What should go on a retail audit checklist? Whether you are a retailer starting their retail audit program from scratch. Or a retailer with an existing program, looking to curate or improve their current checklist or automate the process. This presentation will describe how to build a retail audit checklist. Retail audit software helps retailers, restaurants (QSR) and consumer packages goods companies (CPG) audit stores for operations, merchandising, loss-prevention and health and safety, with an app running on a smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Retail audit software gives brands real time visibility into stores so they can react to issues faster. For a video overview of retail audit software and more details about retail audit best practices, see: http://compliantia.com/products/retail-audit/?autoplay

1. How to Build a Retail Audit
Checklist

2. Think about the checklist’s “metadata”
• Metadata is data about data, that is to say, information about the
store visit. Customers who use Excel-based forms typically expect
user-entered fields such as store number, completed by, date, etc…
Metadata is largely automated with retail audit software. The user
information is derived from the login, the store pick-list is built
specifically for each user according to the security settings and the
user’s current location and the date is selected using a popup
calendar.

3. Group items into sections, sort sections according
to the visit’s “natural flow”
• Whenever possible, sections should be laid out to match the natural
flow of a visit (a district manager physically walking the store). Start
with the exterior (the parking lot if applicable, the window in a mall
location) and work your way in, around the aisles and into the back of
the store. While you can jump around between sections during or
after the visit, setting up the form according to the natural flow of a
visit saves time and is more intuitive.

4. Think about “non applicable” items and sections
• Certain sections or items may not be applicable to all locations. For
example the “Washrooms” section is probably not applicable to a
store located in a shopping center. Likewise, the “Drive-thru” section
won’t be applicable to a restaurant that does not have one. Retail
audit software allows you to disable entire sections and items at
certain stores according to the store type. Doing this saves time and
again, is more intuitive.

5. Make sure your audit form has adequate coverage
• While individual situations vary, you should address some or all of the following areas, each represented as a
section:
• Store exterior
• Presentation and Merchandising (view sample merchandising checklist)
• Products and Preparation
• Staff and Speed of Service
• Personnel and Training
• Equipment (view sample commercial kitchen equipment checklist)
• Security, Cash Handling and Loss Prevention (view sample loss prevention checklist)
• Drive-thru (view sample drive-thru checklist)
• Promotions (view sample merchandising checklist)
• Back of the Store and Inventory
• Washrooms (view sample washroom checklist)
• Safety (view sample fire protection checklist)

6. Avoid large sections
• Instead of creating a small number of large sections, consider creating
a larger number of small sections. This helps with data-entry on
smart phones and also renders the reporting more granular and
meaningful.

7. Assign points to items according to their relative
importance
• Assign points according to the relative importance of each criterion.
While it is easy to think of everything as important (and if a criterion
is not important, it should not be on the form), some items are often
more important than others, even critical to the continued success of
the business. Health and safety issues come to mind.
• Assign points and make use of the “Critical” flag accordingly. A critical
item sets the value of the entire section to zero, regardless of other
items, if found non-compliant during the visit. Don’t worry about
keeping track of the total score. Retail audit software automatically
calculates the visit score and a score by section for you as the visit
takes place.

8. Be specific, descriptive and visual
• Standards should be clear and unequivocal. Don’t use vague words
like “recent” or “good”. For example instead of saying, “Recent staff
meeting held”, consider using, “Staff meeting held less than 5
calendar days ago”. If referring to temperatures or lapsed times, give
actual numbers. Clearly spell out what the standard is. If it takes one
paragraph to define the standard, use one paragraph. If you have one,
attach a best practice photo to an item to illustrate the standard; a
picture is often worth 1,000 words and more likely to make an
impression than words alone. Some retail audit software allows you
to attach “best practice” pictures and supporting documents to any
form item and section.

9. Think about visit frequency
• The frequency of district manager visits (at least visits involving the retail
audit checklist) seems to vary greatly from one organization to the next. On
one end of the spectrum, some organizations (including some big names in
the food service business) tend to conduct as many as one visit every other
week. Other organizations may only conduct one visit per quarter. Some
organizations use a hybrid model. They use a standard form to capture
their core standards (say twice a year) and create a number of smaller
forms for visits throughout the year, sometime tying these visits to
seasonal programs. Retail audit software allows an organization to create
any number of forms, each with its own start and end date. Retail audit
software also supports self-audits which can be used as a stop-gap
measure until a district manager visit can be performed.

10. Discuss the form/checklist with your Operations
team
• Discuss the form with your district managers, franchisees and
managers. Solicit their input and feedback. We call this phase
“calibration“. A retail checklist is as much an audit tool, as it is a
training vehicle. Define the standard, communicate and measure it.
You will meet the standard and achieve your goals.

11. Decide whether you want to build your own audit
software from scratch or buy a ready-made
package
• The factors that need to drive your decision are your costs, your
return on investment, your time-to-market and the value and benefits
that you will derive from the software you chose. Read more on buy
vs build: Retail Audit Software: Buy vs Build