​New York, NY; January 10, 2013: GfK is launching GfK’s Location Insights™, a cutting-edge service to help retailers understand the movements and demographics of crowds around and in specific stores. This uniquely powerful information will support timely, fact-based decision making for retailers as they seek to optimize store location, advertising, and marketing choices. Moreover, it will provide a deeper understanding of outlet performance and competitive store traffic.

GfK executives will be demonstrating Location Insights at the National Retail Federation conference in New York City, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center from Monday, January 14th through Tuesday, January 15th. The service will be available commercially in April.   

GfK’s Location Insights service reveals where crowds cluster, as well as crowd movements before and after leaving specific stores, restaurants, entertainment venues, or other geographic areas. By combining this information with socio-demographic profiles from GfK consumer research and the US Census, GfK’s Location Insights service allows retailers to understand customers like never before. GfK processes de-identified, aggregated cellphone tower data without handling any personally identifiable information.

“Today’s retailers face unprecedented competition to serve customer needs in more dynamic ways,” said Tom Dailey, COO of GfK Consumer Choices North America. “By focusing on traffic patterns, and not people, our solution provides retailers with unprecedented insights based on crowd movement statistics.”

“The US launch of GfK’s Location Insights service delivers on our mission to support critical business decisions with unique data assets and analysis,” said Dr. Gerhard Hausruckinger, COO of GfK Consumer Choices. “We think this service enhances retailers’ ability to provide shoppers what they want, when they want it, and where they want it.”

• Competition – observe visitor traffic for competitive retail sites  
• Retail site selection – identify store locations with the greatest sales potential and competitive positioning 
• Marketing and advertising effectiveness – optimize mix of local marketing and advertising, and monitor competitor ad effectiveness
• Store performance – compare store sales to metrics such as foot traffic and loyal shopper frequency across your store portfolio
• Merchandising – tailor assortment to more closely fit changing demographics of foot traffic 
• Out-of-home advertising and marketing – determine when and where to place OOH advertising to best reach targets and optimize advertising campaigns