Retail Execution

Retail Execution: Identify Compliance Issues and Optimize Your In-Store Strategies

When's the last time something ended up in your shopping cart that you had no intention of buying?

Maybe you were walking past the chip aisle and decided to grab yourself a little snack or saw something that looked like it would go perfectly with your home decor.

But what made you look at the item in the first place? How did you end up paying for something you never intended to buy?

Maybe the color of the item's packaging jumped out at you as you were passing by, or there was an eye-catching display that you felt drawn to.

No matter the reason, the extra purchase was likely the result of one thing–effective retail execution.

Strong retail execution can often lead to a myriad of benefits for brands, including increased sales, out-of-stock reduction, better store visibility, and increased promotional success. On the other hand, poor retail execution can lead to a loss in sales and sometimes a loss in long-term, loyal customers.

These factors are what make pursuing an optimal retail execution strategy so critical.

What Is Retail Execution?

Retail execution is all the actions a brand takes to influence and guarantee a customer's purchases at brick-and-mortar stores.

Usually, a brand will already have a retail strategy developed that's meant to boost sales, increase product visibility, and keep shelves well-stocked. Retail execution ensures that these strategies go smoothly in-store and keeps both the brand and the customers satisfied.

What Does Retail Execution Really Mean?

You can't improve if you don't know what's not working. Measuring your execution success is key when there are so many different aspects that go into your retail strategies.

Creating, supporting, and executing an effective retail strategy will take a lot of time and resources, and it's important that your brand knows exactly what to measure. As with many things in the CPG industry, data is key.

Retail Execution Is Shelf Health

Brands need to know how their products are doing on the shelf–that they're healthy. But what does that really mean?

Shelf health is measured using several factors, such as:

• Out-of-stocks
• Assortment
• Pricing
• Adjacencies
• Shelf position

All of this and more provide insights into how a brand's products are performing on the shelf, showing them what areas might need to be improved upon.

A lot can go wrong with these factors. For example, do all the product facings correctly follow the planogram? Are the products near a popular, more well-established competitor? Are your items easy to access for shoppers?

Any of these factors could influence how products are performing at the shelf. So, when brands are looking at the numbers and wondering where improvements could be made, the data will be right there to support their choices.

Retail Execution Is Share of Shelf

The goal for any brand is that shoppers are able to find their products easily, the first time, every time. This is the result of an ideal share of shelf.

Put simply, share of shelf is how present a brand's products are within their category in-store. This includes the literal amount of space your products take up on the shelf, product visibility, and product availability.

Product displays often have a limited amount of space, so brands have to do the most with what they have. It takes well-planned, stand-out display to draw shoppers into your products. The quality of your share of shelf is just as important as the amount of shelf your products take up.

Retail Execution Is Promotional Compliance

Even the most well-planned promotions will be ineffective if they aren't carried out correctly in-store.

You might be wondering why your displays aren't performing as well as you'd thought just to find that they weren't set up correctly or aren't being well-maintained.

It's important to keep track of metrics like on-shelf availability, associate knowledge, and display health and accuracy. An issue with any one of these could alter your customer perception in-store and lose you sales.

There will always be a gap between what you plan and what shoppers will actually see at the shelf. You need to be able to find those gaps and gain visibility into stores so you can improve your promotional compliance.

Retail Execution Is Rate of Recommendations

One key element of excellent retail execution is the store associates who interact with your customers face-to-face. Retailers often spend endless resources on making sure their employees are well-trained and knowledgeable.

This is because the information and recommendations store employees give to customers can be highly influential on their purchases. In fact, according to a study done by Invesp, 75% of customers are more likely to buy based on personal recommendations.

So, it makes sense that you'd want to continuously check in and make sure your products are among the ones being recommended. To do this, you need to make sure you have eyes and ears inside stores that can provide you with accurate feedback on how your brand is being represented.

Retail Execution Is Field Team Management

Field teams make up the backbone of effective retail execution. They visit various retailers, collect invaluable data, and report back to management—effectively powering your ability to improve your retail strategies.

Because field reps cover so much ground, their work can sometimes become overwhelming and unorganized.

To ensure you are setting your field teams up for success, create a clear foundation of expectations while they are out in the field. This means providing them with optimized store routes, clear metrics to gather, and the tools to complete their tasks efficiently.

Every person out in the field should know exactly what they need to be doing and feel confident in their ability to do it.

Retail Execution Is Selling Recommendations

A huge part of retail execution is your ability to negotiate shelf space for your products from different retailers. More shelf space can often mean more sales for your brand.

The key is to bring all the data you have gathered about your in-store performance to retailers to show what your brand can bring to their space. Retailers want to make more sales, just like you, so they will always choose the products they think can bring in the most revenue.

Some factors to show them include:

• Previous brand sales data
• Thorough and organized planograms
• Products that have a positive history on the shelf
• How your products perform against competitors

All of this data should be provided to retailers in the form of clear reports to create a compelling argument toward your share of shelf.

What to Know About Retail Execution Software

Managing your in-store retail presence doesn't have to be difficult—at least, not when you have the right tools at your disposal.

Sure, big brand names can afford to send out huge teams of field employees to check in at different store locations. But this takes a lot of time and effort that smaller brands can't afford to expend.

Why waste extra time and money where you don't need to when there's retail execution software out there that can do the work for you?

The right software will:

• Boost your store-level execution
• Drive growth
• Provide total in-store visibility at scale

Put the control back in your hands with full retail coverage without all the hassle. Put data back into the hands of your sales teams and use it to automate retail execution and create cohesive in-store initiatives.

Conclusion

Can you say with confidence how your products are doing on the shelf? Do your field teams have all the tools they need to be successful? With Wiser, you'll never have to be unsure again.

Wiser's retail execution tools can identify compliance issues and prioritize your field team's goals, so your strategies are rolled out smoothly.

Get near real-time data from directly in-store so you can make proactive decisions before your sales are affected. Powered by Wiser's Retail Execution Management, you'll gain insights such as:

• On-shelf Availability
• Product Location
• Store Associate Knowledge
• Planogram Compliance
• Product Prices

All this data and more is available with Wiser's REM dashboard. Here you can visualize all of your store insights so you can make data-driven decisions and get ahead of in-store issues.

Contact Wiser today to learn more about how we can help you improve your retail execution strategies and start winning more sales for your brand.