Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 51
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
MEASURING WHAT KEEPS
YOU UP AT NIGHT
How can you leverage crowd-sourcing and your own
shoppers to help you measure in-store execution and
identify areas to help you grow sales and profits?
BY JEFF DOUCETTE, GENERAL MANAGER, FIELD AGENT CANADA
HOW IT WORKS
IT HAS likely been said in these pages at least a thousand times,
but the adage still holds true: "retail is detail". Getting the little
things right, whether you are one of the largest retailers in the
country or a one-store operation, gives you a competitive advantage
over your competition.
Profitability is tight in the retail sector, and keeping costs
under control is a key ingredient of a retailer's sustained success.
The challenge for retailers is often "how can we measure
our in-store execution without adding significant costs?"
In other words, the upside of conducting mystery shops, com-
pliance audits and facilities audits can often be overshadowed
by the high cost of implementing and running these programs.
This is where crowdsourcing can provide a cost-effective
and quick alternative to traditional suppliers of mystery shopping
services.
Crowd-sourcing is a relatively new phenomenon and has its
roots in the information technology sector where many "opensource"
software programs were developed, improved and
made popular by hundreds or thousands of programmers who
worked to build a great product for little or now reward other
than a sense of belonging to a team that accomplished something
great.
Probably the most recognizable form of crowd-sourcing for Can-
adians is the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Launched in 2001 as a simple collaborative website,
it now contains 30 million articles in 287
languages. Wikipedia has nearly 130,000 active
"editors" and is often updated with current
events quicker than major news websites.
Imagine being able to crowd-source the
shoppers that flow through your store every
day to help you monitor how your store looks,
what your staff are doing and saying to customers
and even monitor what your competition
is doing in terms of pricing, promotion
and customer service. Now you can.
Field Agent is the leading provider of crowd-
sourced mystery shop and retail audits in Canada
and leverages the technology that the majority
of Canadians carry with them at every
moment of the day: smartphones.
Field Agent's "mobile army" of 27,000 shop-
pers from coast-to-coast use their smartphones to
complete surveys and collect photos, video and
audio while they are shopping at a range of retailers
and service providers right across Canada.
www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer | spring 2014 | canadian retailer | 51
EONLINEXCLUSIVE
www.retailcouncil.org
http://www.retailcouncil.org
http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014
Publisher’s Desk
Retail Currents
Retail: At Issue
Understanding the Channels
Reversal of Flow
Omnichannel Retail—Everywhere All the Time
At Home Online
A Space to Grow
Blocking and Tackling With a Canadian Marketing Legend
Advertiser's Index
Retail Quick Tips
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - cover1
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - cover2
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 3
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Publisher’s Desk
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 5
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 6
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 7
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Retail Currents
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 9
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 10
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 11
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Retail: At Issue
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 13
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Understanding the Channels
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 15
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Reversal of Flow
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 17
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 18
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 19
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 20
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 21
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Omnichannel Retail—Everywhere All the Time
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 23
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 24
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 25
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 26
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - At Home Online
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 28
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 29
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 30
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 31
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - A Space to Grow
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 33
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 34
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 35
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Blocking and Tackling With a Canadian Marketing Legend
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 37
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 38
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 39
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 40
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 41
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 42
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 43
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 44
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 45
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 46
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 47
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 48
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Advertiser's Index
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - Retail Quick Tips
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - cover3
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - cover4
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - outsert1
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - outsert2
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 51
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2014 - 52
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