Nielsen, a member of OIROM, has completed transition to HHT (Hand-Held Terminals) Technology to further develop its Retail Measurement Service (RMS) in Russia, the project with the largest geographical coverage conducted globally. As a result of this large-scale project aimed at increasing the accuracy of RMS-data collection and the speed of delivery of RMS-product to clients, HHT technology has been rolled out on the territory covering nine time zones and all the Russians regions - from Kaliningrad on the west to Vladivostok on the east - to bring new value to Nielsen’s clients.

“Despite the severe economic conditions all the economies faced in 2009, Nielsen continued investments into quality related initiatives to ensure our clients receive the best market information available”, said Dwight Watson, Managing Director, Nielsen Russia.

“Transition from manual audit based on paper questionnaires to HHT-based audit means faster and better data for business decisions. The new technology will drive the accuracy of in-store data collection by auditors and contribute to the further improvement of quality of the Retail Measurement Service data”, Dwight Watson continues. “Another benefit from HHT-technology is that it enables Nielsen to provide new services for its clients like field retail surveys, POS-materials monitoring and Store Observation which help the sales teams of FMCG manufactures to diagnose store level responses to their various initiatives”.

Nielsen is first to implement HHT technology for Retail Audit data collection in Russia. Initially launched in April 2007 when the Moscow auditors started collecting data through Hand Held Terminals, the Russian project lasted 2.5 years. In 2008 the technology was rolled out in the Central Russia. In the first half of 2009 HHT-based audit was implemented in North-Western, Volga, Ural and South regions. Siberia and Far East switched to the new technology of audit data collection by the end of 3rd quarter.

Today, as of November 2009, Retail Audit is conducted on HHT-basis on the whole territory of Russia. HHT data collection is based on EAN codes and helps to increase speed and accuracy of data collection. Data quality is maintained by Nielsen proprietary data collection software which eliminates the possibility of technical mistakes.

“This is one of many initiatives that continue to demonstrate that Nielsen sees Russia as one of the most important markets to develop our analytical tools in, especially in the current environment where speed and depth of understanding is critical,” said Dwight Watson.

Nielsen is the inventor of Retail Audit, or Retail Measurement methodology. First service of the kind was presented in 1923 in US by Arthur Charles Nielsen, the founder of the company. Since then Nielsen’s Retail Audit data became the core of market information used for the strategic and tactical decision-making and brand performance monitoring in FMCG-business globally and in Russia where Retail Measurement Services were launched in December 1993. Now more than 200 clients in Russia benefit from Nielsen’s comprehensive coverage across a broad array of retail channels in multiple categories (more than 190).

Retail Audit data includes such key market facts and indicators of performance as product movement; market share; distribution; price, and others. Manufacturers use sales and supply-chain data to measure base and incremental sales performance down to the store and SKU; to ensure on-shelf availability of their goods; to map out successful distribution strategies, based on a granular view of what sells where, why, and to whom; to measure lost opportunity and track gaps; identify the channels and markets that represent your brand’s greatest growth potential, etc. The Retail Audit data are applicable such areas like Portfolio Management; Forecasting and Trends; Distribution Strategy and Execution; Brand Management; Building B2B Relationships with retailers.

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