderately affected with a decline of 1 to 5 percent from last year.

"Some commodity prices have risen dramatically over the last year and retailers need to watch how consumers respond to these volatile conditions," said Greg Girard, Program Director of Merchandise Strategies at IDC Retail Insights. "To succeed in the dynamic environment leading up to the holiday season, retailers need to focus on simultaneously better understanding and delivering value to their customers while collaborating with their trading partners by providing visibility into trade promotion performance, pricing, inventory assortment, and shopper behavior."

"Knowing when and where to make surgical price adjustments is essential context for successful retail execution –especially as we approach the 2011 holiday season," said Derek Smith, Vice President of Global Industry Marketing at DemandTec. "Through our analytical software services and value-add insights from services like QuickPolls, our customers can drive more profitable merchandising and marketing decisions that benefit the industry."

Planning ahead is a collaborative effort and DemandTec delivers the most comprehensive, science-based approach to optimizing marketing mix, trade promotion, and shopper marketing decisions. DemandTec combines shopper insights with integrated planning applications and connects trading partners on an online network of solutions to support collaborative business planning.

DemandTec offers a comprehensive suite of solutions for retailers including DemandTec Shopper Insights™, a solution which empowers retailers and manufacturers to grow their business with accurate and actionable shopper analytics, DemandTec Assortment & Space™, a solution for optimizing and localizing assortment and shelf space, and DemandTec Lifecycle Price Optimization™, a solution for managing and optimizing pricing across the entire store.  For consumer products companies, DemandTec Decisions™ is the industry's only comprehensive solution suite enabling integrated sales and marketing optimization, coordinated top-down and bottom-up planning, and true collaboration with retailers using shopper insights and shared analytics.

About DemandTec

DemandTec (NASDAQ:DMAN) connects more than 400 retailers and consumer products companies, providing common solutions to transact, interact, and collaborate on core merchandising and marketing activities. DemandTec's services enable customers to achieve their sales volume, revenue, shopper loyalty, and profitability objectives. DemandTec customers have collaborated on nearly four million trade deals. DemandTec software and analytical services utilize a science-based platform to model and understand consumer behavior. DemandTec customers include leading retailers and consumer products companies such as Ahold USA, Best Buy, ConAgra Foods, Delhaize America, General Mills, H-E-B Grocery Co., The Home Depot, Hormel Foods, Monoprix, PETCO, Safeway, Sara Lee, Target, Walmart, and WH Smith.

DemandTec Safe Harbor

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding DemandTec's expectations, hopes, plans, intentions or strategies, including statements about the benefits of DemandTec's solutions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties include those described in DemandTec's documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to DemandTec as of the date hereof, and DemandTec assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

DemandTec and the DemandTec logo are registered trademarks of DemandTec, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Karen Cohen, DemandTec, Inc.
(650) 645-7126
[email protected]

Investor Contact:
Tim Shanahan, DemandTec, Inc.
(650) 645-7103
[email protected]

SOURCE DemandTec, Inc.

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