A retail or point-of-sale audit acknowledged as research aimed at a comprehensive analysis and collection of data on the assortment, availability, and stock of goods, their cost, overall representation in retail outlets, the availability of advertising materials, the quality of staff work, as well as the pricing policy of competitors.
The purpose of retail audit service is to conduct a study of the appropriate availability of goods in retail chains and stores, compare prices and pricing policies with competitors, check the quality of the display of goods, merchandising, and the quality of work with your product from the sales staff.
Main benefits of retail audit services:
- Identifying those areas that increase productivity.
- Description of the impact of the proposed changes on the accompanying processes.
- Prioritizing the proposed changes.
- Obtaining a complete picture, allowing you to assess the volume of changes.
- Detailing of the necessary changes related to the set goal.
- Checking the effectiveness of the proposed actions and the feasibility of introducing the proposed innovations.
- Selection of the best tools and methods in the industry to optimize the studied processes in-house or with the involvement of external resources.
When conducting a business audit in retail, the team of CAC uses both work experience and understanding of regional features of doing business, and experience in the use and implementation of industry-specific solutions for managing and automating retail, distribution, and warehouse logistics.
As a result, after the audit of retail trade, when analysing the mechanisms of interaction between the company’s divisions, an assessment of unproductive and problem areas is provided, and a list of proposals for improving the audited process areas in retail is formed that allows:
- To increase efficiency/productivity in the first place
- Reduce costs/time spent on performing routine operations;
- Reduce costs/save financial assets of the enterprise;
- Increase the controllability of processes;
- Bring documentation in line with internal policies and government/industry regulations.
Retail Audit Benefits
The advantages of an audit are the prompt receipt of information about which brands of goods are represented in retail, how affordable they are, at what price, and in what volumes they are sold.
Checking stores for the presence of advertising materials corresponding to a given outlet, as well as for the presence of competitors’ products.
With the help of an audit, you can obtain both quantitative data necessary to determine the structure of the market, forecasts of its development, and qualitative. In the latter case, the audit allows you to solve the following tasks:
- Determine the intensity of visits by buyers to a retail outlet;
- Determine the socio-demographic parameters of buyers;
- Determine the duration of the purchase process, the process of choosing a product;
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the location of the object.
Conducting an audit of a trading network without further analysis is practically useless. Based on the audit data, typical mistakes in the operation of the trading network, the advantages of competitors are determined, a strategy for a more effective business is built.
The firm CAC provides comprehensive consulting and retail audit services, implementation of IT solutions, and business support.
