A market visit report records what a salesperson or marketing executive saw when they walked a market: which outlets they covered, how their own product was stocked and priced, what competitors were doing, and what retailers said. It is different from a sales call report because the goal is information, not only an order. The format below suits FMCG, consumer goods, agri inputs and any team that needs eyes on the market.
The columns a market visit report needs
One row per outlet. That is what lets you filter later by area, by competitor or by the outlets where you are out of stock.
| Column | Why it matters | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Date and executive | When the observation was made and by whom, so it can be checked. | 29-09-2026, Ramesh Kulkarni |
| Area / market | Lets you compare one market with another. | Chickpet market |
| Outlet visited | The shop or dealer. Spell it the same way each time. | Shree Ganesh Stores |
| Outlet type | Kirana, wholesaler, supermarket, chemist. Behaviour differs by type. | Kirana |
| Our stock | Available, low or out. The quickest list of where to send goods. | Low |
| Our shelf price | What the customer is actually charged, which can differ from MRP or your list. | ₹52 |
| Competitor brand and price | The comparison you came to make. | Rival Gold, ₹48 |
| Competitor activity | Schemes, free packs, displays, new launches, new salesmen. | 1 free per 12 packs |
| Retailer feedback | What the shopkeeper says in their own words: margin, pack size, delivery delays. | Customers ask for a smaller pack |
| Action needed | Turns an observation into a task with an owner. | Send 20 cartons |
| Photo | Shelf photo as evidence for a shelf-space or display argument. | Yes |
A filled-in example
One morning in one market, three outlets. Notice that the outlet with no stock still gets a row: it is the most useful one on the page.
| Outlet | Our stock | Our price | Competitor | Competitor activity | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shree Ganesh Stores | Low | ₹52 | Rival Gold ₹48 | 1 free per 12 packs | Send 20 cartons |
| Balaji Wholesale | Available | ₹50 | Rival Gold ₹47 | Nothing new | Discuss 15-day credit |
| Annapurna Supermarket | Out of stock | - | Rival Star ₹55 | New end-cap display | Ask for eye-level shelf |
From these three rows a manager can see a price gap of ₹3 to ₹4, a free-pack scheme to answer, and a supermarket where the competitor has taken the display. That is a market picture, not a list of visits.
Tips for a market visit report people can trust
- Record prices as seen, not as remembered. Note the price on the shelf or the bill, with the pack size, so comparisons are like for like.
- Use fixed choices for stock. Available, low or out of stock can be counted; "some stock left" cannot.
- Write feedback in the retailer's own words. Do not soften it. A blunt line from a shopkeeper is worth more than a polished summary.
- Name the competitor brand exactly. "Other brand" tells you nothing.
- End every row with an action. If nothing is needed, write "none". A blank looks like an unfinished report.
- File on the day. Offers change within days; the report is only useful if it arrives while it is still true.
Common mistakes
- One summary per day. "Visited 12 shops, competition is strong" cannot be filtered, compared or acted on.
- Only visiting outlets that already stock you. The report then says everything is fine. Record the ones that do not stock you too.
- Mixing opinion with observation. "Competitor pricing seems low" is an opinion; "Rival Gold ₹48 per pack" is an observation. Give the number first.
- Photos sitting in a phone gallery. If they are not tied to the outlet, nobody can use them.
Capturing it from the market itself
The awkward part of a market visit is that the information is freshest right after you leave the shop. By evening the prices are half remembered and typing into a form seems like too much. So the report gets shorter each week.
vBol lets the executive report as they walk out of each shop. They send a WhatsApp voice note, in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil or their own language, and a photo of the shelf:
vBol transcribes it, pulls out the fields, and reads the record back on WhatsApp with buttons to confirm or fix. Nothing is written until the executive confirms. The confirmed record becomes a row in your Google Sheet, an Excel workbook on OneDrive or SharePoint, or the matching module in Ekatm ERP, with the photo and GPS location attached. A market visit is close to the built-in sales visit record; the exact columns above (competitor price, competitor activity, stock) are a record type Vritti sets up with you rather than a built-in one.
Every evening at 7 PM the manager gets one WhatsApp message: who filed, how many, and who sent nothing that day. There is no app to install and no login for the field team. It is free for 30 days (up to 5 confirmed reports per person per day during the trial), then ₹199 per user per month for teams of up to 100 users, with a custom plan for larger teams. You can also read how it compares with a standard sales visit report.
Prefer to start on Excel? Download the free template on this page. It includes the columns above, dropdowns for outlet type, stock and photo, and three example rows to overwrite.
Frequently asked questions
What is a market visit report?
A market visit report is a record of one field visit to shops or a market area, noting which outlets were covered, what stock and prices were seen, what competitors were doing and what retailers said.
What should a market visit report include?
The date, who visited, the area, each outlet, your own stock and price, competitor brand, price and activity, retailer feedback and the action needed. A photo of the shelf helps.
What is the difference between a market visit report and a sales visit report?
A sales visit report is about winning an order from a customer. A market visit report is about what is happening in the market: stock, shelf position, prices and competitors, whether or not anything is sold.
How often should a market visit report be filed?
After every visit day, by each person who went. Competitor offers and price changes go stale within days, so a weekly summary written from memory loses what you went to find out.