Introduction
Today, retail has its own vibe; this was not the case a few years ago when I would look around—pop and mom stores have given way to swanky, multi-storeyed, multi-brand stores where people throng to shop and to do a lot more. In many places, it has become a cultural phenomenon affecting people’s lifestyles in the 21st century. But it has brought so many challenges to the retail shop owners that this market has become very competitive, leading to retailers fighting for every penny. In this background, retail auditing has become a preferred way to look different from others by promoting it as a marketing tool. Of course, it helps to stay tight in the face of operational and market risks. So, here we are, looking for ways to streamline auditing so that you (retail owners) can benefit more from it. In this blog, I am going to share 5 crunchy, new ways to improve retail compliance audits and get the most from them. Read on; here it goes.
Get the survey questions right.
This gig called the retail audit process has an important enabler: surveys. They consist of chosen questions that are used to collect important data from the public to gain more insight. They have to be right. If surveys are the axes of this vehicle called auditing, then questions are the ball bearings. Be bang on target with your survey questions; they may target product positioning, customer likes and dislikes, store interiors, mall interiors, customer experience, and so many other things. Focus on the right KPIs that will ultimately shape up in some way to positively affect your bottom line.
Find the right answer type.
This point just follows the question types. Questions and answers are, in a way, intertwined. So, the types of answers depend on the question itself. You may wonder what types of answers I should include in my survey. Well, the answers may be something like on a scale of 1 to 5. or something from excellent to fair. These are called closed-type answers; the participants will have to choose an answer from the given options. These answer types are easy to measure and analyze. The other answer type is open answers. These answers are used to get customers’ opinions or suggestions about something. However, even these open-ended answers are well used to do customer sentiment analysis to generate word clouds and other analytics tools that help in store compliance audits.
Collect all important data.
But then remember, questions and answers are just a way to collect data about retail audits and store surveys. You will ultimately have to focus on what data you want to collect; that’s the key. So, knowing customers’ opinions about your new doormat may not be that important in comparison to knowing about the effectiveness of your new loyalty campaign. Here I am providing you with a list of data points to focus on: Coupons and promotions, merchandising and promotions, store interior and exterior, staff behavior, product shelf positioning, service quality, inventory, customer opinion, equipment and other assets, safety and security, hygiene, and others
Videography and photography
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s the worth of a video—millions? It looks like a correct quantification when you see the effectiveness of images and video clips in the surveys, audits, and display compliance. They are really in fashion, and they do click. By allowing the respondents to log pictures and video clips, you help them explain what exactly is going on in your shopping mall. They are also a very effective way to monitor, track, and investigate point-of-interest situations. The use cases are many; let me share one with you: staff behavior. What say you? Aware or unaware of the camera, they may come along in their usual selves, and you get the best shot to judge it and help improve it.
Select the right software tool.
Well, that’s something worth writing. These days, many cloud-based vendors have come up who are providing very effective and economical solutions that you can not only easily afford but which will also help you in streamlining processes and gaining a competitive edge over others who are still satisfied with their legacy systems. Get your act together to choose the right retail audit checklist tool that will help you collect, process, and report information. Though there are many pointers in choosing the right survey software, keeping things within the scope of this blog, I would suggest going for something that is lightweight, scalable, easy-to-setup, and easy-to-learn. Besides, it should also be able to collect all types of survey data and produce insights with embedded analytics.
Conclusion
These are really some points to ponder in a guide to retail auditing. I believe that, meanwhile, adding to the last point, let me introduce you to WovVIA, an inspection and audit software from WovVTech, a SaaS business productivity software company, which will be really helpful to you. You can use this software to follow all these points, which I have mentioned, while doing audits and inspections in your retail store. If you are reading this blog because you are serious about your retail audit, then look no further; try this today.
