Sydney, 2 December 2008 – In what is predicted to become a difficult time for Australian retailers and shopping centres, Experian has announced the launch in Australia of Footfall, the world’s leading provider of footfall monitoring solutions.
Already the most widely used tool of its kind in Europe, Experian Footfall’s proven insights into shopper behaviour help businesses adjust to changes in the economy, improve sales performance, assess the impact of promotions and improve customer service.
Footfall solutions consist of a variety of technologies used to measure the number of people who enter a premise, where they move, how long they stay and how often they visit. The data is collated in a central database, before being combined with store data on sales/staffing and analysed to establish trends.
“We have shown with one store, for example, that on the days when the manager was away, there was a significant drop in sales conversion rates,” said Experian ANZ Managing Director, Paul Vescovi. “Once the store had trained up a deputy manager to cover those days, the conversion rate picked up and the store became more profitable.”
Experian Footfall has been used extensively by some of the world’s biggest brands, including Footlocker, Virgin Retail and UK retail giant, Marks and Spencer. Each year, it counts the world’s population (6 billion people) and the figure is growing.
“Retail stores rely on sales figures to assess their performance, but we’re offering a much more detailed analysis, by looking at conversion rates. Sometimes only very simple changes are needed to improve customer service, which in turn improves sales,” said Vescovi. “In these difficult times, that could mean the difference between staying in business or not.”
One example is beauty product retailer Crabtree and Evelyn, which, as a result of the Experian Footfall analysis, arranged for product delivery on its quietest days. This enabled more staff to be on the shop floor on busy days, so customers had more help and attention. The conversion rate went up considerably after just one simple change in process.
There is also significant benefit for shopping centres that use the Experian Footfall technology to adjust their business to meet variable demand. “The retail property market has to be flexible, especially in times of downturn, and the Footfall solution can help them see trends, predict ‘potential’ figures and adjust their marketing plans accordingly,” said Vescovi.
“This could be a very powerful tool in helping Australian businesses remain competitive,” he said.
For more information:
Alex Tudge
n2n Communications
02 9213 2320
0410 156 400
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About Experian Footfall
Experian FootFall is a world leader in the provision of retail business information to the retail and retail property markets. It helps clients understand their market opportunity by measuring customer numbers, and providing related metrics such as conversion rates.
In Asia Pacific, the Experian Retail FootFall Index (RFI) provides a true representation of the change in visitors’ numbers to shopping centres and retail industries. The RFI is created to turn data into intelligence that allow the retailers and commercial property owners to access week-on-week, month-on-month and year-on-year changes in the shopper numbers on a percentage basis. It helps them to improve quality evaluation and better planning for retail outlets in shopping centres to attract target customers and measure their performances against the industry trends.
The Experian Retail FootFall Index is available internationally.
For more information, visit www.footfall.com email: footfall@au.experian.com
About Experian
Experian is a global leader in providing information, analytical and marketing services to organisations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions.
Combining its unique information tools and deep understanding of individuals, markets and economies, Experian partners with organisations around the world to establish and strengthen customer relationships and provide their businesses with competitive advantage.
For consumers, Experian delivers critical information that enables them to make financial and purchasing decisions with greater control and confidence. Clients include organisations from financial services, retail and catalogue, telecommunications, utilities, media, insurance, automotive, leisure, e-commerce, manufacturing, property and government sectors.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Experian has corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and has operational headquarters in Costa Mesa, California and Nottingham, UK. The Group employs approximately 15,500 people in 38 countries worldwide, supporting clients in over 65 countries around the world. Continuing sales for the year ended 31 March 2008 were $4,059m (£2,020m / €2,858m).
For more information, visit www.experianplc.com.