Skip to main content

Merchandising Software in a Nutshell

What is merchandising software?

Merchandising software is a retail data collection tool, which companies use to capture, aggregate, analyze and share retail data using personal computers and mobile devices.

What are the features of merchandising software?

The up-to-date merchandising software solutions provide companies with all the variety of tools required to manage merchandising activities in the field, including:
  • Task building
  • Territory management
  • Scheduling
  • Monitoring
  • Mobile workforce tracking
  • Control
  • Analysis

What are the Benefits of Merchandising Software?

Merchandising software allows companies to manage merchandising activities using all-in-one easy-to-operate system without spreading data and being exposed to low-level details. In today’s changing business environment merchandising software is the essential tool for managers to make sure the proper level of stock is available and avoid out-of-stocks. If you are looking for the ways to streamline retail data collection and automate merchandising activities, merchandising software should deliver the following benefits:
  • Increased productivity due to reduced data-collection time and no time spent on reporting, built-in instant photo reports, and route optimization.
  • Eliminated paperwork – field data is fully synced between field teams and the office.
  • Fraud prevention – time-tracking and geo-tagging features to target merchandising activities in the field.

How Merchandising Software Works?

  • Field team manager develops task templates, assigns territories and tasks to merchandisers, and creates the schedule visits to retail locations.
  • Merchandisers perform data collection tasks on their tablets and smartphones.
  • Managers or supervisors monitor merchandisers live on the map, being able to see what activities are being performed and where.
  • Managers or supervisors create reports to analyze the data collected in the field.

How to Choose the Right Merchandising Software Solution for Your Company?

To maximize the value of paperless retail data collection, look for comprehensive and easy-to-use merchandising applications that allow you to manage all the processes in one system. When choosing a merchandising software solution for your company, pay attention to the following technologies:
  • SaaS (software-as-a-service) to avoid server and IT staff expenses
  • BYOD (bring-your-own-device) to reduce hardware and staff training costs
  • Offline capabilities to minimize data transfer costs
  • Cloud service to reduce data storage costs to zero

VisitBasis Merchandising Software

VisitBasis provides the most complete set of tools to automate your merchandising activities in one great package. With all the features and opportunities listed above, VisitBasis allows streamlining data collection and analysis providing the following additional advantages:
  • Visits and tasks can be scheduled by the office or on the mobile app.
  • Field reps or office managers can optimize customer routes.
  • Field reps have access to all data offline and can execute tasks without an Internet connection.
  • Unlimited photos can be collected and uploaded to the office.
  • Field reps can switch from one mobile device to another during the workday without losing any data.
  • The number of mobile devices per user is unlimited.
Sign up today at www.visitbasis.com to get your free trial, or schedule a free live demo to see how VisitBasis merchandising software works.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Implementing Sustainable Merchandising

In the factory-to-customer cycle, merchandising is one of the most wasteful processes. From the fuel consumed by field reps to the amount of paper used in traditional audits and surveys, on top of promotional and seasonal displays, it is easy to see why merchandising is considered “eco-unfriendly”. A field merchandising app can make a world of difference when it comes to sustainability. By adopting a field merchandising app, CPG and FMCG businesses can expect the following: Virtually eliminate the use of paper in in-store activities such as planogram checks, audits, surveys, and orders, among others. A state-of-the-art field merchandising app will also allow for instant access to the data collected, slashing the time and cost spent on data entry. Considerable savings in rep travel time and fuel thanks to the route optimization functions of field merchandising apps that automatically calculate the shortest store rounds. A cross-platform field merchandising app will all

Cloud for Retail Execution: Make Away with Data Storage Costs

Why Go Paperless? In order to store 2 million paper documents, an organization can expect to spend between $40,000 and $60,000 on filing cabinets alone. Those same files could fit on fewer than ten CD-ROMs (Business Guide to Paper Reduction) . If we assume that a filing cabinet uses from 6 to 20 square feet of space and the office space costs $23 per square foot , the space for a one filing cabinet will cost a company $1656– 5520 per year .   How to Go Paperless? When you choose paperless data collection your data storage costs can be significantly reduced or even brought to zero. Digital data collected using mobile forms require much less space than paper sheets and therefore cost less money. With the development of mobile technology you don’t need CDs or any other data carriers to store and access your data. More and more companies opt for Cloud storage. The price of Cloud storage starts at $0.01 GB per month and the average number of MS Word pages per GB is 64782.

Solving Information Loss in Merchandising Once and For All

Information loss used to be an inevitable consequence of retail merchandising. With many field reps performing a number of tasks on each one of the stores in their individual territories, it is easy to see how the amount of data collected on the field grows exponentially and is, therefore, increasingly difficult to handle and more subject to information loss. Mobile merchandising software  is the ideal solution to information loss in retail merchandising. When businesses implement a mobile merchandising software solution, they prevent information loss in the following stages of data processing: Data collection It is easy to see how information can get lost in traditional pen-and-paper merchandising. With mobile merchandising software, field reps perform tasks such as filling out forms and taking pictures in their mobile devices, leading to less misunderstanding and mix-ups. Data transcription With mobile merchandising software, there is no data transcription. The information goe