Stock Verification and Availability Compliance Checking

A multinational, publicly-traded organisation built around the company’s hugely popular search engine had a goal which was to revitalise high streets, and doing this by driving customers back to the stores to do their shopping instead of proposing them to shop online by showing a store’s stock availability. When somebody is looking for a product via a specific search engine, and clicks on the ‘shopping’ button, it shows them where the nearest shop is, where this particular product is available, and at what price.

REQUIREMENT

The search engine company required global coverage in over 20 countries, and partnered with RGIS to implement a process to take place prior to product promotion launches. This included:

  • RGIS visiting a number of different retail stores all providing particular item
  • Verifying the stock availability and the price that the retailer provided to the search engine on a random sample of product lines
  • Also verifying stock in remote stores: these checks were made via phone call for around 100 SKUs
  • Stock verification checks completed in over 20 countries
  • When the check is completed the search engine provider analyses the data, and either will start the product launch if the result of the product validation was satisfactory, or postpone this to make sure the shared information via the specific search engine is credible and correct

SOLUTION

RGIS provided stock verification services for the global search engine company, and provide the following:

  • RGIS sent 2-3 auditors per visit – checking a total of 600 items
  • An iOS/Android app created for especially for this purpose
  • Checks were completed on tablets or phones

RESULTS

This supports the search engine organisation in the following ways:

  • The data provided by the retailers was all verified
  • Ensured their customers were paying the prices advertised
  • Ability to delay promotional launches if the stock levels were not correct