SHOPPERTRAK RCT INTRODUCES INDUSTRY’S FIRST TRAFFIC-BASED INDEX TO MONITOR CONSUMER TRENDS IN MULTIPLE RETAIL ENVIRONMENTS
The ShopperTrak Retail Traffic Index (SRTI) Provides Retailers With the Most Reliable Benchmark for Shopper Traffic in Total Retail, Enclosed Malls and Key Retail Segments at National and Regional Levels
CHICAGO – November 15, 2005 – ShopperTrak RCT, the world’s leading provider of traffic intelligence solutions and services, today announced the launch of the retail industry’s first reliable traffic benchmark for comparing retail traffic volume. The ShopperTrak Retail Traffic Index (SRTI) provides both retailers, mall developers and industry analysts with the most accurate and timely consumer traffic data that allows the opportunity to evaluate store performance against both regional and national traffic patterns.
By utilizing the SRTI data, retailers can determine if their businesses are competitive by measuring performance against both industry standards and internal goals. Additionally, SRTI figures can be used to determine the impact of marketing programs on traffic; to determine differences in shopper traffic between regions or retail segments; to compare trends in enclosed mall traffic to retail store and retail segment indices; and to determine the impact of holidays, weather, energy prices, national events and other major factors that affect retail traffic. This traffic index combined with ShopperTrak’s frequently quoted National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE), which provides the retail industry with a nationwide snapshot of consumer spending, provides the most accurate, timely and comprehensive view of consumer activity as it relates to sales in the retail world.
Published as both a newsletter and an interactive database, ShopperTrak’s SRTI is subdivided into six categories and is available at both national and regional levels, providing consumer traffic intelligence for the following retail segments:
• Total U.S. Retail (combined enclosed mall and retail store traffic)
• U.S. Enclosed Malls
• U.S. Retail Stores
• U.S. Apparel and Accessories
• U.S. Wireless and Electronics
• U.S. Home Furnishings and Accessories
SRTI newsletter subscribers will receive monthly updates that include an overview of national and regional traffic indices, a traffic index by month, a traffic index by week, traffic percent changes by week and month and various traffic trend charts. Newsletters are published for each of the six segments above.
SRTI data is also available as a database, or reporting website, which will provide a more comprehensive data set for subscribers. The SRTI database is updated weekly and includes two years of retail data for the subscribed segment.
Customers have the option of creating reports, charts and graphs that show retail performance in user-selected time frames.
Both newsletter and database customers can subscribe separately to a special Holiday Package, published in downloadable PDF format, that includes weekly reporting for the critical holiday shopping season. An exclusive pre-season forecast report and post-season wrapup, both with benchmarks, are part of the package. In addition, comparatives for all shopping weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas are added to the week-by-week data reporting.
A Holiday Package is published separately for each of the six SRTI retail segments.
“Prior to the launch of SRTI, retailers have only had access to estimates focused on sales volume, which ignores the most important data both retailers and mall developers can use to accurately measure store performance, and that’s traffic opportunity,” said Jim Martin, vice president of information products for ShopperTrak. “With this data at their fingertips, retailers can now compare individual store traffic results to regional and national traffic statistics, allowing them to better understand the key factors that influence customer movement and giving them perspective on the relative success of their own traffic-building efforts.”
Additionally, SRTI is a particularly valuable index for operations managers, as traffic trends are essential for effectively determining labor hours and scheduling at a macro level. By employing SRTI data, operations executives can identify seasonal and regional variations across a chain, and adjust labor forecasts and budgets accordingly.
“The bottom line in the retail industry is that traffic equals sales potential,” said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. “While this concept seems overwhelmingly obvious, retailers and mall developers haven’t previously had the ability to accurately measure traffic relative to the larger retail world, which ultimately translates into lost selling opportunities or a lower store conversion rate.” Martin continued: “By using SRTI data, retailers can understand how they’re doing compared to the rest of their region or segment, and plan programs that take advantage of upward trends or compensate for slowing markets.”
The SRTI is generated from a carefully drawn sample of more than 45,000 retail and enclosed mall locations throughout the United States. The product is a set of six calculated indices for select segments of the retail industry, that compare current week mall or store traffic to a baseline traffic figure from a fixed week on the NRF calendar. The SRTI is priced by individual segment.
A privately held entity, ShopperTrak leverages more than 20 years of counting expertise to be the authority for information and analysis of the movement of pedestrian traffic in retail environments around the globe. ShopperTrak’s cutting-edge traffic tracking products, combined with its industry standard , the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE), offer intelligence solutions that enable companies to better understand traffic trends and the impact of store and staff performance on company revenues. Additionally, ShopperTrak’s solutions provide a proven means for businesses to gauge labor efficiencies, advertising and marketing efforts, store design and remodeling programs, merchandise changes, associate training programs, and other budget-intensive strategic initiatives.
About ShopperTrak RCT Corp.
Chicago-based ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a privately held entity, is the world’s leading provider of traffic-based intelligence to the retail, gaming, hospitality and financial services industries. Its products and information reporting, including the Orbit™ counting system, the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE), the ShopperTrak Retail Traffic Index, and other tools, give clients the data they need to make more effective business decisions. ShopperTrak operates six offices in the United States and has international distribution in 43 countries around the globe. Reach us at (312) 529-5300 or at www.shoppertrak.com.
ShopperTrak Retail Traffic Index Orbit and the National Retail Sales Estimate are trademarks of ShopperTrak RCT Corp.
Contact:
Aaron Martin (amartin@sphillips.com)
Scott Phillips (sphillips@sphillips.com)
Phillips + Associates, Inc.
312-943-9100
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