Wal-Mart Stores signed a contract with research firm NPD Group for consumer spending data across myriad industries, including food and beverages, clothing, home furnishings, toys, automotive aftermarket, consumer technology and music, film and video and games.
NPD Group will provide panel data from 3.5 million consumers about their purchases in all retail outlets, including the price paid. Wal-Mart is expected to share the data with key manufacturers.
Wal-Mart shook the packaged goods industry in 2001 when it stopped providing scanner sales data to six research firms, including NPD Group and data giants Information Resources Inc. and ACNielsen (Promo, July 2001).
Wal-Mart held back its data to thwart retail competitors from seeing its performance, but the move hobbled packaged goods marketers from gauging their own sales performance.
Wal-Mart has continued to share brands’ sales data directly with manufacturers, but consumer packaged goods companies still have to stitch together Wal-Mart’s data with that from other channels to track a brand’s overall sales.
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