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DESCRIPTION
ShopperTrak is the world's foremost provider of traffic intelligence, shopper traffic data and decision support software for market leaders in the retail, gaming, hospitality and entertainment, and related industries.
ShopperTrak's Reporting and Data Management Suite, Professional Services, National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE), National Retail Traffic Index (NRTI) and turn-key counting technology provide clients with the industry's most actionable and accurate traffic intelligence to help effectively manage their customer opportunity.
The privately held company is headquartered in Chicago and operates seven satellite offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.
COMPANY MILESTONES
Over the past 12 years, ShopperTrak has evolved into the retail industry's premier provider of business intelligence. The following are significant milestones in ShopperTrak's history:
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1989 ShopperTrak founded by Totowa, NJ-based Datatec, a network and
equipment implementation and staging company.
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1992 Chicago-based RCT Systems, Inc. is founded to provide retail
customer traffic-based information, insight and business intelligence to the
shopping center, retail, financial services and media/advertising industries.
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1995 Datatec's ShopperTrak management team purchases the rights to the
ShopperTrak technology and forms a new company called Quadrix to continue
product development. Quadrix is founded with four employees and just one
customer.
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1996 ShopperTrak rolls out the industry's first embedded counting system
called, "Orbit". Its initial installations are for Sara Lee Outlet Stores,
Electronics Boutique and Famous Footwear.
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1997-98 RCT Systems completes roll out of largest mall developer, Simon
Property Group.
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1999 RCT Systems launches System Management Services with remote
diagnostics and WEB reporting.
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1999 RCT Systems launches the National Retail Traffic Index (NRTI), the
retail industry's only national traffic standard.
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2000 RCT Systems is installed in 20 percent of enclosed malls in U.S.
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2001 ShopperTrak has its traffic counting systems installed in more than
10,000 retail locations in six different countries.
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2001 ShopperTrak merges with leader in mall installations, RCT Systems,
Inc. The newly formed company immediately becomes the industry's leading
provider of information that helps companies that depend on pedestrian traffic
to better understand their customers.
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2002 ShopperTrak launches the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE), the
retail industry's weekly national sales tracking product. It provides an
estimate of weekly retail sales across the country, offering retailers,
investors and policy makers the most accurate and timely information on
consumer trends.
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2002 ShopperTrak releases Orbit 3, combining embedded counting
technology with remote diagnostics and System Management Services including the
ability to validate counting through remotely scheduled recordings.
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2003 ShopperTrak launches ShopperTrak Professional Services, the
company's consulting arm that develops and implements strategies that help
retail outlets, shopping malls and casinos make business decisions based on key
traffic data.
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2004 ShopperTrak and Nielsen Media Research present a traffic-based
media measurement methodology for the shopping mall as a measured mass
advertising medium, at the Worldwide Audience Measurement Conference.
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2004 In just two years, the NRSE has become the retail industry's most
trusted measure of U.S. consumer demand.
PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS
ShopperTrak: A Complete Solution
ShopperTrak is the world's leading provider of traffic measurement products and services to retailers, mall developers and gaming organizations. ShopperTrak is unique in that it provides a comprehensive, end-to-end turnkey solution. While others may count traffic, only ShopperTrak offers the services, support and tools that enable traffic-based businesses to utilize traffic data to improve overall performance. Additionally, its solutions are both simple to implement and complete. Installation and setup, ongoing support and data management, data hosting and reporting are available with every system. ShopperTrak's expert traffic data consultants are also available to help each client identify the ideal performance opportunities for managing their business with traffic-based decision-making.
ShopperTrak's reporting solutions include:
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A web-based, parameter driven interface that allows users to select individual
sites, multiple site roll-ups or hierarchies for viewing their retail
information. These web reports and measures support key management activities
for retailers, mall developers and casino managers.
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Integration services for critical customer data. The highest value reporting
and management opportunity comes from the measures created by integrating
traffic data with key customer information.
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A historical warehouse of each customer's data for use in trend reporting. The
system tracks changes (remodels, closings, relocations) so that it is always
possible to compare same site data when performing trend analysis.
Retail Reporting
ShopperTrak's retail web reporting service provides clients access to customer traffic data over the Internet at any time, making it an invaluable traffic analysis tool. The reporting service combines in-store transaction and labor data with traffic data from the ShopperTrak Orbit traffic counter, to offer a comprehensive perspective on business performance. Additionally, it enables managers to evaluate performance at all levels, from an individual store to a full portfolio, allowing them to establish best practices and improve operations from any Internet-enabled computer. Retailers can also use the reporting service to:
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Improve conversion rates and increase overall sales
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Adjust labor to traffic patterns and optimize floor coverage
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Evaluate current promotions and improve future marketing efforts
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Compare conversion rate, labor and promotions, relative to other stores in the
chain, store groups, or corporate financial groupings of stores.
Mall Reporting
ShopperTrak's mall reporting suite includes:
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DayWatch - A same day, real-time mall reporting tool, DayWatch provides mall
management with the ability to evaluate traffic patterns and re-deploy security
and maintenance staff based on traffic changes throughout the day. This tool is
particularly valuable during high traffic periods, including holidays, special
events and grand openings.
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Traffic Analyzer - ShopperTrak's Traffic Analyzer is a web-enabled property
management suite that can be used to evaluate mall traffic according to
entrance or key property area. It allows mall management to enter promotion and
special event information; track weather and unusual events; record labor needs
for housekeeping, maintenance and security; and enter tenant sales. Traffic
Analyzer also offers reporting and analytical tools to optimize staffing
relative to traffic, as well as to plan for special events. Additionally,
leasing reports are available to obtain optimal leasing rates for long-term
leases as well as for specialty leasing.
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Portfolio - Portfolio is ShopperTrak's web-based corporate reporting suite.
Available for regional and corporate mall executives to manage multiple
properties, it allows malls to be grouped according to corporate reporting
requirements and compared at property levels, as well as at reporting group
levels. Portfolio also offers tools that enable users to benchmark properties
based on key metrics such as visitors per square foot, sales per visitor and
security per visitor, to identify best-practices and provide corporate insight
for budgeting, national leasing and marketing activities.
Gaming Reporting
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Casino DayWatch - This on-site occupancy monitoring application provides
casinos and other gaming properties with real-time same day reporting on
property occupancy, as well as data on the volume of traffic entering and
exiting the building at each entrance. This provides casino management with key
information for more effective management of service and security levels
throughout each day. It also provides the occupancy reporting required by the
Coast Guard and other governing entities.
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Casino Traffic Analyzer - ShopperTrak's web-enabled reporting tools enable
casino management to more effectively evaluate traffic by individual casino,
groups of casinos or corporation, to identify best-demonstrated practices and
evaluate traffic trends. It also allows casinos to evaluate the impact of new
competition or changing economies on casino traffic.
Extracts
ShopperTrak makes available to its clients fully validated data extracts in a standard CSV format, for integration into customer warehouses and internal reporting applications. Clients may customize their time aggregates and delivery frequency.
National Benchmarks
ShopperTrak provides the retail industry's only national retail traffic benchmark, as well as the timeliest weekly estimate of specialty retail sales every week. These two benchmarks provide the most consistent and timely national trend information on the specialty retail segment.
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National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) - ShopperTrak's National Retail
Sales Estimate (NRSE) is the retail industry's weekly national sales tracking
product. It provides an estimate of weekly retail sales across the country,
offering retailers, investors and policy makers the most accurate and timely
information on consumer trends available today.
The NRSE provides the retail industry with a Monday snapshot of the previous
week's sales, enabling retailers to see how they are performing against the
national market and act upon the data to impact future sales. It is published
at the beginning of each week to reflect U.S. retail sales during the previous
week, making it an ideal tool for quickly tracking broad-based consumer demand
changes. This makes it a useful measure for investors to utilize in balancing
their portfolio holdings and for fiscal and economic policy makers in guiding
the formulation of economic policies.
The NRSE is an estimate of the U.S. Commerce Department's monthly sales data
for general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other specialty store sales
(GAFO). NRSE provides an estimate of the GAFO numbers on a weekly basis using
proprietary ShopperTrak estimation models.
ShopperTrak's NRSE holds a number of key competitive advantages over other
industry retail sales measures. They include:
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The ability to assist retailers in making key business decisions utilizing the
most timely, accurate intelligence available.
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The ability to gauge the performance of individual retail stores against the
national market on a weekly basis.
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The ability to quickly spot accelerating and decelerating consumer-spending
trends on a weekly basis.
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National Retail Traffic Index (NRTI) - ShopperTrak's National Retail
Traffic Index (NRTI) is the only national index available for the benchmarking
of retail customer traffic trends. The NRTI consists of two separate products:
Mall NRTI provides nationally projected traffic data that represents the
1,519 enclosed shopping malls in the U.S.
Department Store NRTI provides ShopperTrak clients with nationally
projected traffic data that represents department stores within enclosed
shopping malls.
These products combine to provide retail executives, mall developers, and
advertisers with a national benchmark that enables them to understand national
trends in retail visitor traffic, compare results to national traffic
statistics, and establish fact-based benchmarks. Reports are delivered via the
Internet and include:
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Key measures such as traffic per square foot, average shopping time and traffic
within key areas
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Hourly, weekly and monthly traffic data with history back to November 1999
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Daily updates that include the previous day's data
ShopperTrak Professional Services
ShopperTrak Professional Services assists retailers, mall developers and casinos in getting the most out of the data provided by its traffic management systems. Services include:
Opportunity Assessment Pilot Program
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Payback ROI estimates
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Opportunity models
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Implementation options
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Business case development
Proof of Opportunity Program
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Goal setting and program plan
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Program training
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8 week test to prove opportunity
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Analysis and reporting
Custom Projects (examples)
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Training programs
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Performance measurement integration
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Identification of sales behaviors that improve conversion
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Implementation Project Management and Support
System Management Services
ShopperTrak's System Management Services (SMS) capability provides a turnkey solution that allows the company's customers to focus on extracting maximum value from its information, rather than the logistics of managing the system. The SMS model is the result of years of research and experience and not only assures ShopperTrak's customers of the integrity of their data, but also incorporates controls and other measures to consistently monitor the ongoing performance of their installed counting systems (Orbits).
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Data Collection (Orbit) - ShopperTrak's Orbit utilizes a digital video
sensor and DSP processors to monitor visitors 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. Each Orbit is programmed with an internal schedule to push data to host
nightly. The system comes with many features that competing systems do not
have, including:
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A Highly reliable embedded platform - ShopperTrak's hardware platform is a
fully integrated, embedded system. The camera, processor and FTP services are
all resident on the device. There is no need for an external PC or other
processing hardware at an installation site.
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A state-of-the-art counting algorithm - A proprietary algorithm that adapts to
variations in lighting and environment layout. Orbit's tracking mechanisms are
able to exclude customers "milling" about and traveling in erratic traffic
patterns. Configuration is customized to each entrance.
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Self-diagnostics -The system is self-monitoring and returns diagnostics to the
ShopperTrak host each day.
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Flexible connectivity options - The Orbit features connectivity to support
nearly all needs, whether they are modem or IP-based. Optional POS dual
connectivity is also available.
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Video recordings and snapshots - Actual recordings and still photos of the
camera scene may be managed remotely and returned to the ShopperTrak host for
analysis and quality assurance.
Data and System Management
Once visitor traffic data is pushed to the ShopperTrak host, the company's automated data analysis engine goes to work validating the information. A series of checks proactively identifies system and environmental issues impacting the data. Key features of this engine include:
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Reference data - A central warehouse containing each Orbit's critical camera
information such as the configuration, scene snapshots, communication schedules
and push instructions.
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Remote diagnostics and problem resolution - System diagnostics, data analysis
and ShopperTrak traffic expertise are combined to quickly evaluate and resolve
client challenges remotely.
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An automated, continuous daily receipt process - Traffic is pushed nightly to
ShopperTrak servers, where files are validated against the master schedule and
missing cameras are identified and posted to an electronic bulletin board for
third-shift recovery specialists to begin troubleshooting before the next
business day.
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Daily data evaluation - Data is evaluated each day and scanned for abnormal
trends against a baseline, as well as for missing data increments. A variance
test is then performed and exceptions are posted to an electronic bulletin
board where ShopperTrak traffic data analysts begin the troubleshooting
process.
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System business controls - Schedules, Orbit status and problem status are fed
to a Remedy problem management system.
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Recording analysis and counting optimization - When exceptions suggest that
store environment changes are impacting traffic patterns, recordings are
scheduled for those periods of exception. ShopperTrak traffic experts evaluate
these recordings and use them to address scene changes in a new configuration.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Jan Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer
Bill Martin, Co-Founder
Jim Martin, Vice President, Information Products
Michael LaBorde, Chief Financial Officer; Vice President, Operations
Craig Mohan, Chief Technology Officer
OFFICES
Headquarters
200 West Monroe Street
Chicago, IL 60606
312.529.5300
Sales Offices
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Louisiana
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Pennsylvania
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California
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Florida
International Offices
Australia
Micro Max
307 Keira St.
Wollongong, NSW 2500
Australia
011.61.2.4271.1300
Japan
RCT Japan
4-14-17 Meguro hon-cho
Meguro-ku
Tokyo, Japan 152-0002
81-3-5768-2061
United Kingdom
RCT Analytics UK
Couching House, Watlington, OXON
OX49 5PX
United Kingdom
011.44.1491.615.330
WEB SITE
http://www.shoppertrak.com
MEDIA CONTACTS
Aaron Martin (amartin@sphillips.com)
Phillips + Associates, Inc.
Phone: 312-943-9100
Facsimile: 312-943-9668
  
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Media Contacts
We are always willing
to assist members of the news media in any way that we can. For company information, media inquiries, to schedule an interview with a ShopperTrak spokesperson, OR TO BE ADDED TO THE NRSE DISTRIBUTION LIST, please contact:
Aaron Martin
Scott Phillips + Associates, Inc.
voice: 312.943.9100 ext. 23
fax: 312.943.9668
Scott Phillips
voice: 312.943.9100 ext. 28
fax: 312.943.9668
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