The study of products in order to evaluate them for various indicators is called merchandising expertise. Its purpose is to establish quality and detect fraud.
When necessary
Commodity examination allows you to explore all the characteristics of the product, responsible for its external condition, compliance with standards and norms, as well as identify defects and determine the nature of their appearance.
It is necessary in cases where it is important to find out the real value of the product, the damage caused or to establish the cause of the marriage.
Carrying out commodity expert examinations is appointed:
- At the initiative of the judicial authorities to investigate crimes, as well as during the consideration of cases related to the Federal Law "On Protection of Consumer Rights". In addition, an expert assessment may be required during the divorce proceedings in order to facilitate the separation of jointly acquired property.
- At the request of an individual or legal entity. In this case, the customer has the opportunity to use the services of an organization conducting commodity examination of goods, concluding an agreement with her.
Criteria for evaluation
The process of researching the characteristics of the product includes checking:
- Compliance of the product and its components with state standards, standards, specifications or reference samples.
- The similarities of the marking information with the actual characteristics of the object of merchandising expertise.
- Accompanying documents (declarations, certificates of conformity, waybills, passports, etc.).
- The originality of the product, i.e., its belonging to a particular brand, type or model.
- The integrity of the new product and all its details. When defects are identified, their origin is ascertained, and the extent to which damage is affected on the functionality of the product is studied.
- In the process of merchandising examination of a used product, it is determined at what stage of operation and as a result of what kind of actions a deterioration in the quality characteristics appeared.
- Initial and actual cost (estimated reduction due to detection of defects).
What is not included in the examination
The study does not involve finding answers to the following questions:
- who is the manufacturer;
- preparation time;
- repair cost.
This information is provided by the relevant departments and specialists responsible for the production process.
The objects
Commodity expertise is carried out to assess the quality of the product itself, its spare parts and other details (if the goods are non-food). Products can be new, used or completely lost their functionality.
Often the objects of research are the following groups of goods:
- Food;
- small and large household and office appliances;
- mobile and stationary communications, computers, tablets, laptops;
- audio, video, photo and radio equipment;
- industrial equipment;
- all types of furniture, including upholstery;
- clothes;
- leather and fur products;
- footwear;
- tableware;
- children's toys and accessories.
Additional materials
To conduct a merchandising examination, the provision of the product itself is not enough for specialists.
It is important to transfer all storage media:
- shortcuts
- tags
- cashier's checks;
- secondary packaging (if any);
- labels and so on.
If a comparative assessment of goods is needed, experts need to issue a reference sample.
Who is conducting
The study is carried out by expert merchants with higher education in this specialty.
Each employee has a certain set of skills and individual qualities:
- excellent knowledge in the field of consumer properties and characteristics of all groups of goods;
- excellent hearing, vision and a sense of touch;
- attention and perseverance;
- neatness;
- responsibility;
- good memory;
- the desire to constantly improve in their specialization.
Persons suffering from nervous and mental disorders, diseases of the respiratory and musculoskeletal systems are not allowed to work.
Methods of merchandising expertise
The use of various research methods individually or in combination should lead to a qualitative result.
All receptions are divided into 2 groups:
- Objective . Methods in the process of which various measuring instruments are used. In addition, the registration of product inconsistencies with regulatory and other documents is carried out (visual assessment). The result is expressed as a percentage; other units are also acceptable. The main advantage of these methods is objectivity. The disadvantages include the fact that many qualitative characteristics are not measured by instruments. In addition, the cost of merchandising expertise is increasing due to the need to operate expensive equipment.
- Heuristic . Methods characterized by a subjective approach to product evaluation. They are based on building logical chains, hypotheses, making assumptions. The main drawback is the difficulty of harmonizing the views of several experts.
Heuristic methods, in turn, are divided into the following subspecies:
- Organoleptic. With their help, visual, tactile, olfactory, sound and taste indicators are determined, in a word, all sensory organs are involved in the examination process. The main advantages: affordability, ease of use, cost, rapid determination of quality. The disadvantage is that the result is expressed in dimensionless units, and not in the established ones.
- Expert. These methods are carried out by a team of specialists. They are used in cases where the use of other methods is unacceptable. In case of disagreement between the experts, the average score and the coefficient of concordance are calculated or a reassessment is carried out. In most cases, the opinion of several experts is more reliable than the result of the work of one merchandiser.
- Sociological. With their help, consumer evaluation of various products is carried out through personal surveys and questionnaires. To collect information and derive a general result, analysts are additionally involved in the work.
Below is a protocol of merchandising expertise. The sample is not a reference, each organization has the right to draw up the results at its discretion, the main condition is the reflection of all the parameters by which the assessment was made.
Commodity expertise - a set of various activities aimed at establishing the quality of any type of product. Both food (new and used) and non-food products are accepted for evaluation.