Merchandiser Attendance and Store Visit Tracking
Merchandisers are paid to be in stores keeping shelves right. This covers verifying store visits, capturing shelf photos and checklists, and scheduling store rounds without a daily WhatsApp roll-call.
Merchandisers visit shops, supermarkets and pharmacies to keep products on the shelf, displays in place and stock faced forward. Brands and agencies pay for those visits, so they need to know each one happened and what the shelf looked like.
Most teams rely on a WhatsApp group full of shelf photos. That shows something happened somewhere, but nobody can say which store, when, or whether every store was covered.
Attendance first
- Merchandisers clock in on the phone at their first store, with location.
- Working hours and a grace period define "late".
- Reminders go straight to the merchandiser, so no supervisor has to ring round.
Each store visit is a record
Set up each store as a site, grouped by chain or retailer. Each visit is then a record at that store, holding:
- When it started, and where the merchandiser was compared with the store.
- A checklist: shelf faced, price tags correct, display in place, out-of-stocks noted, expiry dates checked.
- Before and after photos of the shelf or display.
- Notes on store manager feedback, competitor activity and problems.
You end up with a searchable history for every store and a clear answer when a client asks what happened at a branch.
Store rounds on a schedule
Most stores are visited on a fixed rhythm, with major accounts twice a week and smaller stores weekly or fortnightly. Set each store's schedule once and visits appear on the merchandiser's phone automatically. A missed visit shows up as overdue instead of coming to light in a client meeting.
The day's route
Order the day's stores to cut travel. Large stores go early, when shelves are restocked, and smaller ones after.
Reviewing the work
- Stores visited against plan, for each merchandiser.
- Visits that started far from the store.
- Checklist items that are often left unticked, which usually points to a stock or display problem rather than a people one.
- Photos for major accounts, before the client asks for them.
In Movtro
In Movtro, stores are customers and sites, and each visit is a job with a checklist, before and after photos and notes. Starting the visit records where the merchandiser was and how far that was from the store, and distant starts are flagged. Recurring jobs schedule store rounds (every Monday and Thursday, for example) and flag overdue visits. Merchandisers clock in with location, even without signal, and the day's visits can be put in route order. Clients with portal access can see the progress, photos and sign-off for their visits.
Checklist questions can record numbers such as facings or stock counts, but Movtro does not score planograms, keep stock levels for each store or take orders.
Related reading: field visit tracking, how to track sales reps in the field and proof of service. Or start free.