Brands

How Coca-Cola Ukraine Doubled Planned Visits and Increased Task Completion from 35% to 75% with effie

Effie allowed us to monitor all processes, from setting tasks to monitoring their implementation. With her help, we improved the results in many respects.
— Denys Savysko, Business Unit Head at Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine

About the company

Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine is a leading Ukrainian beverage manufacturer operating one of Europe’s most extensive and modern production facilities. The company employs over 3,000 people in the manufacturing and distribution of carbonated drinks, and its annual retail sales volume exceeds $1 billion.

Before implementing effie in 2019, the company relied on manual management processes for merchandising operations. Tasks were assigned and monitored through phone calls and text messages, with merchandising agencies submitting reports that often contained inconsistencies and fake data. This manual approach led to poor visibility into retail execution and suboptimal performance across their extensive distribution network.

The problem

Coca-Cola Ukraine faced significant challenges in managing its retail execution:

Poor merchandising agency performance: Manual task assignment and monitoring resulted in inconsistent execution quality. One-fifth of all merchandiser reports contained photo and GPS coordinate inconsistencies, with fake photos regularly uploaded to mask poor performance.
Lack of systematic control: Without real-time visibility into retail outlets, managers couldn’t effectively monitor assortment compliance, promotional execution, or visit completion. This led to missed opportunities and inefficient resource allocation.
Deficient assortments and unscheduled visits: The company struggled to maintain a proper product presence in stores, with additional off-shelf displays achieving only a third of the planned indicators.
Data collection inefficiencies: The marketing department had to manually collect performance data, often requiring employees to physically visit stores to take photos, which created significant operational overhead.

How effie solved it

Effie’s AI-powered platform automated and transformed Coca-Cola Ukraine’s retail execution processes across multiple dimensions:

Automated task management: The platform replaced manual phone-based coordination with systematic digital task assignment, scheduling, and monitoring capabilities.
AI-powered photo verification: Built-in camera functionality with AI analysis eliminated fake photo submissions and ensured authentic reporting from retail outlets.
Real-time assortment monitoring: Managers gained instant visibility into product availability, category performance, and promotional compliance across all retail locations.
Comprehensive analytics: The platform provided marketers with powerful analytics tools, enabling them to download performance data, analyze trends, and identify opportunities for improvement without manual data collection.
Advanced features: The platform includes Photo Evaluation functionality that allows managers to review work quality in real-time, with automatic problem assignment for substandard execution. The integrated Chatbot enables quick identification of retail outlets using GPS, providing instant access to store information, last visit details, and merchandiser activities.

Results

Within one year of implementation, Coca-Cola Ukraine achieved dramatic improvements across all key metrics.

Retail execution quality:

15%

Assortment availability increased, providing customers with better access to the full product range across retail locations

5-7%

Category shares grew, demonstrating strengthened market positioning and increased competitiveness

50%

Additional off-shelf display availability reached (up from 33%), improving promotional visibility and merchandising effectiveness

Minimum levels

Breaches, including fake photos, incorrect timestamps, and GPS inconsistencies, were reduced, ensuring enhanced data integrity and operational compliance

Operational efficiency:

Planned visits nearly doubled
Total visits (planned + unscheduled) increased by 33%
Task completion rate improved from 35% to 75%

Process improvements:

Photo and GPS inconsistencies reduced from one-fifth of all reports to minimum levels
Eliminated fake photo submissions through AI-powered verification
Automated task assignment and deadline monitoring replaced manual coordination
Real-time analytics replaced manual data collection processes

We are constantly thinking about how to simplify, automate, and secure processes against the influence of the human factor. This is my prime duty as the Head of the Department. There is another side to the coin: Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine is a large company, and there are many factors we need to consider. Not all of our dreams quickly become reality, but we do everything required for this.
— Anatoliy Durnev, Commercial Director, Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine

Further Plans

Building on the success in Ukraine, Coca-Cola is expanding Effie implementation to other markets, with testing currently underway in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. According to Denys Savysko, the positive results achieved in Ukraine position effie for successful expansion into these new territories. The company continues to explore additional platform capabilities to enhance its retail execution effectiveness further.

What makes effie unique

This case demonstrates effie’s core strengths in retail execution transformation:

AI-powered authenticity verification: Advanced photo analysis and GPS validation eliminate human manipulation, ensuring reliable data collection.
Real-time process automation: Seamless integration of task management, execution monitoring, and performance analytics in a single platform.
Rapid deployment with customization: The platform adapts to existing business processes while providing immediate value, as demonstrated by Coca-Cola’s quick time-to-results.
Comprehensive visibility: From individual store visits to portfolio-wide performance analysis, effie provides end-to-end transparency across retail operations.