Short answer
How do I brief a field agency for merchandising Audits?
Merchandising Audits is a field service in which a trained team checking shelf placement, display arrangement, product visibility and promotional execution. You share the locations and instructions; the team completes the visits, the evidence is reviewed, and you receive one consolidated report.
At a glance
- What this covers
- What to send before the visits start
- Division
- Business field services · Retail Audits
- Checklist points
- 5 standard checks
- Report outputs
- 4 deliverables
- Coverage
- Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Panvel
- Read time
- 3 min
What you will learn
- Step-by-step briefing — 6 steps, in the order a field team works through them
- What to share before the visits — 4 points you can lift straight into your own brief
- What the field team checks — 5 points you can lift straight into your own brief
Step-by-step briefing
- Share the location list with full addresses
- Explain the purpose of the visit
- Attach the checklist and sample photos
- Confirm access permissions and contacts
- Agree on the report format and deadline
- Name an escalation contact
What to share before the visits
- Location list with addresses and contact names
- Checklist or instructions
- Required photographs and evidence
- Reporting deadline and format
What the field team checks
- Shelf share and facing count
- Planogram compliance
- Price tags and offer strips
- Out-of-stock on shelf
- Secondary displays
Where first briefs usually fall short
- Addresses without a pin code or a nearby landmark
- No contact name or number for access at the location
- Checklist points that need judgement instead of observation — secondary displays needs a stated rule
- No decision rule for closed or inaccessible premises
- Evidence expectations agreed only after the first batch is delivered
- No named person to approve revisits
What happens next
The team groups nearby locations into routes, briefs the field people, completes the visits, reviews each submission and delivers the report with completed visits, exceptions and the actions needed.
What you receive
- Store-wise merchandising score
- Shelf photographs
- Gap and out-of-stock list
- Trend summary across stores
Key takeaways
- A complete merchandising Audits brief is 4 items long, and sending all of them up front is what stops visits being repeated.
- The checklist runs from shelf share and facing count to secondary displays, with evidence recorded against the points that decide the outcome.
- You receive 4 outputs: Store-wise merchandising score, Shelf photographs, Gap and out-of-stock list, Trend summary across stores.
- Photographs are geo-tagged and time-stamped, every submission is reviewed by a supervisor and a random sample is back-checked — which is what makes a retail audits record worth quoting internally.
- Visits run across Mumbai City, the Western and Eastern Suburbs, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Panvel, and assignments typically start within one to three working days of a complete brief.
What to do next: send it and run a first batch
Once the 4 briefing items are in one place, the fastest route to clean data is a small first batch rather than the full list.
Pack
Put all 4 briefing items in one email
Location list with addresses and contact names, Checklist or instructions, Required photographs and evidence, Reporting deadline and format — sent together, so the assignment is not held up waiting for one attachment.
Pilot
Start with a small set of locations
Run a first batch, read store-wise merchandising score and correct the checklist wording before the rest of the list goes out.
Contacts
Name one escalation contact on each side
Access refusals and closed premises need a same-day decision; a weekly review turns one revisit into three.
Before you send it
Starting merchandising audits
Assignments typically start within one to three working days of a complete brief, depending on volume and spread.
Share a brief and location listFrequently asked questions
How do I brief a field agency for merchandising Audits?
Merchandising Audits is a field service in which a trained team checking shelf placement, display arrangement, product visibility and promotional execution. You share the locations and instructions; the team completes the visits, the evidence is reviewed, and you receive one consolidated report.
Which areas do you cover for merchandising Audits?
Mumbai City, the Western and Eastern Suburbs, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Panvel, with local field teams in each area.
How fast can merchandising Audits start?
Most assignments start within one to three working days of receiving a complete brief, depending on volume and spread.
What evidence will I receive?
Store-wise merchandising score and Shelf photographs, matched to a unique job and location ID.