Primer
The retail audit is the best way for the players in the retail industry to stay compliant to 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, the 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 are the benefits of retail audit software. 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 audit.
Why is Internal Retail Audit important?
Maximise sales & elevate market share
Real time auditing allows businesses to collect data through feedback which helps them to maximise sales and raise their share in the market. Additionally, data collected through feedback about the competitors allows retail players to make quick & agile decisions based on the prediction obtained from embedded analytics data. With the insight about the market & the competitors, retail players can elevate their sales & market-share.
Helps you to stay industry compliant
Non-compliance has serious repercussions— there is efficiency loss, you have to face risks, & there are losses. And industry-wide these losses account for billions in dollars. Retail audit helps you to stay compliant to internal auditing standards and save money that otherwise goes into risks & failure. Being compliant helps in identifying & addressing risks and makes your business functions secure.
Improves customer experience
Retail audit helps you to improve customer experience. Research has shown that customers are more likely to buy products & services which are accompanied by some pleasurable CX. But for that you will have to measure their experience as improvement is not possible without measurement. Improve 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 the 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 launch. Be sure what exactly you are trying to measure through this audit.
Design audit template
Before setting on the audit, decide what will be the questions that you will ask in the audit. You will have to decide the question types, whether it will be free text, radio button or a question whose answer can be measured in the scale of 1 to 10. Include relevant questions which are concerned with your brand, partners, competitors, retailers and others.
Schedule auditing
Once you have set up your goals and have designed audit templates, it is time to implement the auditing on 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 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 apropos questions that are concerned about your brand. These days, to make auditing more effective, even photos & 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 & 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 & gain internal control in retail industries. This way you will be able to analyze the feedback data and draw valuable insights from it. This will help you to produce a retail store audit pdf based on which you can make intelligent decisions.
Implement decisions
After you have analysed the data and gathered all the insights, it’s time to make the changes on ground. The key metrics which you have calculated from the audit data, should be used to make wise decisions that can turn the table in your favour. A right decision, based on the insights developed from the feedback data, can go a long way in optimizing your business processes and elevating sales.
Benefits of retail audit software
A 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 & find out what works best for your enterprise. An advanced auditing software identifies under performing departments & uses analytical methods to identify inefficient procedures. In short, auditing software helps you to improve your business performance.
Save time
Traditional auditing methods are clumsy and time consuming. Everything has to be done on pen and paper & auditors have to use numerous manual methods to see the auditing through. The auditing becomes more treacherous if you are a large organization with numerous stores to handle. This also leads to more chances of human error. When you use an auditing software to conduct audit, automated workflows remove the bottlenecks & smooth the way for auditing.
Usability
The modern-day auditing software are lightweight and have little learning curve— whether they are on-premise or cloud-based they focus on usability. They have a sassy, intuitive UI which makes working on it easy & interesting. These applications are designed keeping the audit requirements in mind and are tailor made keeping the current trends in mind.
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 & economical, the working is intuitive, once you install it and get going there is no looking back. With this software, you can do audits & inspections with a button’s click. It’s sequined with instant reporting & embedded analytics. You get a consolidated dashboard which has interactive, customizable, ‘do it yourself’ reports which help you to make better decisions. Have a look at its most fascinating features.
WovVIA features
- Create audits & inspection forms on the fly. Capture response through free text, radio buttons, & check boxes.
- Plan, schedule and assign audits to concerned employees, & track its progress
- It supports role hierarchy so that designated individuals can see the reports which concern them
- Photography & videography facility to record facts & findings
- Very effective for multi-site retail setup as you can compare the performances time & location wise
- Identify non-compliance & log tickets for it, track the actions taken for compliance & non-compliance closure
- Dashboard with ‘do it yourself’ reports
- Share audit form through social media platforms & scan QR code
- It is compatible with all devices & is even accessible offline
Conclusion
Here I have taken some time off to throw some light on the area which 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, & what are the benefits of the retail auditing software. Towards the blog’s end I have introduced WovVIA – a finest in the auditing field which can certainly take you through. This blog will not only help you to understand the nuts & bolts of auditing, it will also help you pick the most fascinating software from the lot which serves retail auditing. This software application is available in FREE-FOREVER format, which means you can use it always without any interruptions & without having to pay anything for it. Once & for all— try it today & make your retail audit a success.
