The research in the retail sector is characterized by a large number of inspection cycles. These are aimed at increasing personnel awareness through the sentinel effect (LINK) and at monitoring sale points known for their large clientele, high personnel turnover and high sales per unit of time.
The Mystery Clients evaluating this sector have to closely match the general clientele of the sale point in order for their observations to be relevant. For this reason we gathered a lot of important data from our mystery clients such as age, level of education, favourite brands, shopping trends and so forth.
All these data are available online in real time and every store manager can check the data relevant to his/her sale point and download the personalized Action Plan (list of downsides that would play a major role in the next inspection cycle)..
Department Stores
In order to evaluate the performance of large stores such as hypermarkets, mystery clients must have a thorough knowledge of the sector gained from direct experience (being a regular client) and good observational skills for carrying out the inspection according to the check list. Mystery Clients can “see” a large store better than a commercial inspector because they are aware, for instance, when it is too hot or cold in a department for the type of clothes typical for the season. During training, they get to know the company’s procedures and they know how to rate the employees’ way of approaching them.
Other examples of aspects that can be inspected are the presence of expired products and promotions, the proper arrangement of products, the presence and quality of promoters, the overall cleanliness, etc.
Retailing
The inspections in the world of retailing done inside boutiques, stores, kiosks and other “fixed” locations are structured in monthly or quarterly cycles due to their high product and personnel turnover.
Mystery clients evaluate the conditions of the structure (shelving setup, cleanliness of the dressing rooms), the temporary promotions and the staff. Reports are released in real time and the most urgent flaws are communicated via fax or email alerts.
Commercial Centres and Outlets
The most important issue encountered when inspecting a commercial centre or outlet is the large number of sale points available for evaluation. These have different typologies regarding the variability of clients according to the day of the week, season and other conditions. For this reason, several mystery clients are simultaneously sent to the location so that they can evaluate all stores under the same conditions.
Inspection cycles are scheduled according to the period in order to see what happens during different days, seasons or phases.
Our database contains over 13,000 shoppers we can count on for mystery shopping activities during the same period of time.
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MSPA associates for researches all over the world
The company is certified with ISO 9001 for Mystery Shopping by Tuv Italy
13,000 Mystery Shoppers in all of Europe… a sample of your clients