A field marketing app has been the go-to tool for CPG category and marketing managers over the past couple of years for good reason: this kind of apps greatly simplifies the merchandising audit process, as well as reporting on it.
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.
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.
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.
Software for field marketing in store has revolutionized the way businesses and field marketing agencies with outside teams work. From sales to in-store merchandising and service professionals, field force automation has done away with paperwork and double data entry errors, as well as brought increased productivity.
Visuals can make or break a sale in retail: Customers can get turned off by something as simple as sloppy product placement on a shelf or rack, or damaged packaging. Therefore, enforcing brand consistency and merchandising standards is so important in retail. A platform for field marketing not only allows merchandising and category managers to easily update checklists but also opens the door for more consistent implementation and audit of visual category and brand standards.
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.
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.
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.
