Maren, the chain's regional manager, kept running into the same problem before planning meetings. Her stores had internal sales results, but those results did not explain whether the business was keeping pace with the market. When a product line slowed down, she could not easily tell whether demand was soft everywhere or whether competitors were winning the category. When a campaign performed well, she still had to ask whether it was truly strong or only looked strong inside their own reporting.
“We could see our own numbers, but we could not tell if we were actually winning in the market. I needed a way to see what competitors were selling, what customers were responding to, and where our plan needed to change.”
That uncertainty affected real decisions. Maren had to recommend what to promote, where to focus product attention, and which competitor moves deserved a response. Without a clear market view, each plan carried more guesswork than the team wanted.
The challenge: strategy planning lacked external market evidence
Retail teams need market context before they commit resources. Internal data can show what happened inside the business, but it cannot show whether the company is gaining ground or falling behind.
The team needed external market data to compare its own performance with competitor movement. A provider could supply the data, but the data still had to be interpreted. Leaders needed to understand which signals mattered for their own strategy.
The gap showed up in the translation step. Market data could answer important questions, but only after someone pulled reports, compared views, and summarized the patterns. By the time that work was ready, planning conversations had often moved ahead on partial evidence.
The solution: 100xTeam made market data usable for planning
100xTeam built an AI-enabled workflow that helped the team turn provider data into strategy guidance. The workflow connected external market data with the business questions leaders were already asking.
100xTeam's AI helped identify competitor product lines with momentum, market categories where demand was shifting, and areas where the team's performance looked different from the broader market. It also summarized the implications in plain business language, so regional managers and leaders could use the information without rebuilding the analysis from scratch.
“This is the kind of read I wanted before planning meetings: not just a market report, but a clear view of where competitors were gaining, where we were behind, and what deserved action.”
The value was not the data alone. The value was making the data usable. 100xTeam gave Maren a clearer way to enter planning discussions with evidence about what was happening outside her stores, not only what was happening inside them.
The results: planning became more market-aware
100xTeam helped the team bring external market evidence into strategy discussions earlier. Product planning could account for competitor movement. Marketing decisions could be informed by market response instead of relying only on internal campaign results.
For Maren, the workflow changed the quality of her recommendations. She could point to where her stores were underperforming against the market, where competitor product lines were gaining traction, and where the team had a stronger case to adjust focus.
The broader change was planning confidence. 100xTeam helped leaders answer the question behind every strategy cycle: how are we actually faring in the market? With that answer available earlier, market data became a practical input into sharper priorities and more confident competitive planning.
* All names have been modified to preserve privacy.
