CHICAGO -- Information Resources Inc. (IRI), a global provider of consumer, shopper and retail market intelligence and insights for the consumer packaged goods (CPG), healthcare and retail industries, said that it is extending its relationship with 7-Eleven Inc.
Under the new agreement, the IRI 7-Exchange Program will continue and IRI will now have access to all of 7-Eleven's U.S.-based point-of-sale (POS) store dataincluding the recently acquired White Hen storesfor its convenience tracking service. The enhanced access offers more granular, store-level [image-nocss] insights from participating suppliers that will empower them to act locally.
Used by top CPG manufacturers, the IRI 7-Exchange Program is a sales information resource that provides the industry's only direct, interactive access to 7-Eleven store-specific, daily, item-level, POS data from more than 5,000 stores in the United States. The data is available in a structured, collaborative platform and reflects the retailer's unique category and geography definitions.
We worked with IRI to develop the 7-Exchange data community to facilitate improved collaboration between 7-Eleven and manufacturers and suppliers, said Kevin Elliott, senior vice president of merchandising for 7-Eleven, Dallas. This exchange enables us to identify consumer trends, buying patterns and gain additional consumer insight through the same looking glass.' As a result, we can better leverage our 6.5 million daily transactionsa true proxy for consumer needs. In addition, we further our mission of consistently serving the changing needs of customers for their convenience and achieve a win-win relationship with our vendor partners.
7-Exchange allows multiple companies in a single category to access sales information of all items, not just their own. The goal of 7-Exchange is to use such information to develop fact-based, category management plans driven by business insights, scorecards and performance metrics.
Participants of the 7-Exchange program have identified multiple business benefits, including the ability to:
Quickly identify new-item development opportunities. Effectively track new product launches using near real-time distribution reads. Design and recommend more customer-focused assortments. Consistently monitor category and product performance, by store, in a time frame that allows for consequential action. Understand success drivers at top store groups and develop programs accordingly to capitalize across stores. Improve pricing strategies through greater understanding of sales velocity, competitive movement and promotional activity. Proactively measure promotional programs during execution and address compliance issues. Improve analytic productivity.It is extremely rewarding to see the positive results and the continuation of a groundbreaking program such as 7-Exchange, said Thom Blischok, Chicago-based IRI's president of retail solutions, strategic consulting and integrated solutions. The access to all of 7-Eleven POS store data will only further enhance IRI's convenience-tracking solutions.
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