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 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?
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.
Platforms for auditing in store have become a must-have for category managers. Not only are they a key data collection instrument when reviewing and assessing category performance but these apps also assist in implementing category plans. But how can a platform for auditing in store be used in gathering shopper insights so these can be incorporated into category strategy reviews?
Smartphone use during working hours is frowned upon in most businesses, especially when it involves outside contractors or field staff – such as merchandisers and marketing reps – or, even worse, store employees.
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?
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.
