What KPIs can you track through promotion monitoring?
When there’s so many different retail KPIs out there, achieving the Perfect Store isn’t easy. The points of interest that you look for can vary from product to sector to time of year. Without the right tracking techniques on your side, promotion monitoring can be overwhelming.
In brief, the different KPIs that promotion monitoring can track are:
- Promotional compliance
- Out of stock
- Price
- Presence
- Visibility
- Competitor data
- Share of promo
- Brand/product presentation and recommendation
And the list goes on.
Ultimately, this wide variety of KPIs is a good thing. The more data you have on your in-store performance, the better you can craft your sales strategy. On top of that, when the data is accurate, you can get a much clearer picture of the ROI that promotion monitoring generates.
>> Read more about which of these KPIs we found to be most important during the holidays
What promotion monitoring tools are out there?
With all of these KPIs in mind, how do you actually track them?
As CPGs call out for a simple way to monitor their promotions, the market has responded in turn with an ever-growing number of solutions. Regardless of the industry you’re in, the size and location of your team, or the budget that you have, there’s a promotion monitoring tool out there for you.
Best of all, if your first dip into this world provides a high ROI, you may have all the evidence you need to change that last sticking point.
Let’s break it down:
- Shelf Pictures (Captured by Field Reps using a Mobile App) + Image Recognition
Arming field reps with an image recognition tool allows them to measure numerous KPIs in a single visit. Crucially, this method means that you can see, understand and fix any issues before the point of sale.
- Manual Entry (by Field Reps) into a Traditional SFA / Auditing Tool
Field reps manually check KPIs and record their findings in their own words. Again, this takes place before the sale.
- Crowdsourcing + Image Recognition
Members of the crowd from all around the country, continent or world use an image recognition tool (as described above) to check and log your promotional KPIs.
- “Basic” Crowdsourcing (without Image Recognition)
Members of the crowd check for your promotional KPIs and log their findings manually.
None of these methods are perfect, but some do outweigh others when you consider the speed, accuracy and granularity of data they provide. For example, CPGs using field reps will always get a clearer picture of their KPIs – both figuratively and literally – when an image recognition tool is used.
Mix & Match
As promotions don’t last forever and provide just a short window of time to make an impact, the most successful strategy towards promotion monitoring often involves the use of multiple methods.
If a CPG uses field agents to monitor their overall retail execution KPIs year-round, adding crowd sourcers during times of peak promotion can provide an incredible insight into consumer behaviour. Equipping both groups with the same monitoring tool makes this an even stronger approach, as any comparison between the data will be clear and reliable.
This same way of thinking also works for CPGs who want to hit several different channels. As members of the crowd are less qualified, they can be sent out to quickly check on the low-hanging fruit, which leaves your field reps free to focus on the more complicated audits.
Who’s doing the tracking?
As you can see, promotion monitoring generally falls into two categories: manual and assisted. But regardless of what they use, there’s also the question of who is actually carrying out the audits.
In 2018, we asked CPGs exactly that:
The vast majority of CPGs told us that they use their internal field force to monitor promotions. This isn’t too surprising, as companies will always trust their own people to provide the most reliable results – and with data such as this, reliability is key.
Most other options – field agencies, merchandisers etc. – had a fairly even split, but interestingly, only 2% of the CPGs we surveyed used a crowdsourcing solution. With the power of the crowd severely underutilised, this leaves room for you to take advantage and make a move where others are not.
The alarming stat here (but good news for you) is that almost 20% of CPGs don’t check for promotional compliance. This means that no matter what method you use and who you get to do it, by introducing promotion monitoring into your strategy, you’ll have a leg-up on one fifth of the market.
It doesn’t have to be so complicated
Promotion monitoring is a simple concept, but with so many options out there, it may seem like too much hassle. How can you know which is the best fit for you when trying out just one method takes so much time and effort?
Luckily, solutions that cover everything you need in one platform are now becoming more and more popular. With clear, defined KPIs, user friendly interfaces and room for growth, tools such as BeMyEye exist to make your perfect promotion a reality. In a market where efficiency and accuracy is key, these all-in-one solutions take away to hassle and focus on what matters most.
By using an all-in-one tool, you have the freedom to test what works for you and turn boosting your sales into a science.
If you’d like to learn more about Promotion Monitoring, you can find everything you need to know and more in our latest whitepaper “Promotion Monitoring: what you’ve always been missing”.
