Retail Intelligence – Are You Data Savvy?
In the retail world, maintaining control is critical, especially for brands with products listed at retail. Since you are leaving those products in a retailer’s hands, it is important to keep in touch with what is going on, how these products are preforming, and if they are not, why this might be. This is where retail intelligence and being data savvy come in.
Being data savvy means knowing exactly what is happening on the floor thanks to retail intelligence. For brands, retail intelligence, essentially, means gathering information on a number of different things in order to keep you informed. This is accomplished through a number of different means, primarily a retail audit.
What can retail intelligence tell you? Here are just a few examples of how top brands use retail audits to stay on top of their retailers:
What are your competitors doing? A retail audit is a great way to find out how your competitors are behaving. Where are they located on the shelf? How much shelf space do you have compared to these brands? What is their brand messaging and how are they displaying it? Are they running a promotion? What is their price point? All of this information can be used by you to improve your own merchandising.
What about your own promotions? Are your promotions on the floor, where they are supposed to be? Are displays well stocked, and stocked with your product only? Don’t spend all that time planning a promo only to see it fall far below expectations thanks to someone else’s actions.
What are your retailer’s employees doing? This is another important aspect of a retail audit. For example, visible promotions are not very effective if shelves are empty, or if employees are unaware of the location of your product or can’t answer questions about it. Are store staff endorsing your brand or ensuring planogram compliance? All really important questions you need to know the answers to.
A retail audit serves two purposes – both essential to your bottom line. Firstly, a retail audit is preventative in that it ensures things are running smoothly and efficiently, and can allow you to monitor how well things are working and effectively make changes when desired. Secondly, it is corrective, since an audit can not only reveal what is working well, it can also reveal what isn’t working quite as productively.
So, are you data savvy? Missing crucial information can mean big issues – do you know what is happening on the store floor? To find out, please call Marketsupport Canada today at 1 877 421 5081.
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