Nikhil Chaudhary
VP of Marketing, BeatRoute
Nikhil leads marketing at BeatRoute and hosts The BeatRoute Podcast.
View profileRoute Optimization Software for Retail Brands in the Philippines
BeatRoute's route optimization software plans which sari-sari stores, supermarkets and drugstores each salesman, diser (merchandiser) or van visits, how often and in what order. Then it puts the day's route on their phone.
Trusted by Philippine brands and distributors
- users
- 100,000+
- countries
- 20+
- retailers reached
- 2M+
Visiting sari-sari stores is not delivering to them
Route optimization software for field sales plans repeat visits to the same stores. BeatRoute suits brands whose reps, merchandisers or vans visit the same outlets on a cycle. A courier or delivery fleet sending vehicles to new addresses every day will be better served by fleet routing software.
| Delivery and fleet routing | Field sales routing | |
|---|---|---|
| The stops | New addresses each day, set by the orders to deliver | The same sari-sari stores, supermarkets and drugstores on a weekly or monthly cycle |
| What sets priority | Delivery windows and promised arrival times | Outlet class, visit frequency and must-visit stores |
| The limits | Truck capacity and loads | Store hours, time in store, days off, van stock and Manila traffic |
| A good day | Every drop made on time | Every store due today seen, with time left to sell |
What to judge in route optimization software
Ask how it decides what a Manila beat can hold and which provincial stores earn the trip.
Build beats from your outlet list
Most time lost on the road is set when the beat is drawn. A Manila beat tests whether the tool counts minutes in traffic between stores. A provincial beat tests whether outlet class decides which stores are worth the long trip.
What to check
- Visit frequency by outlet class: weekly for top stores, every two weeks or monthly for small ones
- Work balanced so no beat is twice as heavy as the next
- New stores placed in the nearest beat with room
Order the day's route
When the day runs short, the smallest stores should drop first and every must-visit store should stay. With the Scheduling AI Agent, productive visits rose from 45% to 78%.
What to check
- Stops in the order with the least time on the road
- Store hours and timed visits kept in place
- Falling orders or overdue payments move a store up the list
Re-plan the day and catch missed visits
A salesman on leave or a closed store should move the visit to another day or salesman. A store nobody moves waits a full cycle for its next visit.
What to check
- Missed stores moved to another day or salesman
- Planned against actual visits, by territory and outlet class
- Same-day alerts to the supervisor for missed and late visits
Results teams in the Philippines and the region got with BeatRoute
★★★★★
“…it was very easy to teach sales agents to use the app”
★★★★★
“As admin, I’m very happy with rep as he always helps me out if we need further customization.”
★★★★★
“BeatRoute provides powerful tools for tracking sales performance, route adherence, and merchandising execution…”
★★★★★
“All customer info is also available on the device so no need to bring a lot of paper from head office.”
Pilot it on a Manila beat and a provincial one
- Export one Metro Manila and one provincial territory, with each store's location, class and hours.
- Keep today's beat plan as the baseline and run the new one for two or three beat cycles.
- Ask for a live re-plan: a salesman on leave, a store shut for a fiesta and ten new sari-sari stores.
- Compare stores covered, visits per salesman a day, road time and productive calls.
A pilot is only as good as the outlet list it starts from, so agree up front who keeps it geotagged, classed and clean.
Starts from your outlet list and keeps working when the signal drops
Outlet master sync
Sync stores from your ERP or the distributor's system, so every beat starts from one clean outlet list.
Offline on island routes
The beat, visits and orders save on the phone in a brownout or a dead zone, and sync later.
Beat plans out
Export beat plans by Excel, API or dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is route optimization software for field sales?
Route optimization software for field sales is software that plans which stores each salesman, diser or van visits, how often and in what order, then puts each day's route on their phone. In the Philippines it is also called route planning software or a beat plan app. A van selling from its own stock runs the same fixed beat, with its van sales load as one more limit.
Is BeatRoute a beat plan app?
Yes. The beat plan opens in the BeatRoute field sales app for salesmen, disers and van sales teams. Visit planning covers how stores are classed and how often each is seen. The guide on how to build a beat plan explains the method.
Is there free route optimization software, and what does BeatRoute cost?
Free map apps order one person's stops for the day. They do not build a team's beats. BeatRoute is subscription software, priced by module and team size on annual contracts, with no free trial. See pricing.
When are Excel and Viber enough?
With a handful of salesmen, a few hundred stores and steady territories, an Excel beat plan and a Viber group will do. It breaks when stores are added weekly, salesmen are often off, or you need proof of each visit.
Does route planning change by industry in the Philippines?
The method stays, the weights change. In FMCG, each beat holds many small sari-sari stores, so outlet class sets how often each is seen. In pharma, PMRs keep to doctors' clinic hours. In building materials and paints, dealers are fewer and larger, so the choice is which dealers are due this cycle.
Written by people who work with field teams
Updated
Kanika Agrawal
Content Strategist, BeatRoute
Kanika writes guides from customer rollouts.
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