If suppliers want to succeed in the current market, they must develop and implement a strong retail execution plan with the best audit firm in Singapore. Utilizing retail management software is the greatest approach for a merchandiser to get crucial field data that has an impact on the health of their business and its items.
The worldwide retail market generated sales of over 26 trillion dollars in 2021, with an estimated growth to over 30 trillion dollars by 2024, according to Statista.
Business owners and managers may determine what works and what doesn’t by evaluating longitudinal data to make better-informed decisions and modifications to their retail strategy.
We’ll go over everything you need to know about doing a retail audit in this blog post, as well as how to use the knowledge you gain to make more educated business decisions in the future.
What Is A Retail Audit?
Retail management software refers to brand representatives’ or retail shop employees’ inspections of certain retail locations to learn more about the state of the brand’s inventory.
For the sake of this piece, we’ll talk about supplier-related retail audits. brand ambassadors collect a variety of data, including:
- Sales volume
- Descriptions of promotional goods in stock and in-store displays
- Compliance with the planogram, competitor activity
- Pricing
- Products’ Location in the Store
- Product damage
The Benefits Of An Audit:
Digital audits in retail have several benefits, especially after new company registration.
On the one hand, they assist suppliers in ensuring that retailers follow any prior agreements on product placement, price, and marketing. However, they also give brands the ability to precisely assess how they are doing in the retail sector.
A benefit of audits is the useful data resource they give, but the quality of your data will rely on the methods you used to get it. By taking the required steps to collect high-quality data from various retail locations over time and comparing findings, managers may take appropriate changes that minimize inefficiencies and eventually enhance sales.
Procedures During An Audit:
Now that you are aware of the importance of retail digital audits, how can your company make sure that it is carrying them out correctly? To ensure that your team makes the most of each shop visit, take into account the following procedure.
- Describe Your Goals:
Decide on the main objectives for your retail audit. Do you take into account how quickly your products are being taken off the shelves? Give each aim a numerical or qualitative value as a gauge of success and be specific about what you intend to measure through the audit in writing.
- Audit Standards For Designs:
Select the specific audit questions you’ll ask and the acceptable response types. Will you use a scale of 1 to 5, “yes” or “no” questions or demand written replies from the salespeople? Ask just the questions that will help your business grow; don’t waste your time.
- Make Time:
Now that you know what you want to get out of the retail audit, it’s time to put it into practice. Be consistent when deciding which accounts to send to. As a result, individual salespeople may establish a rapport with shop management and learn a ton about their businesses. Recognize that before reps visit a store, some may want early notification. Keep in mind to schedule representatives for the appropriate number of audits based on their specified territories.
- Collect Data And Illustrations:
Check that the information your salespeople collect is directly related to the goals and benchmarks you’ve defined. It may make sense to label some retail survey questions as “mandatory” if they are essential to the organization’s objectives. Using photos in audits is a great way to demonstrate precisely what is occurring in a firm at any given time and to promote accountability and compliance.
- Analyze The Results:
Once the digital audits are complete, organize your data such that it is easy to interpret. While tags may be used to categorize notes, graphic representations of numerical data are feasible. To see how they compare, compare your results to your specified KPIs.
- Introduce Changes:
After reviewing the findings, immediately take the appropriate action. For instance, you may opt to take a certain SKU off the shelf straight away if you notice that it is performing much worse than others across several locations. Alternatively, after gathering information over a longer period, you may make long-term business decisions.
- Make Sure To Re-Calculate:
You’ll be able to adjust your retail audit process as necessary to meet the unique needs of your company after conducting many retail audits. By routinely carrying out audits, your company will be able to promptly adjust to the continuing transformation in the retail industry.
Different Types Of Audit Data:
If you want to make sure that your retail auditing technique is successful, be sure that you and your team have the expertise required to understand the information you will be obtaining. Sales, activity, and observational data should be given priority among the three types of retail execution data.
- Observational data helps paint a picture of the conditions inside the business that your salespeople are observing and reporting on. The amount of inventory, the number of rivals, the degree of competitiveness, and other information are all included in this data.
- Activity data refers to the specific actions your team is doing in the field to improve store execution. Measuring and tracking them are necessary if you want to know what and how these actions are having an impact on your sales.
- The volume of each product sold over a certain period at particular retail locations constitutes sales data, which you are undoubtedly already measuring. However, it takes on a new meaning when paired with the activity and observation data gathered by your personnel, allowing you to identify the activities and store settings that generate the greatest revenue.
Benefits Of Retail Audit Software:
Pen and paper have traditionally been used in retail administration, however, this has several potential disadvantages, such as:
- Findings must be transformed into digital evidence captured after the event.
- Risk of paper damage or loss increased likelihood of a human mistake
- Information from the field is delayed in getting to decision-makers.
These flaws in the retail audit process make it difficult for brands to swiftly replace orders, alter their merchandising strategy, or deal with store compliance difficulties.
The ideal software to employ will depend on your company’s particular needs, however, all applications should have the following features:
- Digital Evidence Capture Makes It Simple To Collect Data:
You ought to be able to modify your survey questions to fit different product families or retail locations. The permissible answer kinds should also customize.
- Data Synchronization In Real-Time With Brand Managers:
The key advantage of using a technology solution over one that relies on paper is that it enables management to immediately get data from audits. As soon as data is available for analysis, changes may be made more swiftly. To further automate your workflow, pick a system that transforms data into graphs and charts with ease.
- Possibility Of Taking Photos:
Images can express concepts that words alone cannot. They are especially beneficial in revealing details on the packaging, shelf presentation, store cleanliness, and promotional displays of competing products. Images are a great technique to demonstrate “before” and “after” scenarios. The shelf in the picture below wasn’t yet merchandise when it was shot, and it was utilized in a retail audit.
