The results of a recent study on in-store merchandising practices, suggests there are significant opportunities to improve Merchandising Compliance. The research conducted by RIS News, paints a gloomy picture of lost opportunity sales. The results indicate most of today’s national and regional retail chains fall short because their processes are broken and outdated.

The most interesting aspect of this study reveals that the problems are largely known. Almost one third of the retailers surveyed say the leading cause of ineffective merchandising for promotions is the limitation of the tools in use. In the majority of cases retailers rely on outdated spreadsheets and email rather than automated solutions for managing and measuring execution of their in-store merchandising campaigns.

Few retailers would dismiss the value of improving methods of store condition capture and applying that knowledge to developing plan-o-grams and communicating merchandising compliance requirements. In spite of this the majority of retailers have not moved to automate the process with a Task Management platform like Site-Specs. An automated solution addresses the most pressing aspects of managing the entire execution by bringing consistency to the process. The key steps for improving Merchandising Compliance using a Task Management platform, fall into four categories:

1) Capturing Store Attributes

• Determine what store specific information (attributes etc.) your team requires to create accurate plan-o-grams.
• Conduct surveys to capture all relevant store fixture and configuration data
• Create a Store Attributes database

2) Developing the Plan / Plan-o-grams & Capture Model

• Create an execution plan and plan-o-grams from the Attributes database (store specific if necessary)
• Determine standards for how the program will be carried out
• Create a schedule and Task Management model with exact proof of performance reporting requirements

3) Project Deployment

• Loading project details to a Task Management platform (Site-Specs)
• Create a task list with store specific requirements
• Deploying projects to in-store and or 3rd party teams (team specific location deployment for best results)

4) Capturing Field Results & Reporting

• Use the Task Management platform to reference plan-o-grams etc.
• Capture & validate field work on task the list
• Capture completion photos
• Monitor progress reports (online)

The common theme in these four steps is visibility and it’s impact on driving consistency and accountability. After all, you can no more execute with a disjointed plan then measure what you can’t see.