Perfect Store Retail Execution
Author – Siva Ulaganathan, SAP CX Expert, NTT DATA Business Solutions UK
With the evolution of the digital era, companies have access to more tools than ever to perform retail execution but common challenges still remain. Improper pre-visit planning, inaccurate data collection during visit and incorrect store assessments lead not only to missed opportunities but also a negative effect on recurring sales. SAP Sales Cloud Retail Execution provides a solution that brings together tools to define a process that can achieve a ‘Perfect Store Visit’.
Visit Planning
‘Routes’ enable planned visits that offer both a centralised planning approach and agile planning by the sales team to manage the visits themselves. Routes can be defined as templates if there is a regular schedule behind the visits or can be created ad-hoc. The system automatically proposes visits based on visit frequency and preferred visit days mentioned in the customer master data. Integration with Google Maps enables visit planning that takes into consideration the distance between stores and the travel time. With integration to Outlook, planners can check for any conflicts with the schedule in real-time.
Perfect Store Visit Execution
The store is visualised using a store layout which is defined in an ‘Engagement Map’ and ‘Points of Engagement’ represent the various consumer touch points within the store that require assessment.
Once the sales rep checks-in on a Perfect Store visit, the system guides them through the execution process and collects data accurately using surveys and questions defined at the ‘Points of Engagement’. Surveys, questions and tasks marked as mandatory should be completed before check-out to ensure consistent data collection.
KPI’s and Scoring
KPIs and their scores are defined at the store level using an Engagement Map. The application calculates the visit score based on the answers provided to the surveys and questionnaires on the fly. A comparison with the last visit score provides an indication of the trend and an immediate insight to action for the users.
Integration of planograms gives imaging intelligence capability that recommends corrective actions to be taken for the optimum display of products on the store shelves.
Insight to action
The data captured during perfect store visit can be used to define KPIs and board room level dashboards to give a real-time indication of the store performance across the business. Key indicators such as On-Shelf Availability, Promotion Compliance etc. are derived using real-time data captured during the visits. Analytics on score trends, top performing stores and team performance makes decision making more agile and value driven.
Conclusion
With SAP Perfect Store visits, Retail Execution is guided, efficient and smarter. Integration with Google Maps, Outlook and Planograms brings the tools together to define a more complete retail execution solution that provides analytics to drive strategic decision making.
Together with SAP S/4 HANA Retail, SAP Perfect store execution provides companies in the retail industry with an integrated solution that supports their digital transformation journey.
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