How to Conduct a Retail Audit

Andrew Jeavons, President, Survey Analytics

How to Conduct a Retail Audit

• Principles of Retail Audit

• Technology Demonstration

• Questions & Answers

Agenda

What is a Retail Audit?• Study of a

selected sample of retail outlets

• May be continuous

• May be discrete (limited usefulness)

Goals• Monitor

products• Products are

yours or competitors'

• Compliance with agreed procedures and standards

The Survey• As with any survey, it

can’t be too complicated.

• Quality of the data is critical.

• Mystery shopping is not always best...

• New data types:

• Images

• Video

• Sound

• Connectivity - how are you getting the data back?

• WiFi

• Data networks

• Tablets

• Good screen size - may feel heavy after hours of use....

• Small vs Large tablets

• Cost

• Smartphones

• Small screen size

• Many people have them already

What Devices Will Be Used?

• Make sure the survey fits the device!

• Smartphones are not tablets.

• The more concise the better - long preambles and questions are not useful.

•Images

• Very useful to document any aspect of a retail environment

• Can replace store based assessment

• Images can be stored and “scored” at a later time

• Objective measurement of improvements/degradations

• But: scoring and assessment can be time consuming.

New Data Types

•Video

• Same properties as images.

• Capture richer information than images.

• Can give snapshots of customer behavior/traffic.

•Sound

• Acoustic environment - announcements, noise, customer comments

New Data Types

• Can scan bar codes for resolution in real time or later

• Gives definitive information about products quickly

Bar Codes

• Coupons/promotions available

• Merchandising and presentation

• Store Condition inside/outside

• Staff and training

• Product availability and display

• Service assessment - speed, quality

Possible Data

• Inventory

• Equipment

• Drive Through?

• Customers

• Safety

Standardize!

Possible Data

Store Sample• Type

• Territory

• Sales region

• Vertical

• Types of store i.e. liquor

• Competitive

• With you !

• Random

• As the name implies - any store

If audit is done on a continuous basis, the sample should be the same.

Data Collection• Who collects the audit information ?

• Expert - someone who understands the business space and environment.

• Expensive but data quality may be higher

• May have intrinsic biases

• Hired help - someone hired to carry out the survey

• Cheap - but quality of data may be very variable

• Lack of knowledge may inhibit data quality.

• Consistency

• “Interviewer” effects are real.

• Being inconsistent with collection methods compromises the data.

Values• Questions can have a scores 1 - 5 for instance:

• “Floors are clean” 1 being the lowest value 5 the highest

• When scores for 1 - 5 scale questions are summed set a percentage score for “pass/fail” audit.

• 80% + usually.

• Yes/No questions

• Set a level for how many are “failed”

Reporting and Analytics

• Audiences

• Store/Regional Managers

• Segmentation/Aggregation of stores/scores

• Execs

• Overall reporting, with segmentation

Demonstration

Tablet TechnologyScoring

Reporting

Thank You!Andrew Jeavons

PresidentSurvey Analytics

andrew.jeavons@surveyanalytics.com

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