Traditional pen-and-paper store audits do not comply with the agility necessary for such situations, since it might take quite a while for the information to go from the rep performing the audit to the person responsible for correcting the issue. An in store merchandising software is an ideal way to monitor mission-critical situations at stores.
A lot of transformation, though, is going on in supermarkets these days, and many causes of such transformation can be traced to platforms for retail execution.
Mobile technology has recently caused a revolution in merchandising, to the point that, now, retail audit software for merchandising has become indispensable. But what should brand and category managers look for in such an application?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a reality in online shopping. Who hasn’t seen a “relevant” ad on social media right after doing a web search on a certain product? Now retail image recognition is bringing artificial intelligence to store shelves as systems for retail execution start incorporating this technology.
The advent of smartphones and mobile apps has brought the emergence of tools for field marketing that allows for digital in-store data collection, eliminating the traditional pen-and-paper and, with it, the dreaded error and delay-prone transcription.
Managing a consumer product category requires a great deal of planning and organization. Retail channels mean scattered points-of-sale, different shopper profiles, and a lot of information to be processed in order to get not only key performance indicators but also customer behavior insights. That is why retail audit tool adoption has taken off among manufacturers, distributors, and sales and marketing agencies: Right from the get-go, it eliminates clumsy paperwork and inefficient data transcription.
Now, artificial intelligence is bringing in the newest developments in retail audit system solutions with product recognition for on-shelf availability detection. What this means is that merchandisers at stores will only need to take one picture of the target product shelf and data – such as on-shelf availability and share of shelf – will be automatically extracted from it, making it possible for merchandising and distribution managers to generate instant reports and tweak their planning in order to avoid out-of-stocks.
Implementing a platform for retail execution can help retailers avoid losses and maximize profits by allowing managers to create a culture of awareness among all its employees.
Mobile technology has brought relief to merchandising manager: With a retail auditing app, field reps and auditors can fill in forms and checklists on their mobile devices and the data is then, upon synchronizing, transferred to the Cloud, where it can then be accessed for monitoring and reporting purposes.
VisitBasis has been providing software for merchandising automation in store for several years and one of the issues we hear the most from our customers is that they want to implement a system for minimizing out-of-stocks at retail stores.
