Nikhil Chaudhary
VP of Marketing, BeatRoute
Nikhil leads marketing at BeatRoute and hosts The BeatRoute Podcast.
View profileRoute Optimization Software for Retail Brands
BeatRoute plans which outlets each sales rep or van visits, how often and in what order, and puts each day's route in a beat plan app on the rep's phone.
Trusted by category leaders worldwide
- users
- 100,000+
- countries
- 20+
- retailers reached
- 2M+
Field sales routes are not delivery routes
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 outlets, visited on a weekly or monthly cycle |
| What sets priority | Delivery time windows and promised arrival times | Outlet value, visit frequency and must-visit outlets |
| The limits | Vehicle capacity, loads and traffic | Store hours, visit length, rep days off and van stock |
| A good day | Every drop made on time | Every outlet due today seen, with time left to sell |
What to judge in sales route optimization software
Judge how a tool builds the beats first and how it orders today's stops second. A beat nobody can finish in a day is where skipped outlets start.
Plan territories and beats
Build beats from your real outlet list, and check that the tool counts time in the store, not just distance.
What to check
- Visit frequency by outlet class: weekly for top stores, monthly for small ones
- Work balanced so no beat is twice as heavy as the next
- Each rep's start point, from home or the distributor
- New outlets placed in the nearest beat with room
Order the day's route
When the day runs short, the smallest outlets should drop first and every must-visit outlet should stay.
What to check
- Stops in the order with the least driving
- Timed visits and store hours kept in place
- Outlets with falling sales or overdue payments moved up the list
Re-plan the day and catch missed visits
When a rep is off, their outlets should move to another day or rep. An outlet nobody moves waits a full cycle for its next visit.
What to check
- Missed outlets moved to another day or rep
- Planned against actual visits, by territory and outlet class
- Same-day alerts to the manager for missed and late visits
Retail route optimization results on the BeatRoute platform
★★★★★
“You can configure business constraints like visit frequency, store hours, team availability, and more, and it just flows.”
★★★★★
“Super easy to use, very visual, and helps teams execute daily plans perfectly.”
★★★★★
“All customer info is also available on the device so no need to bring a lot of paper from head office.”
★★★★★
“It is well tailored towards helping the sales team make visits effective…”
Test it on one territory before you buy
- Export one territory's outlets with their locations, outlet class and store 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 rep off sick, a store that closes and ten new outlets.
- Compare outlets covered, visits per rep per day, time on the road and productive calls.
Agree up front who keeps the outlet list geotagged, classed and clean. A stale list sinks more pilots than the software does.
Works with the outlet data and systems you already run
Outlet master sync
Sync outlets from your ERP or DMS, so every route starts from the current list.
Beat plans out
Export beat plans by Excel, API or dashboard.
Field events out
A missed visit or a new outlet can start an approval in your other systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is BeatRoute a beat plan app?
Yes. The beat plan opens in the BeatRoute Field Sales App on Android and iOS, for sales reps, merchandisers and van sales reps. It works without signal and syncs later. Visit planning covers how outlets are classed and how often each is seen, and the guide on how to build a beat plan explains the method.
How much does route optimization software cost?
BeatRoute is subscription software, priced per user and module on annual contracts, with no free trial. The cost grows with the number of reps and the modules you use. Pilot one territory before you sign, and see how pricing works.
How does sales route optimization cut driving time and fuel costs?
A rep's day is a multi-stop route. Much of its lost time is set when the beat is drawn: outlets on opposite sides of town on the same day, or a stop at a shop that is shut. BeatRoute groups nearby outlets into one beat, then orders the day's stops into optimized routes that keep timed visits in their slot. That cuts fuel costs and frees selling time. Perfetti Van Melle India redesigned its beats this way and reached 15% more outlets with the same or fewer resources, as its case study shows.
When is a spreadsheet and a maps app enough?
With a handful of reps, a few hundred outlets and territories that rarely change, a spreadsheet and a maps app will do. It breaks when outlets are added every week, reps are often off, or you need proof of visits. To compare tools, see our route planning software comparison.
Does route planning change by industry or market?
The method stays, the weights change. In FMCG and food, many small outlets get frequent visits, so stop order matters most. In building materials and lubricants, dealers are fewer and larger. They get rarer visits, so the job is picking which dealer to see each week. For Malaysia, see our route optimisation software page.
Written by people who work with field teams
Updated
Kanika Agrawal
Content Strategist, BeatRoute
Kanika writes guides from customer rollouts.
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