GfK and Trax Launch 'In-store Intelligence'

Global group GfK has joined forces with retail computer vision solutions firm Trax to offer enhanced intelligence on in-store performance for technology and durable goods brands.

The partners will launch a new syndicated offering, In-store Intelligence, pitched at Trade Marketing and Sales Managers and examining the impact of in-store execution, campaign compliance, product positioning and pricing and trade marketing budget planning. The solution combines GfK's proprietary point of sales and catalogue data with Trax's proprietary image-recognition technology, business intelligence and computer vision platforms.

The solution is available in major European countries and Brazil from today, with global expansion anticipated 'in the near future'.

According to Grégoire Lemaître, VP Sales Effectiveness at GfK, the alliance is 'an important step in GfK's mission to become the trusted and indispensable data and analytics partner of the technology and durable goods industry'. Joel Bar-El, chairman and co-founder of Trax, comments: 'It's our mission to provide leading consumer brands with 'eyes in the store', working alongside GfK as the trusted source of market and consumer information for the technology and durable goods industry, GfK possesses the largest consumer durables point of sales dataset in the industry. Together, GfK's retail sales data and Trax's computer vision platform will help consumer durables companies better understand how shelf and store performance directly impacts their product and brand sales'.

Trax partnered with Nielsen last year to create a new tool called the Shelf Intelligence Suite, with the aim of helping FMCG companies understand the direct impact of shelf performance on product sales.

Web sites: www.gfk.com and www.traxretail.com .