Company Overview
Pricklee is a natural hydration brand built around the prickly pear—the resilient fruit of the cactus and an underutilized superfruit known across Mexico, the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe, but still emerging in the U.S. mainstream.
Pricklee’s drinks are a natural source of antioxidants and electrolytes, deliver 25% of the daily recommended Vitamin C, contain no artificial sweeteners or colors, and are non-UPF (non-ultra-processed food) certified. The brand currently offers five flagship flavors: Prickly Pear, Wild Strawberry, Tropical Mango, Juicy Watermelon, and Wild Berry.
Pricklee distributes primarily through third-party distributors into major retail chains such as Gelson’s, while its in-house team focuses on field sales execution, merchandising, and account management across territories. As the brand scaled, leadership needed a CPG-focused platform to support daily route planning, in-store execution, and field accountability—at a price point that fit a growth-stage brand.
The Challenge
Pricklee’s field motion depends on consistent in-store presence at major retail chains, where shelf space, display execution, and product rotation directly impact velocity. Before SimplyDepo, the team relied on a different route-planning app, but rising costs and limited fit for CPG-specific in-store execution created friction.
As Pricklee expanded into more chains and territories, leadership recognized that field execution couldn’t continue to depend on rep memory and disconnected notes—it needed a structured, shared system that every rep could follow from day one.
Before SimplyDepo:
- Rising Tool Costs – The team’s previous field sales CRM was capable, but pricing was scaling beyond what made sense for a growth-stage CPG brand
- Limited In-Store Tracking – No consistent workflow to log what actually happened during each store visit—facings, displays, can dates, and shipper placements lived in reps’ heads
- Memory-Based Follow-Ups – Reps relied on memory or external notes to recall previous account conversations and commitments
- Fragmented Territory Visibility – Admins had limited insight into the daily movement of the five-rep field team across territories
- Disconnected Photo Capture – Reps couldn’t capture in-store photos inside the same workflow as their visit notes
These weren’t catastrophic gaps—but they slowed Pricklee’s ability to scale field execution efficiently as the brand expanded shelf presence across major chains.
💡 Pro Tip
Standardizing in-store forms and account history turns every store visit into a documented conversation—so the next visit starts where the last one left off.
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The Solution
Pricklee was introduced to SimplyDepo by its COO, who met the SimplyDepo team at an industry expo through word of mouth from peers in the CPG space. After a trial period and onboarding led by SimplyDepo’s customer success lead, the team rolled out the platform across all five sales reps. Unlike traditional CRMs built for field sales around emails and call logs, SimplyDepo focused on in-store visits and physical account coverage—exactly how Pricklee’s reps actually operate.
“We use SimplyDepo as our route planning app. The route planning is our biggest use, and tracking our salesmen’s daily movements—what stores they’re visiting and what happened at each visit.”
— Ibrahim Hassoun, Sales Operations, Pricklee
Field Sales Route Planning & Daily Execution
- Five sales reps use SimplyDepo every day for structured route execution across assigned territories
- Daily store visits are tracked and visible to admins in real time
- Setup was fast—after the initial store list upload, the team was operational on routes within days
- Territories are broken down clearly, helping reps focus on the right accounts at the right time
In-Store Forms & Retail Execution
- Custom forms guide reps through the bare minimum that should happen in every store—checking can dates, rotating older stock to the front, validating facings, and confirming displays as part of consistent retail execution
- The in-app camera lets reps attach photos directly inside the form, replacing a separate photo workflow
- Form history is preserved per account, giving reps an instant view of their last interaction before walking in
- Reps track new facings, secondary displays, and shipper placements through structured merchandising workflows
Follow-Ups & Customer Continuity
- Reps review form history and notes before each visit, hitting the ground running on the next conversation
- TPR (Temporary Price Reduction) coordination, shipper requests, and account-specific notes are logged where the next visit can pick them up
- Whether reps are in the field, at a desk, or working from home, the same notes are available to the entire team
“I’m doing a work-from-home day, contacting all my Gelson’s accounts because we have a TPR coming. The notes are so much easier to bring up than the previous tool we used. Going back and researching what you spoke about last time—it’s very good.”
— Jeremy Morris, Sales Rep, Pricklee
Team Communication & Territory Visibility
- Reps and admins share a single source of truth on activity and account history with territory mapping built in
- Internal communication is faster because the context lives inside the platform, not in side channels
- Daily field activity is documented, repeatable, and measurable across all five reps
“The communication between team members is good. I really have no issue with SimplyDepo. When it comes down to it, it’s really good—it’s really put together.”
— Jeremy Morris, Sales Rep
Since adopting SimplyDepo, Pricklee has built a consistent daily field operating rhythm that doesn’t depend on rep memory or external notes. Every store visit produces a documented record the next conversation can build on.
| Daily | 5+ | Centralized | Full |
| Field execution by the sales team in stores | Sales reps using SimplyDepo for daily routes | Form history and notes per account | Visibility into store visits and territory activity |
Summary Metrics
Here’s how Pricklee’s field sales operations improved after adopting SimplyDepo:
| KPI | Before SimplyDepo | After SimplyDepo |
| Route Planning | Capable tool, but rising costs | Affordable, CPG-focused route planning |
| In-Store Execution | No formal log of in-store actions | Custom forms for facings, displays, and can dates |
| Follow-Up Workflow | Reliant on memory or scattered notes | Form history per account, refreshed before every visit |
| Field Activity Tracking | Limited insight into daily movements | Real-time visit tracking across all five reps |
| Photo Capture | Handled outside of notes | Built into the in-store form workflow |
| Team Communication | Scattered across channels | Single source of truth shared by reps and admins |
“Because we use the forms, we can go back and look at the history and see what the last interaction in the store was. Before you go in, you refresh on what happened last time—that helps you hit the ground running.”
— Ibrahim Hassoun, Sales Operations
Why It Works
SimplyDepo works for Pricklee because it was built for CPG brands whose growth depends on what happens inside the store—not on email campaigns or call logs. Pricklee’s reps are in the field every day, and the platform’s mobile-first workflow matches how they actually operate: walking the aisle, checking dates, capturing displays, logging conversations, and planning the next route.
By combining route planning, in-store forms, photo capture, and account history in one platform alongside sales analytics and territory visibility, SimplyDepo replaced a more expensive tool with one purpose-built for Pricklee’s growth-stage field sales model.
More Than Software: Responsive Support
Beyond product functionality, the Pricklee team highlighted SimplyDepo’s customer support as a key advantage.
“John is spectacular. Anytime I’ve reached out to him about something, he always responds same day. Anytime I want to ask about something or improve something, he always makes the time to meet with me.”
— Ibrahim Hassoun, Sales Operations
“If we bring something to your attention, you guys are on it pretty quickly—within the month.”
— Jeremy Morris, Sales Rep
Direct access to a responsive product team helped ensure smooth adoption and ongoing improvement across the sales team.
What’s Next
With SimplyDepo powering daily field execution, Pricklee is positioned to deepen relationships with major retail chains, expand shelf presence, and continue scaling distribution of its clean-label hydration line.
The team has shared a product wishlist with SimplyDepo—including a more powerful prospects search, finer-grained permissions for region-based rep access, and map-pin color customization for visual chain segmentation—and sees the partnership as one where field feedback meaningfully shapes the product roadmap.
What Pricklee Says
Ibrahim Hassoun, Sales Operations, Pricklee
“We use SimplyDepo as our route planning app. The route planning is our biggest use, and tracking our salesmen’s daily movements—what stores they’re visiting and what happened at each visit. With consistency, you get more orders eventually—and that’s an improvement SimplyDepo has provided.”
Jeremy Morris, Sales Rep, Pricklee
“In the line of work we’re in, simplicity really helps in the long run. Even the smallest change can mean the world to us because we are daily users—even on days off, we’re using it somehow.”
See how other distributors and brands use SimplyDepo: Read the Winneram International case study
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