www.visitbasis.com
Today you start can performing retail store audits with ease using just your tablet or smartphone. Most field representatives who perform retail audits already have one of these devices, so you don’t need to spent money on hardware or software license purchase. Simply have them upload the VisitBasis Retail Execution App with customizable retail audit forms on Google Play or App Store, and start receiving real-time, highly accurate retail audit data.
Retail audit software allows to organize the schedule of auditors’ visits for any period of time and improve your field team bottom-line by reducing their time traveling to appointments, planning routes and accessing information.
Adopting retail audit software provides automating retail data collection using mobile devices, minimizing mistakes and avoiding awkward data re-entry.
Retail audit software allows you to communicate clearly with your reps attaching images, PDFs, videos and multimedia materials to task templates. You can also provide different types of answers for retail audit tasks including photo-report, text, number, multiple-choice answer, and electronic signature.
Retail audit software virtually eliminates fraudulent check-ins among retail audit teams by allowing supervisors to track and monitor each field rep’s activities in real time and by GPS and time-stamping every action.
Finally, retail audit software solutions provide team leaders with an opportunity to receive instant reports and manage operational priorities in real time. The web-based dashboards and reports help you identify productive employees and perform workflow analysis, taking informed strategic decisions based on reliable up-to-date data.
2. INTRODUCTION
How to Improve Retail Audit Effectiveness Using a
Retail Audit Software Solution
When conducting retail merchandising audits companies often rely on traditional paper-
based forms and general-purpose software like MS Word and MS Excel, Google Docs,
Notes and etc. They also use traditional ways of communication with merchandisers –
paper reports, phone calls, SMS, and email messages. At first glance paper-based
forms may seem economical and cost-effective, but as a matter of fact it can really be
costly in terms of time expenses and low productivity.
The automated retail auditing amazingly differs from traditional paper-based retail
auditing. Today due to the new mobile technologies field reps are able to perform retail
audits using just their tablets and smartphones with no need to visit the office to report
the results. All the data collected at stores is automatically synced with corporate
database and is instantly available for building analytic reports. The new way of retail
audits organization provides faster data workflow and reduces time for decision-making,
improving the bottom-line.
Therefore some of the most experienced and
sophisticated retailers opt for paperless retail audits
to reduce costs and become more efficient both in
the field and in the back-office. Let’s consider in what
ways companies can improve retail performance and
field reps productivity switching to paperless retail
merchandising audits.
3. INTRODUCTION
Introducing New Ways of Retail Audits Performance
Looking for new ways to enhance the effectiveness of retail audits?
Opt for VisitBasis retail audit software to completely automate your retail merchandising
activities, to streamline retail data workflow and to maximize your field reps productivity.
VisitBasis offers companies a comprehensive retail audit solution to provide remote
merchandising workforce management and real-time monitoring of field reps anytime,
anywhere.
4. FEATURESANDBENEFITS
Creating a Schedule of Retail Visits
The Benefits of Retail Audit Software
Traditional scheduling is a time-consuming and burdensome process for a field team
manager. It usually involves creating a list of visits to the points-of-sale, filling out paper
forms for field reps, or using general-purpose calendar application. Using retail audit
software you can easily organize the schedule of visits for any period of time and
improve your field team bottom-line by reducing their time traveling to appointments,
planning routes and accessing information.
• Planning visits in bulk or individually
• Office managers visually assign stores to field reps, using a map
• Visits and tasks can be scheduled by the office or on the mobile app
• Rescheduling appointments on the go
• Adding visits and tasks during a day from web-application by office managers or by
field reps themselves
Key Features of Retail Audit Software
5. FEATURESANDBENEFITS
Notifying Field Reps of the Scheduled Appointments
The Benefits of Retail Audit Software
Generally field reps receive the appointment schedule during a visit to the office, or via
email, or phone call. Travelling to the office to receive tasks takes time and reduces
field reps productivity. After field reps receive the schedule of visits and the list of tasks
to be performed at each point of sale they have to find out their routes all by themselves
using a map application or a GPS-navigator.
With retail audit software All the visits and tasks are instantly displayed in tablets and
smartphones of field reps due to automatic synchronization. Field reps can view all the
information about every point-of-sale, including location, contacts, history of visits, map
location. Field reps can always optimize their route for the day at a click of a button to
make sure they have the shortest path between points-of-sale.
• All scheduled visits and tasks are instantly displayed on field reps devices
• Visits and tasks can be scheduled by the office or on the mobile app
• All the information about points of sale, products, tasks is available in one app
Key Features of Retail Audit Software
6. FEATURESANDBENEFITS
Retail Visit Confirmation
The Benefits of Retail Audit Software
As a rule field reps notify field team managers of the fact of arrival at a point-of-sale by
a phone call, SMS, or marking the time of arrival in a paper report. When implementing
a retail audit software solution field reps are being monitored on the map in real time.
Field team managers can see their routes, the arrival time, and time spent at a point-of-
sale.
• See your all field reps on the map in real-time
• See the travel routes field reps took between visits
• Visit can be verified live, you can see visits on the map
• GPS distance to the point-of-sale location
• All activities are tracked automatically, no need to start/end button
• Start of visit, end of visit time. Duration taken to perform tasks and travel time
Key Features of Retail Audit Software
7. FEATURESANDBENEFITS
Performing Visual Retail Compliance Check
The Benefits of Retail Audit Software
Commonly field reps take a photo of the shelf and make note, if necessary, in the
paper-based report form. The photo should be later somehow transferred to the
corporate database and assigned to the information about the audit. If filed reps are
empowered with a retail audit software solution they can simply make a photo to their
tablets or smartphones using built-in photo report. All the photos taken during an audit
are GPS-confirmed and time-stamped and are instantly synced with the corporate
database.
• Built-in photo reports
• Two cameras: one built-in (is used to devices with lower spec.) and another phone
standard
• Filed reps can make text notes to any visit supplemented by photos
• Real-time photo workflow due to automatic synchronization with the office
• Each photo taken in the field is time-stamped and GPS-confirmed
• Real-time data workflow due to automatic synchronization with the office
• High-speed exchange of large volumes of data due to Cloud-technology
Key Features of Retail Audit Software
8. FEATURESANDBENEFITS
Evaluating Quantitative Parameters of the Layout
The Benefits of Retail Audit Software
Field reps collect store data completing paper forms, which are then to be transferred to
the office for manual data reentry to the corporate database. A more advanced way is
filling in a Word or Excel form and e-mailing it to the office. Retail audit software allows
automated data entry using a tablet or a smartphone. All the data collected at points-of-
sale is automatically transferred to corporate database and is available for integration
with company’s back-end system, export or analysis. Mobile forms allow to collect data
very quickly and accurate eliminating paperwork and minimizing mistakes
Key Features
• Customizable task templates
• Different types of answers (text, photo, number, multiple choice, electronic
signature)
• Real-time data workflow due to automatic synchronization with the office
• Time-stamped and GPS-confirmed data
• The information can be collected even offline
• Barcode product search
• Order history
• Communication bar tells you the status of data exchange
Key Features of Retail Audit Software
9. FEATURESANDBENEFITS
Analyzing Retail Audit Data
The Benefits of Retail Audit Software
Nine times out of ten filed team managers try to compile the information across paper
forms or Excel spreadsheets, manually entering data to corporate database. After data
reentry is finished managers often don’t have time and enthusiasm to analyze big
amount of data from points of sales. With retail audit software all the data collected at
points-of-sale is instantly available for analysis. Use Google API and BigQuery access
to your data to get ultimate custom reports and dashboards in seconds. Apply
sophisticated filters to get the exact information you need. The reports can be easily
exported to corporate database.
• Ultimate custom reports and dashboards in seconds
• Get all your data immediately, filter by reg expressions
• Big Query statistics reports on visits, customers, tasks, and field reps
• Great variety of filters to sort retail data
• Daily and weekly statistics reports on field reps’ mobile devices that can be
emailed to the office
Key Features of Retail Audit Software
10. CONTACT INFO
www.visitbasis.com
blog.visitbasis.com
Live Chat
sales@visitbasis.com
Toll Free: +1 (800) 497-6293
Phone: +1 (954) 505-2059
Start your retail audit automation today with
VisitBasis – the only free retail audit software on
the market. Just register at www.visitbasis.com,
download free VisitBasis Retail Audit App on
Google Play or App Store and start performing
your own retail audits in a new innovative way.