COMPETITIVE SHOPPING: Definition and Execution

COMPETITIVE SHOPPING: What It Is and It’s Importance

DEFINITION OF COMPETITIVE SHOPPING

Like the saying goes, ‘no man is an island’, so it is for Retail Management and Visual Merchandising. Whether you work in a Mall store or a Street store, you need to do competitive shopping to see marketing, merchandising and store layouts your direct and indirect competitors are doing. It’s always in your best interest to know whatever you can about stores in your vicinity as it’s a mean to an end to assist you and your retail store in making targets and budgets.

So now that we know what Competitive Shopping is, let’s look at how it’s done.

HOW TO EXECUTE COMPETITIVE SHOPPING

Firstly in any business, we have competition. Our very civilisation is built on competition. So in order to stay ahead of our competition, we need to know how they run things. Whether you sell furniture, jewellery or clothing, the premise is the same. Take a notepad if you need to and perhaps a cellphone to take any picture if possible. These will help for reference.

Walk to your competitors shop. The first thing you’re going to see is their windows.

·         See how they’ve Merchandised their product.  

·         Look at any Marketing collateral and take note of how it’s used.

·         Observe the Equipment.

Once we’ve had a look at the competitors windows, we should then proceed to the inside of the store. The inside of the store should be viewed in the same way we looked at the windows but on a larger scale.

As a Visual Merchandiser, you need to look at the following:

·         Look at Store and Department Layouts

·         Marketing Collatoral and it’s usage ( e.g. A1 or A5 signage etc )

·         Visual Merchandising equipment and usage ( i.e. mannequins, busts, signage holders etc )

·         Merchandising standards – look at how product are folded, displayed

As a Retail Manager, look at the following:

·         Be aware of everything listed above for Visual Merchandiser above.

·         Staff Compliment – Permanent and Temporary / Casual staff numbers

·         Management visibility

·         Customer traffic

Remember your options are not limited to what’s written here. You may look at more things which are applicable and / or necessary.  As a Store / Retail Manager, I recommend you instruct your entire management team to conduct these competitive shopping walks and request feedback.

FREQUENCY OF COMPETITIVE SHOPPING

This is extremely time dependant so the frequency can be determined by the individuals and their circumstance. I would however recommend that you look at doing it either fortnightly or monthly and to remember the integral part it plays in the retail game.