The retail audit is the best way for the players in the retail industry to stay compliant with industry standards and streamline their business processes. It also makes their businesses safe from market shocks and helps in identifying and addressing market risk. By studying the data presented by the embedded analytics, businesses can make better decisions and improve their products and services. In this blog, I will tell you why retail internal audit is important, how it is done, and what the benefits of retail audit software are. Towards the end of the blog, I will introduce you to WovVIA, an internal audit software from WovVTech. I will also explain what its features are. So, now let’s start with this table that explains the importance of retail audits.
Why is an internal retail audit important?
Maximize sales and elevate market share.
Real-time auditing allows businesses to collect data through feedback, which helps them maximize sales and raise their share in the market. Additionally, data collected through feedback about competitors allows retail players to make quick and agile decisions based on the predictions obtained from embedded analytics data. With insight about the market and their competitors, retail players can elevate their sales and market-share.
Helps you stay industry-compliant.
Non-compliance has serious repercussions—there is efficiency loss, you have to face risks, and there are losses. And industry-wide, these losses account for billions of dollars. Retail auditing helps you stay compliant with internal auditing standards and save money that otherwise goes into risks and failure. Being compliant helps in identifying and addressing risks and makes your business functions secure.
Improves the customer experience
A retail audit helps you improve the customer experience. Research has shown that customers are more likely to buy products and services that have a pleasurable customer experience. But for that, you will have to measure their experience, as improvement is not possible without measurement. Improve the customer experience, win customers’ hearts, and win the retail game.
How is retail auditing done?
Now that you have realized the importance of the internal audit of retail industries, let’s go through the steps in auditing retail industries.
Set goals
Begin from the end; before you start the audit journey, confirm in your mind what it is that you want to achieve. Do you want to keep an eye on how your competitors are doing? Or do you want to know the performance of the recent product or service that you launched? Be sure of what exactly you are trying to measure through this audit.
Design an audit template
Before setting up the audit, decide what questions you will ask. You will have to decide the type of question, whether it will be free text, a radio button, or a question whose answer can be measured on a scale of 1 to 10. Include relevant questions that are concerned with your brand, partners, competitors, retailers, and others.
Schedule auditing
Once you have set up your goals and designed audit templates, it is time to implement the auditing on the ground. For that, you will have to schedule the audit. Remember, retail auditing is not a one-time activity; to be more effective, it has to be done periodically, and for that, you will have to schedule an audit periodically.
Collect data
Lay out a questionnaire to collect all the auditing data that you want. So, what are the ways in which you can collect audit data? One is the retail store audit checklist. Excel; this way, you will be able to get answers to the most pertinent questions that concern your brand. These days, to make auditing more effective, even photos and videos are being used to collect data. That helps in investigating an issue in detail. You can share the survey link on different mediums like mobiles, social media, and emails to gather auditing data.
Analyze data
Once you have collected the audit data through different mediums, it’s time to analyze it, go through the answers you have collected, calculate different scores, compare the scores against pre-established KPIs, and gain internal control in the retail industry. This way, you will be able to analyze the feedback data and draw valuable insights from it. This will help you produce a retail store audit PDF based on which you can make intelligent decisions.
Implement decisions
After you have analyzed the data and gathered all the insights, it’s time to make the changes on the ground. The key metrics that you have calculated from the audit data should be used to make wise decisions that can turn the tables in your favor. A right decision, based on the insights developed from the feedback data, can go a long way toward optimizing your business processes and elevating sales.
Benefits of retail audit software:
Retail audit software brings great benefits to adopters, who earlier would use manual processes to do auditing. Such software has many advantages over the traditional way in which you do internal audits of shopping malls.
Improvise performance
With a top-rated auditing tool, you will be able to streamline business processes, go into the finer details to angle out inefficiencies, and find out what works best for your enterprise. Advanced auditing software identifies underperforming departments and uses analytical methods to identify inefficient procedures. In short, auditing software helps you improve your business’s performance.
Save time
Traditional auditing methods are clumsy and time-consuming. Everything has to be done on pen and paper, and auditors have to use numerous manual methods to see the audit through. Auditing becomes more treacherous if you are a large organization with numerous stores to handle. This also increases the chances of human error. When you use auditing software to conduct audits, automated workflows remove bottlenecks and smooth the way for auditing.
Usability
Modern-day auditing software is lightweight and has a low learning curve; whether it is on-premises or cloud-based, it focuses on usability. They have a sassy, intuitive UI, which makes working on it easy and interesting. These applications are designed with audit requirements in mind and are tailored to current trends.
Now, let me introduce you to WovVIA, an awesome auditing application from WovVTech.
Rendezvous with WovVIA
WovVIA is the smartest auditing tool that I have seen—it’s light, unified, cloud-based, and economical; the working is intuitive; once you install it and get going, there is no looking back. With this software, you can do audits and inspections with the click of a button. It’s sequined with instant reporting and embedded analytics. You get a consolidated dashboard that has interactive, customizable, ‘do it yourself’ reports that help you make better decisions. Have a look at its most fascinating features.
WovVIA features
- Create audit and inspection forms on the fly. Capture responses through free text, radio buttons, and check boxes.
- Plan, schedule, and assign audits to concerned employees, and track their progress.
- It supports role hierarchy so that designated individuals can see the reports that concern them.
- Photography and videography facilities to record facts and findings
- Very effective for multi-site retail setups as you can compare the performances time- and location-wise.
- Identify non-compliance and log tickets for it; track the actions taken for compliance and non-compliance closure.
- Dashboard with ‘do it yourself’ reports
- Share the audit form through social media platforms and scan the QR code.
- It is compatible with all devices and is even accessible offline.
Conclusion
Here I have taken some time off to throw some light on the area that has been most intriguing for the retail sector for quite some time now. I have covered why retail auditing is important, how it is done, and the benefits of retail auditing software. Towards the blog’s end, I have introduced WovVIA, one of the finest in the auditing field, which can certainly take you through. This blog will not only help you understand the nuts and bolts of auditing, but it will also help you pick the most fascinating software from the lot that serves retail auditing. Once and for all, try it today and make your retail audit a success.
