The retail market is facing another unpredictable time – macroeconomic uncertainty, shifting customer behaviour, and pressure on margins have brands rethinking every aspect of their wholesale strategy. The brands staying ahead in 2025 respond in real-time, making decisions based on what’s happening on the store floor.
For many, that means tapping into an overlooked but powerful resource: retail sales associates. The people talking to customers, managing displays, and hearing questions firsthand. When equipped with the right tools, they can provide something no dashboard or end-of-season report ever could – context.
Why Associate Feedback Is the Most Underrated Data Source
When you know what’s clicking on the store floor, it’s easier to keep the momentum going. Maybe Colorway A is flying, or shoppers keep reaching for one brand over another—understanding the “why” behind those choices helps you lean into what’s working and make smarter moves in-store.
Getting frontline insights sent directly to sales associates can help close those gaps as part of an ongoing store-floor feedback loop. Lets say you’re looking to get insight on how well a new product is being received in the market by associates and customers. A quick in-app frontline insights campaign, allows you to survey sales associates and get direct feedback from the store-floor and what shoppers are saying, how they feel about the product, and what’s driving customers toward other brands.
These insights are focused, timely, and directly connected to frontline behaviour. That’s what makes the feedback so useful. Brands can collect insight like:
- Which product features are resonating – or confusing – for shoppers
- Whether price is being seen as a value or a barrier
- How their brand stacks up against competitors in real selling conversations
- What stores need to better educate and guide customers
And because these insights come in real-time, they can help shape decisions as they’re being made – not weeks or months after – your marketing team will become productive and not reactive. That kind of input is invaluable in a market where things are changing quickly.
It’s not just helpful for marketing; product teams use this feedback to refine messaging. Sales teams can spot emerging trends in the market before they become widespread. And leadership gets a clearer picture of how brands & trade marketing efforts are landing at wholesale
Acting in Real Time: From Frontline Insight to Impact
It’s one thing to gather feedback. It’s another to act on it – especially at scale. That’s why pairing frontline insights surveys with live retail performance data is so powerful.
Instead of waiting for field teams to file reports or for end-of-month campaign roll-ups, brands can now see daily updates of what’s happening: which stores are engaging, where Point of Purchase (POP) Displays are live, and what actions associates are taking. That visibility enables faster, smarter responses.
If a region is underperforming, brands can investigate immediately – rather than wondering why results missed the mark weeks later. If POP has not been assembled, is out of product or is not following merchandising standards, it’s easy to nudge participating stores. If a particular SKU is taking off in one cluster but not in others, teams can adjust messaging or check inventory with minimal delay.
This kind of operational agility used to be the territory of direct-to-consumer models. But now wholesale brands can turn every store into a connected data source, not just a point of sale.
And when this frontline data feeds into broader strategies, the impact multiplies. Structured, human-sourced insight enriches predictive models and supports smarter spending decisions across marketing, merchandising, and sales.
Wholesale has always required strong partnerships between brands and retailers. But in a year defined by uncertainty, those partnerships need better tools for communication, feedback, and action.
That starts by listening – not just to sales numbers, but to the people behind them. Frontline staff don’t just hangout in-store, they’re experiencing products from all brands and categories, talking to customers daily and shaping real in-store outcomes. When brands listen and act on associate feedback, they become more agile, better equipped to respond, and stronger overall.
If you’re ready to start listening more closely to what’s happening in-store, ENDVR makes it easy to begin. The Frontline Insights product helps brands survey associates directly – gathering the kind of context and clarity that typical reports miss. Explore the platform to see how real-time feedback and store-level visibility can help you stay responsive, informed, and ahead of the curve in today’s evolving retail environment.
