A retail audit checklist is the list a brand’s rep or promodiser marks, pass or fail, at every store the brand does not own. Below are seven checks for any outlet, whether it is a Cebu supermarket, a Quezon City chain pharmacy or a sari-sari store on a provincial route.
Together the checks answer one question: is your product on the shelf, in good condition, at the right price, with the promo and the point-of-sale material (POSM) in place? Your distributor’s sell-in report only shows what left the warehouse, and often the first sign of a gap is a Viber photo from a rep, days late.
A retail chain’s internal audit of its own branches for cash, shrinkage and safety is a different job, and so is a research firm’s store sample for market share; each has its own checklist.
The retail audit checklist: seven checks per outlet
Audit only what the store agreed to and what your team can act on.
| Check | What the rep looks at | Mark it fail if |
|---|---|---|
| Must-stock SKUs | Every SKU on this outlet’s must-stock list, placed where a shopper can reach it | One must-stock SKU is not on the shelf, even if cartons are sitting in the bodega |
| Planogram and facings | Where each SKU sits against the agreed layout: which shelf, what order, what height, how many facings | A SKU is on the wrong shelf, your brand block is broken up, or the facings count is short |
| Price tags | The shelf price tag under every SKU | The tag is missing, or the price is neither the agreed price nor the promo price |
| Promo | The deal the store agreed to, live from its start date | The promo price tag, bundle or display is not up |
| POSM | Posters, shelf strips, buntings, display stands and coolers you paid for | A piece is missing, torn, covered up or holding another brand’s stock |
| Stock on hand | Units on the shelf plus units in the bodega | Stock is below the floor you set for this outlet type |
| Pack condition | Dents, broken seals and expiry dates | A pack is damaged, or its date breaks your own rule for what may stay on the shelf |
Three steps frame the checks. Nobody scores them, but without them the audit is hard to believe:
- Log your arrival. Record the time and place as you walk in, so your supervisor knows the visit happened at this outlet.
- Shoot the shelf first. Take one clear photo of the whole shelf before you touch anything, so the record matches what a shopper saw.
- Close the visit. Note your fixes, snap an after photo, and name an owner for every fail still open.
If another brand launched a SKU, put up a display or cut its price on the same shelf, photograph it for your trade marketing team. Don’t score it: no rep can undo another brand’s move.
Scoring so two reps mark the same shelf the same way
A score only helps if two reps at one shelf would record the same result.
- Use yes or no, not a rating. A rating like “display looks okay, 4 out of 5” changes from rep to rep. “Is every must-stock SKU there? Yes or no” reads the same to everyone.
- Compare against the right standard. A sari-sari store and a supermarket should not share one planogram. Set a must-stock list and layout per outlet type, class or area, and attach a photo of how that shelf should look.
- Store the photo beside the score. It carries the outlet, time and place, so a supervisor or the store owner can check the result later.
To score an outlet, divide the checks it passed by the checks that apply to it. Track it per outlet from visit to visit. If a missing must-stock SKU matters more to you than a dented box, weight the checks. The perfect store guide shows how.
How often to audit each type of outlet
Audit as often as a store can leak sales before your next visit. Reps who return every cycle catch the slow leaks: facings drift to another brand, last month’s price tag stays up, a shelf strip ends up behind cartons. So ride on the visit cycle your visit plan already has:
- Modern trade, every visit. Supermarkets, chain pharmacies and convenience stores get all seven checks.
- Sari-sari stores, every visit, short form: must-stock SKUs, price tags and promo.
Add a full audit at two moments: in the first days of a promo, while a missing display can still be put right, and on the first visits after a launch, to see whether the new SKU reached the shelf.
What happens to a failed check
Sort every fail by who can fix it while the rep is still in the store. In BeatRoute, each gap becomes a ticket with a named owner, so no fix waits for someone to read a report.
- The rep fixes it on the spot. Pull stock forward, carry cartons out of the bodega, hang the shelf strip, or get the owner to fix a wrong price tag. Snap the after photo.
- The distributor fixes it with stock. Book the order now, or send a restock task to the distributor or the van sales route.
- Someone above the rep has to approve. The owner refuses the display, or the price is set at a chain’s head office. Escalate it, photo attached, to the key account manager or supervisor.
Then watch one number: the share of fails closed by the next visit. If that share is low, more audits change nothing; repair the follow-up first. A regional manager’s audit report needs three things per outlet: the score, the open fails with their photos and owners, and that close rate.
A leading paints brand in the Philippines sells through hardware stores, retail chains and paint centres. It runs visual merchandising forms on BeatRoute next to its field sales app, and its sales productivity rose 30% on BeatRoute, as the leading paints brand case study shows.
Running your audit checklist on BeatRoute
With BeatRoute’s retail audit software, reps open your checklist on their phone during the visit, and every photo is stamped with outlet, campaign, time and location. When an outlet drops below target, its supervisor gets an alert. On provincial routes with weak signal, the audit still runs and syncs once the phone is back online.
The VM Audit AI Agent is in field runs with customers. It grades a shelf photo against your benchmark on share of shelf, planogram compliance, POSM, SKU visibility and competitor activity. By BeatRoute’s measure, shelf audits with the agent cost 80% less than manual audits.
BeatRoute suits brands whose reps, merchandisers or promoters check stores the brand does not own; a retailer auditing its own stores for safety and operations needs a store operations tool instead. To see it run on your own checklist and outlet types, request a demo.
Frequently asked questions
Can we run the retail audit checklist in Excel first?
Yes, for a pilot in a handful of stores. Give each visit a row with these columns: outlet, outlet type, date and time, the seven checks marked pass or fail, the score, a photo link, and each open fail with its owner. Sheets shared on Viber hold up for a while. They give out once you need photos that prove time and place, or every fail must reach its fixer without someone reading each file. That is when to switch to retail audit software.
How is a retail audit different from in-store execution?
Execution is the doing: stock on the shelf, the planogram set, the promo live. The audit confirms, store by store, that the doing happened as planned. An audit that triggers no fix is only paperwork. For the doing side, read our in-store execution guide.
Own reps or an outside audit agency: who should audit?
Your own reps, if the goal is a fixed shelf. They return every cycle, the store owner knows them, and they can act during the same visit. Hire an outside agency for a one-off check, for an independent count to test your team’s numbers, or for areas outside your routes.
If AI scores the shelf photos, do we still need field auditors?
Yes, with a new job. A person still has to shoot the photos, talk to the owner and close each gap. Where photo scoring replaces the long form, reps spend the visit fixing the shelf instead of typing.
