When a CPG company grows
rapidly, it often starts to outsource some specific functions, for example,
accounting or auditing. Merchandising is also among the activities that are
often being outsourced. On the one hand, by outsourcing merchandising
activities a company gets more time to concentrate on the vital areas, such as
manufacturing and distribution. Managing a team of merchandisers can be costly
and time-consuming. On the other hand, using a third party to conduct
merchandising audits may impact company’s bottom line due to the lack of
control. So, checking out pros and cons of merchandising outsourcing can help
you to decide what is better for your company: conducting in-house
merchandising audits or outsourcing merchandising activities.
Merchandising Outsourcing
Pros:
- You can focus on other aspects of your business
- You get cheaper merchandising audits due to economies of scale
- You receive professional approach to merchandising activities
- You can get broad coverage of retail locations
Cons:
- Lack of dedication from outside team members
- You don’t have direct control of in-store merchandising activities
- Big time gaps between the data collection and reporting
General concern is that if
you hire a third party to conduct retail merchandising audits for your company,
you run the risk of loosing control of merchandising activities, which may
result in poor customer service, lower levels of brand loyalty and drop in
sales. Most of the problems come from weak control and poor cooperation between
your management and a third-party merchandising team. Depending on the
reputation and reliability of the service provider, problems that occur include
big time gaps between auditing and decision-making, formal attitude to the work
that has to be done, loosing some important part of merchandising data or even
lost paperwork, and fraudulent reports. Therefore it makes sense to consider
the opportunities to conduct internal
merchandising audits.
In-House Merchandising Audits
Pros:
- You completely control the quality of merchandising activities
- You conduct specific merchandising audits tailored to your company
- You get merchandising data faster
Cons:
- Having your own merchandising team is costly
- Managing merchandising activities is time-consuming
Conclusion
If your goal is to ensure
the highest level of merchandising performance,
and you can afford to maintain your own team of merchandisers, opt for in-house
merchandising audits. Finally, the cost of in-house merchandising will be paid
back due to sales growth, as your products are sold better when managed by your
own merchandisers, familiar with products, brands and marketing strategy of
your company.
Reading this article, many
of the business owners will think that they simply don’t have time and resources to invest in internal merchandising. The most surprising thing, to be
discovered, is that in fact they have, but they do not know about this.
Today software vendors
offer companies comprehensive retail execution
solutions, to automate sales, merchandising, retail audits and store data
collection. Using merchandising software every company may allow in-house merchandising
audits, getting broad coverage of retail locations and real-time data from
points of sale.
VisitBasis is an up-to-date
merchandising software solution that requires almost no time and resources to implement.
After the registration at www.visitbasis.com you get free access to our merchandising software
and will be able to organize your first merchandising audit in 15-20 minutes. You
will not incur any costs to hardware or training – VisitBasis Merchandising App
works from browser (for office managers) and can be downloaded for free on
Google Play and App Store (for merchandisers). Your team members can use their
own mobile devices to perform merchandising activities and you don’t have to
invest in training, as VisitBasis Merchandising App is intuitive and
user-friendly.
Schedule a demo today to see how it works, find
tutorials on our YouTube channel or read our previous
articles on merchandising.
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