UNDERSTAND — Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping that shows the real customer experience
Mystery shopping sends trained shoppers into stores and venues as ordinary customers to record what really happens: whether your product is available, findable and recommended. FOTS designs the scenario, fields it and reports what needs fixing.
The problem we solve.
Brands rarely know how their product is presented or recommended when nobody official is watching. Staff recommendation in particular decides a large share of purchases.
How mystery shopping works with FOTS.
- 01
Design the scenario
The question you need answered, and the customer behaviour that will answer it.
- 02
Field the visits
Trained shoppers visit the sample and record a structured set of observations.
- 03
Fix what it finds
Findings routed into staff training, merchandising or the retailer conversation.
What you get
- Scenario and question set design
- Store or venue sample
- Structured visit reports
- Availability and recommendation findings
- Recommended actions
Where we deliver it
- Independent retail
- Convenience
- Specialist retail
- HORECA
- Leisure venues
How we measure it.
Every campaign reports against the numbers a commercial team actually uses.
- Visits completed
- Product availability
- Recommendation rate
- Findability on fixture
- Experience scores
Proof.
Vita Coco — Driving distribution and retailer acquisition.
- 6,000+
- stores visited
- 3,918
- decision-makers engaged
- 736
- new accounts
- 3,687
- cases sold
What does mystery shopping reveal that audits do not?
The human layer: what staff say, what they recommend and how a real customer is treated, rather than just what is on the shelf.
Is it useful for on-trade brands?
Very. Whether a bartender or server recommends your product is often the whole purchase decision.
Works well with
If your objective is
Frequently asked questions.
- Do shoppers buy the product?
- Where the scenario requires it, yes, and the purchase is recorded as evidence.
- Can we test our competitors' experience?
- Yes, and the comparison is usually the most useful part.
- How anonymous is it?
- Entirely. Staff are not told, which is what makes the findings honest.
Talk to us about mystery shopping.
Tell us your objective and we'll tell you what we'd do first.