FMCG mystery shopping in Qatar & the GCC

On-shelf availability is the headline measure and it is not the same as distribution. A product listed by the retailer and absent from the shelf is out of stock to every customer who came for it. Auditors record the position by SKU, by store, on a defined day and time, which turns availability into a trend rather than an anecdote from a sales representative.

Planogram compliance and facings are counted, not estimated. Where the contract specifies a number of facings at a particular shelf position, the audit records what was actually there and photographs it. In the Qatari grocery market — Lulu, Carrefour, Al Meera, Monoprix and the growing convenience formats — compliance varies enough between banners and between individual stores that a national average conceals the problem entirely.

Promotional execution is where the largest recoverable spend usually sits. The audit checks whether the gondola end was in place on the agreed date, whether the shelf-edge label showed the promotional price, whether the till charged that price, and whether the display carried the intended stock. A promotion running at the correct price with no display is a partial failure and is recorded as such.

Expiry and stock rotation is checked on the same visit. Short-dated stock at the front of a facing is a finding the trade partner will act on, and it is one of the few audit outputs that improves the relationship rather than straining it.

Audit frequency should follow the promotional calendar rather than the financial one. A monthly cycle across a fixed store panel gives the availability trend; short waves timed to the first three days of a promotion give the compliance evidence that recovers trade spend. Running only the monthly cycle means every promotional failure is discovered after the promotion has ended.

Store panel construction decides whether the audit is usable. A panel weighted to the banners and formats that actually carry your volume — hypermarket, supermarket, convenience and the fuel-forecourt shops — reports something you can act on. A panel chosen for auditor convenience reports a national average that no category manager can take to a trade meeting. Auditor consistency is enforced through a fixed circuit of the fixture, a photographed reference planogram, and back-checking of a proportion of visits. Two auditors recording the same fixture differently is the failure mode that makes a retail audit worthless, and it is prevented by procedure rather than by instruction.