Store-check is a
tool widely used in marketing research as to review the merchandises in a
retail store by non-sales researchers whose responsibilities are to perform
such field examinations. Store, in marketing research, means to put one’s products
into others’ distribution canals in China. It’s a method often applied to launch new
products or to explore new markets. Store-check, together with retail studying,
aims to know the final markets through market share and the competition on the
shelves. Store-checks are done from a micro angle to see how the products are
displayed and how they are sold.
In a store-check,
we can get much information as below.
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Brand
visibility. It means how often we can see a band on the basis of the sample.
For example, if 100 out of the sample size 200 can be seen, the brand
visibility is 50%(100/200).
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Product
visibility. Taking the sample size as the base, we come to know how many of
them have presented the products. For instance, if 50 out of the sample size
200 can be seen, the product visibility is 25%(50/200).
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Category
visibility. Taking the sample size as the base, we come to know how many
categories can be seen in a retail store. Attention, here, brand is not taken
into account. For example, if 120 out of
the sample size 200 can be seen, the category visibility is
60%(120/200).
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Relative
visibility. It means what the product visibility is within the category
visibility. For instance, if the sample size is 200, the category visibility is
60%, the product visibility is 50%, then the relative visibility is 83.3%
(50%/60%).
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Weighting
visibility. The product visibility is based on the weighting allowance made by
the company itself. For instance, the visibility of product X of Brand P near
schools is 50%(0.2 weighting allowance), the visibility in restaurants is 60%
(0.3 weighting allowance), the visibility in supermarkets is 90%(0.4 weighting
allowance).So , the weighting
visibility is 50%×0.2+ 60%×0.3+90%×0.4=64%
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Compared
with store rate, the visibility considers the products that are displayed on
the shelves.
For the most of
time, a company which performs such a studying attempts to compare its products
with those of the competitors, as the following charts shows.
When we set about
to a store-check, we should pay attention to :
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We
should select the targeted stores in different regions of a city so that the
results will be representative.
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We
should ensure that the researcher’ role is not recognised by the sellers so
that the results will be authentic.
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We can
reexamine the check with a few samples to make sure of the check’s credibility.
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The
researching statistics should be logged accurately as soon as possible.
Before we start
our operation, we should be clear about the objective, define the researching
contents and draw up an outline. Then we should be care of the date , regions
and the sample size. At last, it comes to write the report after the research
is over.
