RETAIL AUDIT
A retail audit, also known as an in-store audit, involves the examination of selected retail outlets to gather data on brand performance and the effectiveness of retail execution. This process serves as a crucial component of retail business intelligence, enabling companies to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to assess their retail performance. The audit typically focuses on the following key areas:
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Product Availability: Ensuring that products are stocked and readily accessible to customers.
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Visibility Compliance: Evaluating adherence to visibility standards and promotional displays.
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Shelf Share: Analyzing the shelf space allocation for different brands and products.
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Price Compliance: Checking that pricing is consistent with company policies and competitive standards.
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Inventory Counting: Conducting accurate counts of stock levels to manage inventory effectively.
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FEFO Tracking: Monitoring First Expired, First Out (FEFO) practices to minimize waste.
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Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Gathering feedback from customers to assess their experiences.
The dark side of the retail execution
As a Business Owner, CEO, VP, General Manager, Commercial Manager, or Marketing Director, your leadership is crucial to your company's financial success. However, overlooking key details could lead to significant financial loss. To ensure you’re steering your organization away from potential pitfalls, ask yourself these critical questions:
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Are your products accessible to shoppers whenever and wherever they desire?
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Is your pricing strategy effectively working on the shelves to maximize revenue, or are you missing out on profits?
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How quickly can you address stock-outs or excess inventory in retail stores to avoid lost sales and customer dissatisfaction?
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Does the quantity and quality of Point of Sale Materials (POSM) enhance sales performance, or are they falling short?
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Does your sales team have the comprehensive product knowledge necessary to engage customers effectively, preventing missed opportunities?
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How can you measure retailer satisfaction regarding your distributor's performance to avoid damaging relationships?
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Are you staying informed about competitor activities from your office, or are you at risk of falling behind?
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How can you enhance the quality of your retail execution while being remote from the field, ensuring you don’t lose your competitive edge?
If you find these questions challenging, you’re not alone—many companies grapple with similar uncertainties that can jeopardize their bottom line. Keep reading to uncover transformative insights on how our retail audit services can empower you to gain clarity, optimize operations, and ultimately protect and drive profitability.
Discover the Complete Picture
First, it's important to recognize that as managers, we often focus solely on internal data to evaluate retail performance. Metrics such as sales volume, sales value, collection rates, sales calls, visit frequencies, value per customer, strike rate, completion rate, and product withdrawal rate are commonly used internal performance indicators.
However, relying only on internal data can pose a significant risk to understanding the complete picture of your sales performance. External data, which cannot be gathered from internal systems alone, is critical and necessitates a retail audit. Consider the following KPIs for a more comprehensive evaluation:
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Product availability on the shelf
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Availability and physical condition of your sales equipment
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Shelf share dynamics of your brands
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Quality of shelf price communication
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Age of your products on the shelf
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Number of shopper interaction points
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Retailer engagement level with your business
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Competitive insights related to these KPIs
A retail audit enriches your perspective on sales performance by combining with your internal data, unveiling new opportunities for enhanced sales performance management. Keep reading to discover how integrating these data insights can shield your business from financial pitfalls and drive sustainable growth.
How to use retail audit data ?
Retail audit data can be utilized differently depending on the user's profile, but its primary goal remains constant: to enhance retail execution management, improve sales team performance, and achieve business objectives. It's essential to categorize retail audit data users into two distinct groups:
Firstly, the Brand Owners who rely on distributors to sell their products, a significant challenge is ensuring that their brand promise remains intact across various relationships and channels. This integrity can be compromised when multiple tiers exist between the supplier and the consumer, posing a substantial issue for supplier companies due to their limited direct control over the distributors representing their products and services. To mitigate this challenge, cultivating strong partnerships with distributors is crucial for success. While suppliers cannot enforce management policies on distributors, they can share best practices and resources, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship. Retail audit data serves as a strategic resource that assists brand owners in:
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Monitoring and managing distributor and retail execution performance
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Evaluating brand health quality
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Tracking competitive activities in retail
Secondly, for the Distributors, retail audit data becomes a vital operational tool for sales performance management, which may include, but is not limited to, the following applications:
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Sales team performance management
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Brand and SKU penetration monitoring
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Product stock monitoring
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Merchandising and planogram assessment
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Inventory quantity monitoring
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Promotional and pricing oversight
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FEFO (First Expired, First Out) monitoring
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Competitive analysis
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Store associate knowledge assessments
Why Choose Our Retail Audit Service?
For companies seeking to establish and maintain control over their retail execution management, Retailor LLC stands out as a trusted retail intelligence partner. Unlike other providers, we have been delivering reliable and actionable data since 2015, empowering businesses across Central Asia and the Caucasus to optimize performance and drive growth.
We are dedicated to continually investing in advanced retail audit technology to realize our vision of seamlessly connecting retail execution with strategic insights. This commitment has enabled us to forge partnerships with global brands such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Algida, British American Tobacco, and many more. Our team of experienced experts is committed to delivering in-depth analyses and actionable insights specifically tailored to your unique business needs. Here’s how we can empower your organization:
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Increase Product Availability: 🛒 Ensure that customers can easily access your products, minimizing lost sales opportunities and enhancing customer satisfaction.
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Optimize Pricing Strategies: 💵 Refine your pricing models for maximum effectiveness, enabling you to remain competitive while boosting profitability.
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Enhance Inventory Management: 📦 Implement agile inventory practices that allow you to promptly respond to stock fluctuations, reducing the risks of overstock and stock-outs.
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Improve Marketing Materials Placement: 📈 Strategically position Point of Sale Materials (POSM) to significantly elevate brand visibility and drive sales performance.
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Strengthen Sales Team Knowledge: 📚 Equip your sales team with critical product knowledge, empowering them to engage customers with confidence and effectiveness.
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Gauge Retailer Satisfaction: 📝 Utilize advanced evaluation methods to assess retailer satisfaction and refine partnership strategies based on valuable feedback.
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Stay Ahead of the Competition: 🔍 Monitor competitor activities and strategies, providing you with crucial insights to adapt and maintain your competitive edge.
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Elevate Retail Execution Quality: 🌟 Achieve superior retail execution standards, ensuring that your brand stands out in the marketplace.
Do not leave your commercial success to chance. Invest in retail audit service to gain essential insights that will enable you to navigate the complexities of today’s retail landscape effectively. Contact us today to learn how we can partner with you to drive growth and profitability.
15 + years of FMCG and Project Management experience
10 + years of Retail Audit management experience
Trusted by Global and Local partners
Business operations in Caucasus and Central Asia countries
Auditor recruitment and training processes
Data Quality Control process - 99% data accuracy
Advanced retail audit technology
Actionable data delivered live and online