Retail store audits are unavoidable. Besides allowing management to verify compliance with corporate standards, audits are a part of preventive control record-keeping requirements and also a way to safeguard businesses against lawsuits. Retail audit software brings many benefits to businesses.
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.
Social distancing measures have generated disruptions in retail inventory and replenishment so it has become increasingly difficult for CPG merchandising and category managers to know whether their products are being properly stocked.
A field marketing system allows reps, store personnel, and retail auditors to capture data on their smartphones and tablets. The information is then stored in the Cloud, where managers can run reports and follow in real time what is going on with their brands or territories.
In store auditing software for field reps came on the market to bridge that gap and give managers a faster and more accurate view of their brands and product lines at the store level. But what are the criteria that should be used to evaluate not only the best solution for field reps but also for managers?
Holidays, as a shopping-intensive season, are prime time for retail and, with the competition from online alternatives, in-store presentation of products must be at its best so shoppers are enticed to stay and spend at the store. But how can marketing and merchandising managers know that the holiday displays they developed are being consistently implemented and remain in good condition even after weeks of intensive use?
In supermarkets, convenience stores, drugstores, etc., competing products can be side-by-side on a shelf. Therefore, for the consumer, it becomes easy to differentiate and the alternative to the original product choice is readily available, just inches away. This is why in retail, more than in any other industry, it is of utmost importance to know what your competitors are doing at the points-of-sale.
Every retail-centric business has to perform merchandising activities. From stores to manufacturers, distributors, and marketing agencies, companies in retail need to make sure that products are being distributed and displayed correctly. It generates huge amounts of data. This means that detecting threats and opportunities within the captured data becomes increasingly difficult as business grows, therefore mission-critical issues such as frequent out-of stocks or damaged shipments can easily be overlooked.
Retail-focused businesses depend on merchandising audits to keep track of their in-store availability, presentation, and – in some cases – perception. Companies, from product manufacturers to distributors and marketing agencies, rely on field reps to perform those activities and are increasingly adopting apps for field marketing in order to streamline the flow of information from the stores to decision makers.
High rep turnover in merchandising field teams is seen as a chronic, inevitable situation in the industry. Reps come and go due to many reasons that can include unreasonable expectations concerning hours and amount of work, lack of experience, poor performance, fraudulent check-ins and reports, among others.
