Customers love new and exciting things that spark interest and engagement. That is why stores should adopt the habit of frequently switching their retail execution strategy. Stores with stagnant merchandising techniques are likely to bore shoppers and lose them to competitors with better store execution. When developing new execution strategies, companies must maintain a cohesive brand experience for customers.

Stores with proper retail executions have found to increase revenue by almost 20 percent as compared to stores with poor execution. 20 percent is a huge margin. And to achieve that, brands need to be at the top of their game when it comes to execution. In this blog, we share 5 retail execution tips that will help brands win on the shelves.

1. Position and Placement Matters in Retail Execution

This goes without saying that people will buy only what is visible to their eyes. More importantly, they’ll buy what’s easily visible and accessible. And that is why mere placement is not enough. How and where the product is placed matters a lot. Research has found that products placed at the eye level grab the most attention. This has increased the fight on the shelf. A study found that “Employees are required to place all shelves and displays at 35 – 40-degree angles from one another to subliminally build a foundation of organization and symmetry around its eccentric displays”.

It is important for brands to ensure that their products are getting proper and desirable placement on the shelf. They should make sure that the basics are covered. The products are facing the right direction with the right tags, and are well stocked.

Another study found that “most customers are righty-shoppers. That is, when most people walk into a store, they look left, then turn right and follow a horseshoe-pattern around the store.” This suggests that in order to gain the most attention, brands should place their most-eye catching products on the right side of the display.

2. Put-Up Creative and Eye-Catching Display

When it comes to retail, getting into the psyche of the customer is crucial. We’ve already established in the previous point that people will buy what grabs their attention. That is why including artistic and creative visuals on the display is necessary. In order to provide consumers a more personal experience, brands often use creative unique imagery, creating eye-catching displays.

These displays create a turn shopping errands into exciting experiences that encourages customers to make purchases and come back for more. It also leaves a lasting impression in their minds of your brand making them buy the same product again once they return to the store.

3. Supplement Your Customers’ Experience With Technology

The most popular methods that companies are using these days is infusing merchandising with technology to enhance the consumer experience. Brands are popularizing technology-supported shopping with retail apps, smart mirrors, virtual demos, and other tech novelties.

Track your store performance using AI-powered image recognition tools such as ShelfWatch to increase customer engagement with products. Traditional methods have time and again proven to be redundant and expensive when it comes to maintaining store compliance. But with technology, the redundancies of the traditional approach have subsided. With image recognition detecting stockouts, product placement, etc can easily be tracked and required actions can be taken immediately.

The tools also provide real-time feedback and bring out actionable insights for the merchandiser to act upon. It also sends alerts if a competitor presents more favorable pricing, packaging, or promotions.

4. Measure Your Sales Rep’s Retail Execution Performance

Sales reps play a very important role in retail execution. How well they comply with the planogram directly affects the sales of the products. It is crucial for brands to keep track of their performance in the store and reward them accordingly. This approach will encourage them to properly complete their tasks which would ultimately help in the brand’s growth.

But often the lack of proper data stops companies from tracking the performance of the reps properly. The existing data collection methods tend to be inaccurate and vulnerable to biases. Image recognition solutions provide instant insights that allow merchandising managers to track the reps’ execution performance withing minutes of capturing images.

5. Know Your Competition Well

Who is the competition? How is your product similar and different from them? How are they merchandising? These are some of the questions that you must have answers to in the retail business. In order to design a successful merchandising strategy, it is crucial to assess the competitor’s approach. The best way to well position yourself in a crowded and competitive marketplace is to know what you’re up against. Mobile data platform such as ShelfWatch, is the perfect way for field teams to collect and share this type of invaluable data.

With instant, real-time monitoring techniques, brands can gain a fresh perspective on what’s influencing their customers’ buying decisions between the aisles. They can also assess the competitor’s displays and promotions and evaluate their effectiveness.

Found the blog useful? Read our other blog to understand what are the best ways of addressing the on-shelf availability issue in retail.

Want to see how your own brand is performing on the shelves? Click here to schedule a free demo.

Source: https://blog.paralleldots.com/featured/5-tips-for-dominating-todays-retail-execution/