Retail execution: definitions and keys to success

Like most manufacturers in a distribution network, you may sometimes wonder if your customers interact with your brand the way you would like them to.

‍Therefore, to try and favorably impact the buying experience and thus increase your sales, you need to define a set of recommendations to follow regarding the presentation and availability of your products in retail outlets.

This is where retail execution enters your strategic plans!

We will explore together what lies behind this very American expression, and what benefits your business can derive from it.

‍Let's go!

Retail execution: can you repeat the question?

Retail is full of terms invented by our cousins across the Atlantic. The one that interests us today is still rarely used in France, and yet so important!

‍Retail Execution (in-store execution) refers to all the activities deployed by a brand to ensure that its products are well positioned, correctly displayed, and properly managed in retail stores.

‍This includes several actions, such as:

1. Shelving: ensuring that products are visible, well-placed, and replenished on the shelves;

2. Merchandising: making sure that products comply with presentation standards (displays, promotions, POS materials, etc.);

3. Stock control: checking and managing store stocks to avoid stockouts;

4. Data collection: observing and recording data on competition, sales, and customer behavior;

5. Staff training: providing staff with product knowledge to improve in-store promotion.

Retail execution is a key activity to ensure good sales execution and maximize sales at the point of distribution. In French, we also hear the term exécution du commerce de détail.

These strategies are adopted by manufacturers, the sales agencies they commission to execute their strategy, but also by the retailers themselves. Each player in the chain thus ensures that their own points of vigilance are respected, and it is not uncommon for their respective interests to give rise to conflicts, as not everyone can get what they want! For instance, competing brands may eye the same facings, end caps, POS spaces, and other strategic advantages at the point of sale.

Finally, brands' sales execution strategies do not always align with those of the retailers themselves. In the supermarket world, manufacturers thus try to implement trade marketing strategies, aiming to favor synergies with their distributors rather than confrontations.

‍Let's just remember that all players in the distribution chain want to increase their results and profits by mastering the standards and processes that foster sales performance.

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Impact of In-Store Execution

Whether we are talking about retail chains or the brands that sell their products there, the in-store execution strategy (or point of sale strategy) therefore groups together all the guidelines and standards that define how the customer will interact with the product—meaning their buying experience.

It is therefore a matter of companies defining standards, and these must be applied across all relevant points of sale.

‍Good execution at the point of sale considerably impacts product performance, not only because the guidelines help increase its prominence and availability, but also because standardizing merchandising fosters the emergence of a specific brand image and customer experience.

‍Retail execution therefore incorporates all of these guidelines, but also the tools (e.g., CRM performance in supermarkets), promotional actions, or best practices that foster the creation of a consistent and unified buying experience, regardless of which store the shopper visits.

‍Thus, the benefits of a good retail execution strategy are numerous: 

• Increased sales; 

• Creation of a consistent customer experience;

• Consolidation of brand image;

• Standardization and optimization of field actions for the employees involved (warehouse workers, area managers, department sales staff, etc.);

• Effectiveness of trade marketing (collaboration with distributors);

• Facilitation of reporting thanks to the definition of clear measurement indicators, etc.

For staff responsible for deploying and verifying retail execution, guidelines make it clear what to do and what to evaluate. For example, an area manager in mass retail can optimize their time during a field visit by quickly checking the ten control points listed in their retail execution guide.

‍Also, to speed up the flow of information back to headquarters, dedicated software solutions have emerged.

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Execution Solutions for Retail

Designing and deploying an execution strategy in your points of sale is not enough. Distributors rarely follow your recommendations to the letter, forcing you to monitor shelves and planograms during field visits.

‍A retail execution application then makes it easier and faster to collect and report information directly from points of sale. Designed with user-friendliness that allows area managers or agencies in charge of shelf audits to enter crucial data at lightning speed, these solutions streamline the reporting of strategic elements of your retail execution: 

• Merchandising audits;

• Tracking and share of shelf;

• Planogram compliance monitoring;

• Numeric distribution rate;

• Competitor tracking;

• Price tracking, etc.

Thus, when you equip your sales forces with an application designed to facilitate and accelerate retail execution monitoring, you allow them to allocate more time to selling and negotiating.

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An Execution Strategy Tailored to Your Industry

In order to reach the optimal level of performance, it is important to design a sales execution strategy at the point of sale tailored to your industry.‍

For example, a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand will send its area managers to supermarkets to check the number of facings, share of shelf, planogram compliance, placement of point-of-sale materials (POSM), or on-shelf availability. It is also necessary to facilitate reordering and minimize the risks of stockouts as much as possible.

‍The Horeca (hotel, restaurant, cafe) sector is not left behind, especially regarding POS display placement, which is highly strategic for getting the product tested and consumed. Most beverage brands, for instance, try to place their POS displays near the bar or cash register. Retail execution can also plan meeting flows related to the customer lifecycle, for example, by ensuring that the sales rep leaves the meeting with all useful qualification details (new beer taps installed, changes in the target clientele, expansion of the consumption area, etc.).

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Retail Efficiency: The Keys to Success

But respecting the standards set in the retail execution strategy is not enough to guarantee its success. Ideally, this success must also be achieved at a lower cost; indeed, to onboard the teams responsible for enforcing the guidelines, they must be able to adopt them easily, and the tasks must be quick and easy to complete.

‍For example, an area manager in mass retail is not supposed to spend all their time doing shelf audits, especially if it prevents them from talking with their stakeholders, the department manager, or the store director. Retail execution must therefore combine compliance with guidelines and operational efficiency. In the end, it serves sales performance from every angle.

‍Another aspect to take into account is the diversity of distribution networks, which can complicate the harmonization of retail execution practices. For example, if you distribute your products through independent distributors, you will have to redouble your efforts to unify sales execution in all points of sale. Hence the need to provide your area managers with clear recommendations on what they must check during their visits and which performance indicators to record.

‍Conversely, remember to encourage feedback from field teams: your retail execution must evolve to adapt to a changing economic context, especially in the face of aggressive and inventive competition!

‍Finally, it is important to support sales reps when standards are not met. A missing POS display, non-compliant number of facings, a product on the wrong shelf... With every deficiency, headquarters or the brand does what is necessary to correct the situation as quickly as possible, and regional managers back up their sales reps.

Retail execution must be carried out with the conviction of serving the overall performance of the company. Do not skimp on training, motivation, and education!