A promotion can look perfect on paper. The right products, the right price, the right placement and the right campaign behind it.
But what happens when it reaches the shop floor?
A missing display can’t attract shoppers. An out-of-stock product can’t generate sales. And retail media that isn’t visible can’t deliver the intended return.
For brands and retailers operating across hundreds or thousands of locations, knowing what is actually happening in-store can be difficult. SmartSpotter, a Smollan company, provides the real-time retail insights needed to close that gap – turning visibility into action and helping ensure retail agreements are executed as intended.
Seeing what’s really happening in-store
SmartSpotter uses crowdsourced retail intelligence to give brands and retailers thousands of eyes and ears on the shop floor.
Through its network of Spotters, data can be collected directly from stores using photos, video, audio, observations and short questionnaires. Once measurements have been approved, results are available through a real-time dashboard, providing visibility at product, store and retailer level.
That means teams can answer the questions that matter to retail execution. Is the promotion live? Is the product available? Has the display been built correctly? Is the agreed price showing? Is retail media appearing where it should?
More importantly, they can answer those questions while there is still time to act.
From retail insight to action
Retail moves quickly, so identifying an execution issue weeks after a campaign has ended has limited value.
SmartSpotter enables retailers and suppliers to identify issues while activity is still live. If promotional material is missing, stock isn’t available or a second placement hasn’t appeared as agreed, that insight can be shared with location managers, field teams or other partners so corrective action can be taken.
This creates a much shorter route from measurement to insight to action – helping businesses move beyond assumptions and make decisions based on what is actually happening on the shop floor.
And there is more than one way to gather that intelligence. Alongside its crowdsourced Spotter network, SmartSpotter Team enables organisations to use the same platform with their own field or store operations teams, creating one central place to collect and manage retail execution data.
Measuring the moments that matter
SmartSpotter’s retail execution capabilities cover six key areas: shelf compliance, promotional compliance, retail media compliance, price measurement, mystery visits and merchandising.
For brands, that could mean checking stock availability and planogram compliance, measuring promotional displays and second placements, or understanding how products and pricing appear across different retailers.
For retailers, it can provide a clearer view across entire store estates, helping teams maintain consistent store presentation and identify locations where action is needed.
SmartSpotter can also measure retail media execution, from the presence and positioning of point-of-sale materials to checking that agreed digital advertising is appearing correctly – providing evidence that media investment has made it from plan to store.
A global view of retail execution
As part of Smollan, SmartSpotter‘s real-time retail intelligence complements the groups wider capabilities across Sales & Merchandising, Activation & Experience, and Data & Technology.
By connecting visibility on the shop floor with the people and capabilities needed to act on it, Smartspotter, a Smollan company, can help brands and retailers turn retail strategy into stronger execution – in the Netherlands, across Europe and around the world.
