Harry and David

A longtime Managed Service client, Harry & David relies on ShopperTrak’s retail traffic counting to analyze key marketing and operations performance indicators for all of the firm’s 50-plus stores. The people counting system provides intelligence used to evaluate individual store results as well as larger market trends. “ShopperTrak is an invaluable partner,” according to the company’s Senior Manager of Marketing Finance, Jeff Lynn. “We benefit from the data they deliver every single day, whether it’s analyzing the business drivers behind transaction rates or giving us a sense for how we’re performing against the broader market.”

In addition, Harry & David utilizes ShopperTrak’s Traffic Report, which delivers valuable business analytics through comparative traffic data for specific geographies and vertical markets. The Traffic Report adds context across the total shopper landscape, giving clients a practical method to measure the gap between opportunity potential and actual retail health.

Harry & David took their analysis to the next level, leveraging the benchmarking tool to make strategic decisions about a high-potential retailing concept: New Holiday Seasonal Stores and Gifting Centers. Before deciding to invest in a national test launch, they needed to answer some important questions:

• Is this a viable and profitable concept?
• If yes, in what markets should the specialty outlets be located?
• In what specific malls should the outlets be located?

Not surprisingly, the holiday season represents Harry & David’s greatest sales opportunity each year. To capitalize, the company sought to test market seasonal retailing outlets, including Seasonal Stores and Gifting Centers. To identify potential locations, the company honed in on two initial decision parameters:

Market Selection

As a starting point, Harry & David examined historical traffic figures for their own stores, identifying those with consistently strong performance. They also considered the pool of available labor from existing or nearby stores. Harry & David validated the short list of markets using the Traffic Report, ultimately picking four key metropolitan markets.

Site Selection

The next step was to identify the three or four best individual locations within each market selected. Once again, the company turned to ShopperTrak’s business analytics suite, specifically the Traffic Report that reveals detailed performance metrics for the Total Retail category.

When it came to negotiating the site contracts, the ShopperTrak Traffic Report gave Harry & David yet another advantage. Armed with detailed data, they had a valuable reference point to negotiate leases. With transparent traffic numbers, they could be confident of getting an appropriate offer. This benefit will extend beyond this launch, as the Traffic Report will be used as a key decision factor in future real estate matters.

For Harry & David, ShopperTrak’s end-to-end solution—combining the power of traffic and broader market data—hits the spot. “We’re only just beginning to scrape the surface of the value of ShopperTrak’s Traffic Report,” said Jeff Lynn, Senior Manager, Marketing Finance. “There’s much more opportunity for us to explore the data and use it to become more precise and customer-oriented. They’ve been a great partner.”

Everything is in place for Harry & David’s seasonal test launch. ShopperTrak’s Traffic Report contributed as well to the development of weekly sales forecasts, which will be closely monitored against results. In malls where the specialty outlets co-exist with a retail store, Harry & David will gain valuable insight into what proportion of mall traffic they are able to capture across both instances.

With a clear view of their performance against the broader market, Harry & David is better positioned to maximize its results. With the power of the Traffic Report, they will be better able to gauge the pulse of the market for future concept expansion.

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Sensormatic Solutions is the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls enabling smart and connected shopper engagement. By combining critical insights into retail inventory, shopper traffic and loss prevention, Sensormatic Solutions powers operational excellence at scale and helps create unique shopping experiences. Our solutions deliver real-time visibility and predictive analytics for accurate decision-making across the enterprise, enabling retailers to confidently move into the future. With more than 1.5 million data collection devices in the retail marketplace, we capture 40 billion shopper visits and track and protect billions of items each year. Our retail portfolio features the premier Sensormatic, ShopperTrak and TrueVUE brands. Please visit https://www.sensormatic.com, or or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and our YouTube channel.