Retail-related activities generate a lot of information. However, reporting for retail audits and merchandising can be quite intimidating, and reading through sheets and sheets of data is hardly an effective way to pinpoint in-store issues that might be affecting retail sales. In that scenario, important issues such as frequent out-of-stocks can get lost within the large amount of information coming from different reps and locations.
Marketing departments are constantly facing the challenge of being considered cost centers instead of revenue units, even in industries where marketing is front and center – such as in consumer packaged goods (CPG). But how to measure your brand’s growth in a way that will show upper management that every dollar invested in marketing leads to increased revenue?
A mobile app for retail execution allows reps to perform physical counts and other in-store activities right on their mobile devices. Additionally, since most retail sales audit software solutions run on the Cloud, office-based supply chain professionals have instant access to audit results, allowing for virtually no lag time between data collection and reporting.
Fraudulent check-ins, besides being unethical, can lead to a host of issues for businesses. Out all of them, fraudulent check-ins are especially detrimental due to the consequential overlooking of mission-critical issues such as out-of-stocks, hazardous displays, or damaged shipments. But how to prevent or even eliminate fraudulent check-ins of merchandisers and reps?
Planogram compliance checks and retail audits take a lot of people and, along with it, exponential amounts of paperwork and transcription effort. Because of that, solutions for merchandisers have gained a loyal following among CPG companies and their sales and marketing agencies. But in which ways is a solution for merchandisers streamlining planogram compliance checks?
Merchandising and brand managers traditionally work at a CPG manufacturer headquarters or regional office, isolated and sometimes blissfully unaware of what actually goes on with their product or brand at actual stores. This not only affects their perception of their product’s positioning, placement, and price but it may lead to inappropriate strategies, damaging sales in the long run.
Supervising outside staff and field reps is one of the hardest parts of a manager’s job description, just because there is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the activities being performed by the team members throughout the day. That is the main reason many companies are implementing solutions for field marketing. Through mobile technology, smartphones and tablets have become an essential tool for outside teams. But what are the main benefits of a solution for field marketing?
Adopting a system for merchandising is the first step in achieving the oversight necessary to effectively monitor retail channel strategies. With a system for merchandising, management can streamline keeping track of merchandise sets and resets, promotions, etc, by customizing audit forms and capturing valuable information without having to go through the cumbersome activity of transcribing paper forms.
Retail audit software has revolutionized how retail audits are performed since they allow reps to answer questionnaires and perform other in-store activities right on their smartphones and tablets, eliminating the need for paperwork.
With a mobile merchandising app, smartphones and tablets not only replace the old pen-and-paper method – virtually eliminating cumbersome data transcription – but also become de-facto merchandising auditing tools that provide managers real time access to retail planogram compliance check results.
