Mobile forms for retail through SaaS, cloud-based retail audit systems solve many issues with in-store merchandising and shelf audits and also provide basically up-to-the-minute reporting.
However, while transitioning from paper to mobile forms already brings many efficiencies to the retail data gathering process, especially when it comes to eliminating information transcription, merchandising and brand managers sometimes are constrained by long-standing paper form limitations.
So how can mobile forms in a store audit solution be set up to gather information otherwise extremely inconvenient or virtually impossible on paper forms? Here are some examples:
Pictures
Pictures are the most tangible advantage of digital forms in store audit solutions. Text and checkboxes can only convey so much information and, in an industry where marketing is so dependent on visuals, pictures can show a wealth of information, from out of stocks to breach of distribution agreements, as well as non-compliance with corporate visual standards.
Extensive checks
Paper forms can severely limit the amount of information captured at a store. On a stock check, for instance, if the rep is only assigned to be at the store for one hour, it becomes very difficult to cover many product lines without making any mistakes or mixing up products. A store audit solution with mobile forms can be set up to display only the products available at each store and many apps provide bar code scanning capabilities, reducing the probability of mistakes during extensive missions.
Ad-hoc situations
When reps audit a store, many times they find meaningful situations not covered by the questions on their forms that end up never being reported. A store audit solution can provide ad-hoc forms in addition to the main mission so it becomes easy for reps to report issues such as broken or damaged merchandise or displays, non-compliances, out of stocks, etc.
Would you like to take your retail audits to the next level? VisitBasis provides a cost-effective and efficient store audit solution, making it easy to customize mobile forms for retail.
