Capital and Regional

Shopping Centre management are renowned for being demanding in their desire for accurate visitor counting data. Capital & Regional uses traffic counting as a key method of reporting that can influence a number of operational activities, from marketing and promotions and weekly performance analysis, to CEO-led City presentations and as a tool to drive new retail lettings

Capital & Regional had been using foot traffic provider for a number of years. However employees throughout the organisation, from Shopping Centre General Managers through to the CEO, were beginning to feel frustrated at the level of service being delivered. The data was being used to measure success against competitors and the National Index, and therefore needed to be consistently accurate as well as providing on-demand, professional reporting and the ability to respond quickly to concerns or enquiries. In 2009, Capital & Regional’s CEO took the decision that the required level of service was not being met by the existing solution and put together a team to review alternative offerings in the market.

The team was led by Martin Macwhinnie, Regional Operations Manager and included Mall general managers as part of the working party. After looking at four potential solutions providers, including the incumbent, three vendors were invited to pitch.

ShopperTrak was the only company that demonstrated a real understanding of the brief in terms of the accuracy and availability required of the data. The company also offered the most advanced technology, using video as opposed to the existing thermal imaging which was overly susceptible to changes in light and weather.

Although it was clear to Capital & Regional that ShopperTrak would perform better overall, there were financial as well as operational and emotional issues to contend with before the contract could commence. The team at Capital & Regional quickly established that the long term savings offered by ShopperTrak justified the capital expenditure. The next challenge was to ensure that the system was up and running in three months and that the quality of the data would convince the Centre Managers, who relied on traffic counting both for themselves and their retailers, that the move to a new vendor was worthwhile.

Capital & Regional and ShopperTrak ran the new solution alongside the existing system for a period of six weeks. Significant discrepancies appeared in the data captured from the existing provider’s equipment making it very difficult to draw meaningful comparisons. The system therefore had to operate for 12 months on a re-alignment basis, running ShopperTrak against the previous year’s data and making adjustments were necessary. The ShopperTrak data remained consistent throughout this period and the incumbent data was discarded at the end of the 12 months.

After a painless and on schedule implementation the overall feeling at Capital & Regional is that ShopperTrak has been a very positive change for the business. The data is both accurate and available and the reporting can be delivered in numerous formats, customised for different stakeholders within the business. Parameters can be set within the system so that General Managers are only alerted when variations hit an agreed level and all retailers are given access to the data to encourage collaboration. The ShopperTrak team has been more responsive and committed to the business which will hopefully see the solution rolled out across additional sites in the future.

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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.