Customer satisfaction is one the key factors that contribute to the success of a business in the retail sector. The competition is so intense that the retail industry, being a major economic force in the United States, generated an estimated $5.5 trillion in annual sales last year.
So to stay ahead of the competition, it is high time that businesses invest in revolutionizing the customer journey across all touchpoints.
To do so, let's get our facts in order: any smart retailer knows that it is much more lucrative to get repeat business from a current customer, rather than spending extensive resources to acquire a new one. Therefore the retail execution strategy should be designed as such that it caters both, yet focuses on the more profitable part in the long-term.
The importance of customer experience is underscored by compelling statistics. For instance, the 11th annual Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Survey revealed that poor service could cost US businesses an estimated $1.6 trillion in lost customers.
Through robust technology solutions implementation, such as mobile retail execution systems to support your staff and your frontline workers, businesses can counter the effects of increased pressure to boost efficiency and sales amid the rise of omni-commerce.
Mobile Retail Execution Software empowers teams by consolidating various productivity tools into a single, preferably mobile-first interface. This enhances collaboration and execution efficiency.
Moreover, these platforms equip leadership teams with the necessary knowledge and tools to streamline tasks, monitor progress, and optimize processes to improve on-shelf availability, operational costs, employee satisfaction, and overall productivity.
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Available for up to 5 users
Premium for $99/month for the first 20 users (with free trial period)
Available on iOS, Android and Web
What is Mobile Retail Execution?
To put it simply, the term "mobile retail execution" refers to streamlining the operations of field sales and marketing staff as well as how they perform various in-store tasks using mobile devices.
Examples of these processes include customer relationship management (CRM), pricing and promotion administration, order taking, inventory management, and merchandising.
Thanks to mobile solutions, retail teams can communicate and collaborate with headquarters, while providing exceptional customer services on the go, all while giving quick access to vital data and tools.
Benefits of Mobile Retail Execution Software
Despite the increased focus on digital transformation among brands and retailers in the past year, a staggering 72.5% of companies acknowledge lacking or having underdeveloped capabilities to support end-to-end processes.
Mobile retail execution offers several benefits to retailers and CPG / FMCC manufacturers, including:
- Improved Efficiency: Automate time-consuming retail manager tasks such as Inventory management, order taking, and competition/pricing audits and simplify your retail operations altogether.
Put an end to piles of paperwork and pencil whipping, and equip your sales reps with software that can digitally take orders, and update inventory levels, pricing, and promotions while working the field
- Real-time Data Insights: Imagine shaping your retail execution tactics on data-driven decisions based on real-time data, analytics, and reporting instantly.
Not only does mobile retail execution software equip managers to gain a better understanding of consumer tastes, monitor sales figures, and identify opportunities, but also keeps up with any problems that may occur while doing so.
- More Sales: Increasing your product visibility equals more sales. While this is not an all-inclusive equation, when combined with a great strategy it can definitely get you results.
Ever wondered, why the top shelves and front shelves of a supermarket are costlier than the ones at the back?
Well, Successful stores don’t just conjure up new products, they strategize on how to sell them too.
Products with the highest markup for retailers and well-known brands are typically displayed at eye level with shoppers because of the positive correlation between visibility and sales. On the other hand, products with lower sales figures are relegated to lower shelves.
- Stock Availability: Use mobile retail execution software to get quick updates on stock availability.
A customer would quickly waltz out of your store upon not finding the item they want, not giving you enough time to check the back in case you might have one lying around.
Ensuring the availability allows customers to thoroughly examine products in-store, significantly increasing the likelihood of making a purchase.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Mobile retail execution empowers retailers to improve customer service by providing quick and personalized responses to customers and vendors.
- Flexibility and Mobility: With mobile retail execution, retailers can access data and complete activities from any location at any time, and management can use GPS fencing tools to verify that the retail manager's tasks were carried out at the correct location.
As a result, this improves efficiency and effectiveness since representatives can attend to more customers' requirements, visit more shops in a day, and operate more effectively while on the go.
General Retail Store App Features
Planogram Check
Users can capture images of product displays and import them straight into the software for inspection using the planogram check feature.
The said mobile retail execution software then detects any differences or conflicts by comparing these pictures to the expected planogram layout. This lets stores see when things are misplaced, missing, or otherwise not in the right spot, so they can fix it right away.
Inventory Control
Item Manager is an essential component of any excellent retail execution platform, particularly for teams that handle a large number of SKUs. Based on the current number and status, it provides a comprehensive picture of all products in real-time.
Ideally, it notifies the right frontline workers automatically whenever a stock is about to run out.
Maintaining a fully stocked inventory is crucial to meeting rising demand and customer expectations. However, it's important not to overstock, as excess products may spoil and incur costs. Identify popular items and current trends, then ensure adequate stock levels to meet customer demand.
Proof-of-Performance
When used alongside mobile tasking, Proof of Performance becomes an essential tool for team leaders seeking a streamlined method of checking workers' accuracy and punctuality.
The best mobile platform for retail execution allows for easy capture and uploading of photos. An additional perk is photo-recognition technology, which automates much of the administrative review process for office employees who have to go through each submitted photo.
With proof-of-performance in mind, geo-location tracking becomes a useful tool for support teams. A time-saving feature of the retail store app is that it records the movement of field representatives in the background, rather than requiring them to manually record their time to, from, and between shops.
Training
By taking the time to educate the business manager and product promoters about your offerings, including product benefits, drawbacks, and unique selling points, they will be better equipped to sell the products in the store.
Consequently, these shops are more likely to promote your goods to customers.
Tasking
Mobile task management is an essential component of any retail execution platform; what distinguishes a good tasking solution from an excellent one is the depth and breadth of its capability.
Team leaders can organize and delegate work to their employees from any device, at any time. This is often achieved using a mix of automatic task creation for repeating projects and human task creation for one-off initiatives.
With a well-designed tasking module, these frontline workers won't have to seek clarification or more information to find, evaluate, and complete their duties. The ability to escalate or reroute jobs is a bonus, but robust task-teaching skills are essential.
Extensive Retail Audits
Auditing is an essential step to make sure your mobile retail execution activities are in line with your current plan. You can re-strategize in time since audits help you find and repair unavoidable problems.
Restoring order to your in-store operations is now possible. Visual marketing initiatives, such as signage and planogram, quality, study of rival products, etc., are all part of an audit.
Checklists & Surveys
Users have the ability to create personalized checklists for various employee and retail manager tasks and activities using this functionality.
These checklists can encompass a range of items such as product placement, pricing, promotional displays, and adherence to various merchandising guidelines.
Real-Time Analytics & Reporting
To stay ahead of the competition and make informed decisions, executives must have the ability to gather real-time data.
Analytics play a crucial role in effective mobile retail execution software, providing valuable insights into consumer behavior, sales performance, inventory levels, and other key performance indicators (KPIs) essential for the success of a retail operation.
In a way, at a broader level, you can say that by analyzing real-time data, retailers can enhance consumer engagement, identify improvement opportunities, make better decisions, and respond more quickly to changing market conditions.
Best Practices for Implementing Mobile Retail Execution
Based on the latest research findings, the global Retail Execution Software market was valued at USD 245.33 million in 2022. Forecasts suggest a steady expansion with a projected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.78% during the forecast period, leading to an estimated market size of USD 363.56 million by 2028.
The success of implementing mobile retail execution software depends on meticulous planning and execution.
If you own a shop, you should follow these guidelines for mobile retail execution:
- Define Clear Objectives: Establish well-defined objectives and targets that are in line with your retail business plan before introducing mobile retail execution. Pinpoint the precise retail processes and activities that you would like to allow your field staff to carry out using mobile devices. The success of mobile retail execution can be measured by clearly defining the outcomes and success indicators.
- Choose the Right Application: Pick out the apps and tools that will help your retail company run smoothly, and make sure they're compatible with both Apple and Android. Because many stores have spotty mobile phone service, it's important to think about additional aspects including usability, scalability, security, interaction with current systems, and the capacity to work offline.
- Provide Adequate Training and Support: Train your field members/staff members well on the usage of mobile applications for retail., and choose a retail store app that is simple to use even for temporary or seasonal workers. Extensive, free training is available for several apps via YouTube videos.
The Future of Mobile Retail Execution with Xenia
Xenia offers a “mobile first” retail execution platform that guides the field sales teams through their day, automates administration tasks, incentivises their activities and provides the data and insights they need to win.
No more reliance on erratic paper processes and informal phone calls; our guiding philosophy is to empower our customers to do more with less.
On top of that, here's another important question: are you dealing with work orders, maintenance requests, and inspections?
Xenia can simplify and streamline all of your retail operations. With user-friendly workflows, adaptable forms, and digital checklists, the platform makes it easy for merchandisers to get their work done fast.
From checklists and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to preventive maintenance and collaborative chats, the tool acts as an end to endretail execution solution to keep your team on track. Plus, it keeps your equipment running in optimal condition to minimize any downtime.
Managers can oversee all facets of their retail operations using one unified platform, eliminating the necessity for multiple software applications. This ensures smooth integration and data exchange with ERP, CRM, and data visualization systems.
Plus, with our intuitive analytics and reporting features, you'll have insights at your fingertips to optimize store performance and boost sales.
Unify Team Operations, Maintenance and Safety Compliance with Xenia
Xenia unifies daily operations, maintenance management and quality assurance to help ensure teams and facilities are effective and efficient.
Our customers love Xenia's robust use cases including:
Operational Execution
✔️ Checklists & SOPs
Create checklists, SOPs, Inspections and Data Logs to power accountability, training and staff clarity on every task.
💪 Team Task Management
Assign work digitally to defeat pencil whipping and disorganized teams. Complete tasks, chat with teams on any device, track time, collect photos, and ensure high quality work.
📆 Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for daily opening and closings, performance review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
📲 Chats & Announcements
Centralize team communications with in task chats, one-on-one chats, team messages and company wide announcements
📊 Team Performance Reporting
Use Xenia's analytics dashboards to view staff work reports. Filter by asset, location, category or due date and export the report in PDF or Excel
Maintenance Management
🛠️ Work Orders
Create work orders with associated team, asset, location, priority, category and due date. View live progress reports on each work order, chat with teams, and review resulting template submission, images and notes to improve operations.
🧰 Preventive Maintenance
Create a preventive maintenance calendar to ensure asset uptime is not compromised. Attach images, templates, videos and notes to every task and assign to a team or individual for completion.
📲 QR Codes
Generate and attach QR codes to equipment and facility locations to enable fast and accurate inspections and data logs.
⚙️ Work Order Requests
Receive, approve and assign work order requests from tenants, regular customers and vendors. Enable requesters to submit, track, and communicate with your team, without access to operations templates or unrelated work orders.
📁 Equipment Work History
View work history for every asset and sub asset in Xenia. Review performance data and enable corrective actions to improve your operation.
Safety Compliance & Quality Assurance
👍 Concrete Brand Standards
Put your brand standards in a clear and operational checklist to be attached to work assignments.
🔎 Smart Inspection Workflows
Xenia's operations template builder has built in conditional logic into each step. This allows you to trigger actions based on a form response such as creating a corrective action on a failed inspection step, sending a notification to management for out of range meter readings, and much more.
✨ Corrective Actions
Operationalize inspections with fast work order assignment arising from a failed inspection step. All corrective data is stored in the checklist submission for auditing and accountability.
📋 Analytics and Reports
View live dashboard summaries of tasks, employee performance, template submissions and more. Filter, organize and export compliance reports to PDF and Excel formats to simplify compliance management.
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