ActiSKU - Tag - Retail Insights

Testimonials

Pascal Bourut — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:21:00 +0100

Jared Joseph

Director - Retail Smart

«By partnering with ActiSku we are adding value to our retail and supplier client base by offering 3D merchandising services in addition to our existing category management services, it’s simply a natural fit.»

Retail Smart the UK’s leading innovator and provider of retail planning software and services for the FMCG sector, have partnered with ActiSku to offer store virtual realisation and online store surveys to the FMCG market.

Jared Joseph Director of Retail Smart Limited stated: It has always been our aim to add Virtual Reality services to our range of category management software and services. By partnering with ActiSku we are adding value to our retail and supplier client base by offering 3D merchandising services in addition to our existing category management services, it’s simply a natural fit.

By using ActiSku 3D virtualisation service clients get realistic views of how brands and categories look in store and on shelf to effectively plan a new ranges, product launch or full concept stores. In ActiSku we have found a partner who uses leading edge Virtual Reality platform which is totally web enabled making it accessible to anyone around the worlds, I’m excited at this opportunity and for the future innovations of online retailing.

How’s that?

Jean Francis Bonnard

Expert in industrial and commercial development

«As much as a merchandising tool and shoppeur test, as it is defined, ActiSku is for me a wonderful architectural design software, an unparalleled flexibility.»

Jean Francis Bonnard graduated from the Saint Etienne Architectural School, and began his career as a scientist with the army in French Polynesia, where he designed military buildings and barracks.

In 1989, he joined the Saint-Etienne based Casino Group as 'Supermarket Project Manager' and one year later, took over the management of all their Supermarket projects in France.

In 1991 he became head of the Group’s drawing/ design office, which designs all their shops, warehouses and restaurants.

From 1998 to 2003 he led the development of the 'Casino Cafétérias' subsidiary and, in 2003 became 'Property Development and Maintenance Manager' for the Supermarkets business units.

He left this position in 2007 and founded several companies working in the Property Development sector.

Jean Francis Bonnard is an IT enthusiast and contributed significantly to the implementation of systems at the Casino Group’s Works Management Department

Sylvie Joseph

Deputy Marketing Director LA POSTE

«I had the pleasure of discovering ActiSku made by ACTIPLAY last April to work on a number of simulations. This tool, the best I have ever come across, is fantastic in its realism and precision. It enables the user or consumer to project themselves into a reality which is less virtual than ever.»

Sylvie Joseph began her career in 1983 as Head of Advertising in an agency where she later became Chief Executive.

In 1992, she founded D&J, a retail-focused Strategy Consultancy, and joined the Carrefour Group in 1999 as Marketing Director for Branding and Communication in Europe.

In 2001 she took over as Director of Marketing-Communication for the France Hypermarkets business unit for the retail group, before joining Conforama (PPR Group) as Marketing Director for Customers and Communication.

In 2005, she took on the role of Chief Executive of the Solutions department for the High Co. Group, which specialises in sales promotion, and left in 2008.

Sylvie Joseph is a renowned expert in Customer Relations and Retail and Consumer Goods Marketing.

She is currently Deputy Marketing Director at LA POSTE.

ActiSKU online, it's as if you were there !

Pascal Bianchi — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:22:00 +0100

ActiSKU online

When merchandising become indispensable

Bennet Holmes — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:55:00 +0000

The right product, the right place, the right time, the right price and the right quantity.

Consider the usual definition of “merchandising”. For decades, the corner grocer has been slowly transforming into a self-service operation over time in an almost scientific manner.

It must be stated that, with the explosion of competing brands and modern business needs in all areas of commerce, there is a great risk of loss and/or failure unless a minimum degree of order and organisation is maintained.

This is even truer in a hypermarket where there are often 60,000 to 80,000 SKUs (product types) all of which must be placed in a multitude of aisles and on hundreds of shelves. But how? Imagine our poor grocer of yester-year, could he accommodate all this? Probably not!

Profitability can only be maintained by extensive analysis of the positioning of products on shelves, the variety of stock, the quantity of product per “SKU”, etc.

Who takes charge of the merchandising?

A well-designed, attractive point of sale that is customised to match the habits and needs of the clientele increases the sales turnover per shelf and, thus, per SKU. Today, some distribution companies are working hand-in-hand with industrialists in order to increase profitability and, in some cases, the merchandising is completely controlled by industrialists.

From this point of view, brand-name companies, who often work together with several distributors (and who know them well) can help them to be profitable by using their knowledge of consumer habits as well as changes in the preferences of “average” clients but this only works when the competition is not too overbearing and the clientele profile is relatively simple.

On the other hand, many distributors have sought to regain control of their merchandising in order to customise their shelves and selection to the specific nature and needs of their own store. “Geo-merchandising”, as it is sometimes called, is often appropriate because the distributor knows his local clientele best (age, social position, preferences, lifestyle etc.). A degree of “fine-tuning” in accordance with local habits, rapid population development, etc, can greatly improve the merchandising effectiveness.

Industrialists, in spite of their advanced research methods and best intentions, often miss subtle nuances that can harm product sales if they are not quickly detected and resolved.

I am thinking of brand-names that will be seriously affected by the departure of entire regiments of the French Army in certain regions. Good-bye youth, family, celebrities etc. How are they going to manage these rapid changes without a finely-tuned appreciation of the consumption habits and preferences of the remaining population?

Every day they are confronted by a constant change in the “average” consumer profile. In such cases, the industry, the brand name, could never add to a deeper understanding of the local market than the store itself.

Let me give a more general example of the kind of “client knowledge” that is necessary: Carrefour has two stores in western Paris, Montesson and Sartouville separated by only a few kilometres that are designed for two very different kind of clientele. One: wealthy, high-revenue classes. The second: average, younger, “family-oriented” clientele. In this specific case, the selection on the shelves cannot be the same. Many products presented in one would be inappropriate in the other. This is also true for the pricing. The right stock variety, the right pricing, the right spatial positioning and the most effective promotional methods etc. are all very critical issues.

In addition to this, there is the competition of multiple stores!

Brand-names are trying to maintain control over their own merchandising and this has resulted in the creation of “ad hoc” services in the majority of major chains over the last few years as they try control their stock and every other factor that impacts their profitability.

The obsession with “exclusive info”, that they fear may be leaked to an industrialist to the profit of other chains, has probably played a significant role in the creation of these integrated merchandising

Merchandising methods

The purpose of Merchandising with a capital “M”, as described by the Institut Français du Merchandising (IFM), is “to increase product sales by constantly adaptating selection to market requirements and by presenting merchandise appropriately”.

In other words, any method used to help increase product sales, including in-store advertising, studies to determine a product’s ideal shelf positioning compared to its competitors, promotional strategies, aisle head displays, etc., are all among the traditional concerns of merchandising.

Today, merchandising is often integrated into the overall IT system. Everyone is familiar with “Apollo” and “Spaceman” which are widely used in major food retail chains and in industry to connect sales forces and merchandising. When used in conjunction with other software, they also make it possible to manage and plan the product assortment based on store details, as well as product and consumer data.

These same tools can help manage shelf displays, planogram design, or even, on the supplier side, to monitor sales initiatives, while communicating with merchandising software. Initially used mainly in industry, these tools are now widely adopted by distributors and appear indispensable today.

ActiSKU and certain other market solutions come into play well upstream, before implementation of a new marketing concept, before placing a new product on the shelf, before installing new signage or in-store advertising. They are used in the context of marketing studies designed to perfect understanding of the customer.

To be clear: The advantage of ActiSKU is that it provides real-time feedback that frees the user from long processing times for data compilation, unthinkable for research groups today in view of tightened budgets (time is money!). This is one drawback of Flash-based software, which also suffers from excessive download volumes.

The next step for ActiSKU and its successors will be to create the necessary technology “bridges” to other tools (Apollo-Spaceman, etc.) to increase their usefulness and improve marketing methods and research. ActiSKU was designed for such changes, a client need only ask!

Why internalise the implementation of a shopper test in a 3D virtual environment?

Pascal Bianchi — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:58:00 +0000

In a market where everything must be tested (packaging, prices, in-store ads, installations, designs, etc.) with increasing reduced time frames and budgets, a research agency or department must be able to provide new methodologies in order to maintain their margins.

It is possible to call upon a subcontractor to bring his expertise in creating a trial-environment survey.

In this case the subcontractor (possibly a competitor) keeps the exclusivity of the implementation and reduces your margins. In addition to the time spent explaining your needs to the subcontractor is a terrible waste.

The ActiSKU suite was created specifically to save time and allow a research company or service to master the complete survey process, from the design of virtual test environments, to the launch of the operation, without requiring any specialised IT knowledge.

Why should I perform shopper tests in a virtual, 3D environment?

Pascal Bianchi — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:56:00 +0000

Today, 3D is flooding homes via video games, it is also used in the industry to obtain quick, low-cost solutions for technical, marketing and ergonomic issues.

The automotive sector uses 3D simulators to analyse the behaviour of drivers, the army uses 3D combat simulators to examine the behaviour of soldiers, various situations and research groups use ActiSKU to study the behaviour of consumers as they face various marketing options.

3D simulation immerses individuals into various environments and the individual adopts the same attitudes that he would in a similar real-life situation. If you were in a video game, driving a vehicle down a road and approached a bend in the road, would you continue straight into a wall?

Concrete example: online surveys performed (since 2007) by a Carlsberg Group research department using ActiSKU have shown a correlation of more than 90% with data collected in stores (purchased products).