Plan the store cycle, with time in each store counted in.
Merchandising days are more aisle than road. Import your store list, set how long each store takes, and let the day's total tell you whether the route fits before anyone leaves.
- Free for up to 50 addresses
- No credit card
- No app to install
The short answer
Updated
Lite Route Planner plans merchandising routes from a store list: import stores from Excel, set the minutes you spend in each one (a 20-minute fill or a 2-hour reset), and optimize the driving order in one click. The map colors every store by last visit, so nothing slips off the cycle. It's free for up to 50 addresses, and Business includes unlimited reps from $59.99 a month.
How a merchandising cycle turns into routes
Most merchandisers work a cycle: a set of stores visited every week, every other week or every four weeks, each with its own amount of work. A grocery store with a full aisle to reset can take two hours. A dollar store display check might take fifteen minutes. The driving between them matters, but the real question is whether the day fits.
Lite answers that with two numbers per store: where it is and how long you'll be inside. Set a default time at stops, change it for the big stores, and the day's total shows time driving plus time in stores. Optimize to cut the miles between them; the order is by distance, and time in store changes the total, not the order.
Your cycle lives in custom fields. A Cycle column (Weekly, Biweekly, Every 4 weeks) and a Chain column come in with your import, and you can color or filter the map by either one.
A store list for a three-chain territory
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
| 1 | Store # | Chain | Address | City | Cycle | Minutes | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 4127 | Harvest Fresh | 8810 W Broad St | Henrico, VA | Weekly | 120 | Full aisle reset |
| 3 | 0592 | ValuMart | 1201 Huguenot Rd | Midlothian, VA | Biweekly | 45 | Endcap and backstock |
| 4 | 2210 | Harvest Fresh | 4500 Brook Rd | Richmond, VA | Weekly | 90 | Fill and face |
| 5 | 7734 | Corner Dollar | 305 E Main St | Ashland, VA | Every 4 weeks | 20 | Display check |
| 6 | 0618 | ValuMart | 11500 Midlothian Tpke | North Chesterfield, VA | Biweekly | 60 | New item cut-in |
The Minutes column comes in as a number field you can filter by, but it doesn't set time at stops on its own: set a default in the planner, then change it on the stores that take longer.
Build next week's cycle
- 1
See what's due
Color the map by last visit. Weekly stores in the 1 to 2 weeks color are due, biweekly stores in 2 to 4 weeks are due, and red means something slipped.
- 2
Lasso a day's worth
Draw around a cluster of stores and check the day's total. If it runs past your shift, take a store out and put it in tomorrow's route.
- 3
Start where you start
Begin at home or a base and come back, or finish at the last store if you live at the far end of the territory.
- 4
Optimize, then fix the exceptions
Press Optimize for the shortest order. If a store only takes vendors before 10 a.m., drag it to the top. The optimizer doesn't know receiving hours.
- 5
Drive it or send it
Drive the route yourself from your phone, or on Business assign it to a rep, who sees it in the driver app with nothing to install.
Details that matter in a store day
Receiving hours aren't time windows
Lite doesn't schedule around time windows, so put early-receiving stores at the top by hand after you optimize.
Attempted means come back
If the manager turns you away or the backroom is locked, mark the store Attempted with a note. Color by last outcome to find every Attempted store and fit it in later in the week.
Notes for whoever goes next
Put "check in at customer service, sign the vendor log" in the stop note. Reps see the stop note in the driver app on every visit.
One store, one history
Each store keeps its own visit history across reps and months, so you can see every visit to store 4127 since spring.
The driver app
Reps check off stores from the aisle
On Business, each rep signs in to the driver app in their phone's browser with a code from their email. They see their stores in order with the drive time between them, open each one in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze, and mark it Visited or Attempted with a note. You see progress in the planner within seconds, and there's no fee per rep. See how to send a route to a phone.
When you need a retail execution app instead
Choose Lite if
- Your job is getting to the right stores in the right order and keeping the cycle on track.
- You keep your store list in a spreadsheet and want it on a map in minutes.
- You want last-visit colors and a visit history for every store.
- You'd rather pay one flat price than a fee per rep.
Choose a retail execution app if
- Brands require photo proof of displays or shelf audits.
- Reps fill in surveys, planogram checks or order forms at each store.
- You need mileage logs or timesheets for payroll.
- Visits have to sync into a client's system.