Do Virtual Stores Validate vs Real Store Tests?

Virtual Stores

Shopping in computer simulated Virtual Stores, as a means of researching shopper behavior, is exciting a great deal of press coverage. It’s not that the technique is new, more that it’s particularly topical, given the dynamics in today’s stores.

Both Retailers and ‘Big Brand’ Manufacturers need to offer the best choice of product at the right price to an ever changing customer base – particularly difficult in today’s spatially challenged retail stores and tight profit margin constraints.

Recognizing these challenges means there will always be keen interest in better, cheaper, faster ways of understanding the most cost-effective and profitable way to innovate product assortment and implement visual merchandising changes in-store.

But can Virtual Stores accurately test Shopper Behavior? Good Question. [...]

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Virtual Shelf – Next Generation Visual Merchandising?

Visual Merchandising

Procter and Gamble asked us to create a new kind of Visual Merchandising tool. Codenamed ‘Mary Shelf’, the first of a new generation of Visual Merchandising software was designed and delivered by one of our top Rapid Application Development teams in May 2003, after a very challenging five month development and QA effort. At the time, P and G owned global software licenses for all the first generation shelf planning planogram tools i.e. InterCept, ProSpace, Apollo, Spaceman etc., so it seemed strange to us that they would want to build another one.

They felt that the previous generation of software had not kept pace with the more sophisticated needs of today’s visual merchandisers and that it was not capable of realistically representing new merchandising concepts, point-of-sale graphics, shelf edge labels, innovative header boards etc at the highest level of photo-realism they thought was possible. So they hired us to build it for them. [...]

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The Pepsi Challenge – Could They Use ‘Virtual Store’ Simulations to Predict Shopper Behaviour?

Consumer Research

Shoppers often react unpredictably when faced with new ideas and we wanted to use our expertise to build Virtual Stores to explore that behaviour – under more closely controlled conditions than those in a real store. Creating realistic, fully interactive retail environments for testing shoppers’ reactions was, though, still in its infancy in the late 1990s. So, despite our proven track record, we were still something of an unknown quantity to PepsiCo when we met in 1999 to take up their challenge.

Over the next three years we broke new ground in our collaboration with them. We pioneered an innovative Virtual Store application called ‘Discovery’, which PepsiCo successfully used to test radically new retail concepts for Drive-Through Fast Food Outlets, Convenience Stores and full sized Grocery Stores, further enhancing their reputation as thought leaders in the process. [...]

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Pioneering Virtual Stores with Procter and Gamble

Virtual Stores

Procter and Gamble is one of the most innovative companies in the retail world and often the first to pioneer emerging technologies. We first worked with them in 1999 on a ‘proof of concept’ project which allowed them to research shoppers’ reactions to a new Mall Kiosk concept they had developed.

After that success, they commissioned us to develop an experimental ‘Virtual Store’, called ‘Spa Lore’, which was our first real opportunity to design a commercial application, purpose-built for the in-depth study of Shopper Behavior.

P&G wanted to research consumers’ potential interest in a new range of personal products. Traditional grocery outlets were rejected as inappropriate hosts for this project. Instead, they preferred the idea of an in-mall specialist store. They wanted to create a unique shopping experience; one which would educate consumers as well as offer them a relaxed atmosphere in which to explore, seek advice on and purchase the products, as part of a holistic personal ‘treatment’. [...]

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Eye Tracking in Shopper Insights – How Does it Work?

BioMetrics in Research

Today’s Eye Tracking systems measure what’s called the ‘Point-of-Regard’ by a technique called the ‘Pupil Center, Corneal Reflection’ method. The equipment consists of a matrix of LEDs emitting non-dazzling infra-red light, which is directed into the subject’s eyes. The light enters the retina and is reflected back as a bright disc.

These reflections are detected by an infra-red camera and the data processed by software, which, once calibrated with registration points, resolves the information into specific x and y coordinates that record the position of the subject’s gaze. It does this by identifying the centre of the pupil and the position of the corneal reflection in the field of view and then, using trigonometry, it’s able to calculate a precise point-of-regard position.

The data acquired during an extended eye tracking session can, for example, be overlaid on the original visual stimulus so that insights can be gained from the subject’s interaction with the material. [...]

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Excellent In-Store Compliance – A Win for Sainsburys

Retail Communications

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Aisle Management – A Marriage of Minds?

Aisle Management

Look out for a new series of articles on how Aisle Management is evolving from the well established principles of Catgory Management.

In the series we’ll look at how the new approach is changing the relationship between brand manufacturers and retailers, and how they will work together in the future. We’ll discuss it’s role in Shopper Marketing in Retail and what it will take to be a leader.

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CAD in Retail Store Planning – Where Did It Start?

CAD in Store Planning

Stand by for a series of rivetting and really useful articles on the impact of Computer Aided Design technology in retail store planning.

To set the stage it’s interesting to outline the beginnings of computer based drafting systems in general. As a matter of historical interest, reviewing Ivan Sutherland’s work on ‘SketchPad’ in the early sixties is a fascinating subject. What Sutherland developed is nothing short of truly amazing by modern standards and well worth your reading time.

As an appetizer, here’s a snippet from an article entitled ‘Toward a Machine with Interactive Skills’ (from Understanding Computers: Computer Images Time-Life Books, 1986) describing one of the first challenges – that of simply ‘drawing’ a straight line. How difficult can that be – right? [...]

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