Driving Compliance in Retail: How to Keep Stores Aligned with HQ Directives
A common challenge for large retailers is ensuring that all stores are compliant when there’s a reset or new promotion.
Retailers want each store to set up displays properly and timely because they align with retail strategies and company goals.
However, with dozens – or even hundreds – of stores to communicate with, it’s difficult to ensure compliance is met in every single store.
That’s where visual merchandising software provides a long-term solution.
It increases efficiency in store execution and offers compliance-specific features to gain clearer visibility into each store without wasting time on in-store audits.
How can visual merchandising software improve compliance percentages?
Visual merchandising software, like One Door, offers compliance features, like real-time communication with stores, AI-assisted compliance, and task tracking – all in a single platform.
One Door bridges the divide between store teams and HQ. The platform empowers store teams with easy-to-use planograms and makes marking compliance easier than ever for HQ.
Real-time Feedback for Retail Compliance
Real-time feedback from store associates is crucial to improving compliance across all retail stores. It provides immediate insight into how well merchandising plans are being executed on the ground.
Using One Door, HQ can send digital questionnaires and surveys to store teams to gain insight and visibility into the store execution process. Directives can ask questions, like:
- How easy was the setup/reset process?
- Were there any issues, like missing or damaged promotional materials?
- Did the reset improve the overall customer experience?
Store Completion Data
With visual merchandising software, retailers can finally see how engaged store teams are, as associates log completion as part of the native reset workflow.
HQ can view this store completion data and measure team performance using task management and platform activity markers.
HQ can assign digital worklists, and associates must log in and check off their tasks.
Directives can identify when store teams have not logged in and/or engaged with direct communications, such as:
- Planogram updates
- Surveys and questionnaires
- Compliance photo requests
- Announcements
- And more
Using this completion data, HQ gains peace of mind knowing how – and if – stores are performing the requested changes. It also holds store teams accountable for submitting completed planograms for compliance checks.
AI-assisted Compliance for Retailers
HQ no longer has to ask, “Is the display reset according to the provided planogram?”
Image IQ makes in-store compliance more efficient than ever before.
Image IQ is an AI compliance tool by One Door. It uses computer vision and AI to match images for printed materials.
To speed up the compliance approval process, this AI compliance feature can auto-revoke compliance based on images that show incorrect display changes, according to the base image.
Image IQ also provides trustworthy compliance data, like issue counts and types; compliance percentage; and store engagement.
These compliance analytics enable visual merchandising teams at HQ to make informed decisions that maximize sales impact.
Visual merchandising teams can even add photo guidance to Image IQ. For example: “Take a close-up of Side 1. Take another of Side 2.”
This ensures store teams submit the proper images on Day 1, streamlining the compliance process from the start.
Store Board & Store Gallery
These One Door-specific features work in tandem to help regional managers and directors view current (and pending) campaigns and compliance percentages.
With these helpful features, headquarters can save time and money by marking compliance remotely instead of relying on expensive in-store audits.
Store Board and Store Gallery allow HQ users to sort by location or planogram updates and:
- Add due dates for compliance photos to ensure store teams set up displays on time
- View and resolve visual merchandising issues (missing merchandise, damaged items, etc)
- Respond quickly to change requests and re-orders
- Revoke compliance photos if a display is set up incorrectly – or set up Image IQ to do it
- Filter AI-analyzed and non-AI-analyzed compliance photos from Image IQ for streamlined approval
- Measure team performance and track associates’ logins into the visual merchandising platform to ensure store teams are actively involved in the execution process
Comments
Comments contain store execution information and reference materials, including images, instructions, and links to external resources.
By attaching helpful documents directly in the platform, HQ ensures store associates can view all the necessary information (plus their visual, interactive planogram) in one place.
A singular visual merchandising platform prioritizes clear communication between stores and HQ and ensures that everyone is working with the same information.
One Door also auto-shares any last-minute updates with affected stores to safeguard compliance percentages and minimize the excuse, “I didn’t receive these planogram changes in time.”
Store teams no longer have to click in and out of multiple tools and risk losing their spot, just to start over and repeat unnecessary work – wasting valuable time and labor.
If you’re a large retailer interested in improving compliance in your stores with these industry-leading features, contact One Door for a demo.