Measuring what shoppers do in one channel isn’t enough these days, but consumer data tracking powerhouses NPD and Nielsen think they have a solution to providing a holistic view of buying behaviors.
Together, the companies are building what they call the omnishopper consumer panel that layers Nielsen’s strengths in tracking movement within consumer packaged goods on top of NPD’s prowess in measuring consumer activity in general merchandise.
Brands and retailers today benefit from having a total picture of shoppers’ evolving habits and buying behaviors, NPD CEO Karyn Schoenbart, said. “Together we are building a diverse, representative and comprehensive omnishopper panel utilizing NPD’s pioneering receipt harvesting technology that will provide previously unavailable quality measurement across all brands, all industries and all channels,” she added.
The companies said the new omnishopper panel will tap into myriad data sources including physical and digital touchpoints, and better incorporate insights from what they describe as “smaller trip occasions,” the low-ticket purchasing moments that often don’t factor into consumer behavior surveys.
Nielsen said the omnishopper panel is an important part of its total consumer panel—a “framework to provide coverage, context and clarity into the new consumer journey.” The total consumer panel includes key Nielsen investments over the past year, such as improvements in measuring e-commerce activity, and Nielsen Omnichannel View, which monitors how markets perform by online, offline and “non-traditional” channels.
“We are bringing to the table a fundamentally new approach that starts with gaining a solid understanding of the omnishopper, built to capture a consumer’s ‘share of life’ and ends with a framework for clients that is truly future proofed,” Nielsen chief product and technology officer John Tavolieri said. “In our pursuit to help our clients measure, predict and activate on well-informed data across established and emerging retailers, we couldn’t be more delighted to expand our alliance with NPD to broaden our measurement of the total consumer.”