RESEARCH SERVICES

No store is completely immune to under-performing fixtures, user unfriendly displays, or P.O.P. elements with little or no impact. Nearly every aspect of a retail environment, when properly evaluated, represents an opportunity to increase sales. We help you learn which store elements are performing well, which ones are not, and why.

Our Approach

1. Merchant Mechanics' proprietary array of non-invasive data gathering methodologies, including state-of-the-art multiplexed digital video recording, quickly and precisely capture a large array of relevant consumer actions as they actually occur on the store floor.
   
   
2. Controlled test designs offer precise data on the performance of virtually any individual retail element.
   
   
3. Multivariate analyses simultaneously evaluate the interrelationships between customer behaviors and co-existing marketing and merchandising elements. These analyses are focused on uncovering critical "spheres of influence" over consumer actions as well as opportunities to innovate beyond common practices.
   
   
4. Our in-house expertise in consumer cognition provides additional guidance for understanding why observed consumer behaviors occur and a means for implementing inexpensive adjustments to achieve optimized results. Our answers to questions of "Why?" go deeper than any of our observational research competitors. Click here to learn more about our "Wiser 'Why?'s". (pdf)

Use our core product lines individually or in combination to maximize revenue by understanding the relationships between the perceptions, decisions and actions of in-store consumers.

Retail Forensics®

"Retail Forensics® is the empirical science of revealing, through objective observation and analysis, how any single element or group of elements found in a retail environment is impacting the behaviors of customers."

When we apply Retail Forensics® to a retail environment, we rigorously observe and record a wealth of behavioral data from your customers as they shop. The observational techniques we employ are unobtrusive and completely objective. Using state-of-the-art wireless video capture, passive direct observation and other proprietary data collection techniques, we provide the clearest picture of "business as usual" as it unfolds within the store.

View Retail Forensics® report samples for RETAIL ENVIRONMENTS (pdf).

View Retail Forensics® report samples for CATEGORY MANAGEMENT (pdf).

(Click Here To Get Adobe Acrobat Reader)

We analyze our data using advanced multivariate techniques. This approach yields robust simultaneous evaluations of the interrelationships among co-existing marketing and merchandising elements. These analyses are focused on uncovering critical "spheres of influence" over consumer actions as well as opportunities to innovate beyond common practices. Our clients are often surprised by the profitable findings, and are glad to have been enlightened.

The data gathered and analyzed with any of the Retail Forensics® services are the most precise you can get. Our findings are not subject to many of the traditional concerns of consumer research such as bias or customer disinterest and forgetfulness. What we see is what you get, and we see a lot. There is no better way to reveal the influences of the most crucial part of the marketing cycle: The Instant of Purchase.

Click on a link to find out more about our insightful Retail Forensics® services:

• Spatial Mapping - Don't be led astray. Discover your store's most popular (or unpopular) regions and the routes your customers take to get there.
  
  
• Retail Ergonomics - Reveal with certainty if your store is "shopper friendly." Learn how shoppers interact with your store's displays, fixtures and products.
  
  
• Performance Benchmarking - Know what works! Precisely document how well your fixtures and displays attract consumer attention and convert shoppers to buyers.
  
  
• Category Management - Target your marketing more effectively by knowing how different groups shop various types of products within your store.
  
  

RealThought® Insight

Painting the clearest picture of consumer behavior within a retail environment requires detailed knowledge of the customers' actions as well as the perceptions behind the behaviors. Retail Forensics® reveals what actions occur and the contexts in which they happen. The other side of the equation, the perceptions, preferences and customer reasoning behind the behaviors, are revealed through our RealThought® line of consumer attitude measurement services.

For specific information about the methods, deliverables and benefits of each RealThought® service, click on a link:

• CriticalPoint™ - Eliminate uncertainty. Know exactly what your customers are thinking right at the Point Of Purchase!
  
  
• FootSteps™ - Leave no stone unturned! Get the clearest picture of your customers' actual shopping experience from lease-line to lease-line.
  
  
• SpyShopper - Conduct a site check!! Use an on-site secret agent to ensure your stores are as easily and enjoyably shopped as you had thought.

The RealThought® line of customer attitude measurement services are fully compatible and easily integrated with our Retail Forensics® services. Combining services from the two lines creates the most complete picture of the customer's experience from thought to action. We work with our clients from the earliest stages to create the research program that best suits their needs.