CHICAGO & LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and over-the-counter healthcare companies, and 7-Eleven, Inc. today announced the launch of 7-Exchange Next Generation™ solution. This new solution will help ensure 7-Eleven and subscribing manufacturer partners work from a “single version of the truth” for such things as identical basket-level transaction data, promotion optimization, trip-mission segments, store segmentation, same store and time-of-day information. This approach will facilitate collaboration and accelerate return on investment for joint activities.
“This new solution offers the manufacturer a more robust way to partner with 7-Eleven on their category management processes,” said Brad Shelton, executive vice president, Retail Client Solutions, IRI. “The new 7-Exchange will provide detailed insights into the purchase patterns of almost 7 million guests who visit 7-Eleven in a typical day.”
With 7-Exchange Next Generation, 7-Eleven is the first convenience retailer to share basket-level transaction data with its partners through this program to accelerate innovative and more customer-focused products and merchandising approaches. The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution will include standardized category management workflows to encourage stronger alignment between all of 7-Eleven’s external manufacturer-partner activities and internal category management processes, including analysis, execution and measurement of key category sales information.
Jim Hendrickson, 7-Eleven’s manager of market research and consumer insights, said, “The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution and its brand-affinity insights provide the detailed data manufacturers and 7-Eleven need to more effectively identify product assortment and merchandising opportunities, design more effective promotional strategies, and identify high- value, cross-merchandising opportunities. This unprecedented access to precise basket-level data gives our manufacturer partners the improved insights they need to thrive at 7-Eleven.”
Other key benefits of the 7-Exchange Next Generation service include:
- Category management process workflows: The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution features standard report templates and workflows to facilitate manufacturer collaboration with 7-Eleven’s category managers.
- Daypart and conversion analysis: 7-Exchange is powered by time-stamped transaction data for analyzing trends by time of day and day of week. By benchmarking their performance versus category and competing manufacturer performance, decision makers can quickly identify time periods where they might not be maximizing opportunities.
- Promotion and markdown analysis: The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution measures the impact of promotions and markdowns at the most granular level possible. Using this specific, isolated data, 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners can easily identify which promotions and markdowns are working and which are not, and adjust their strategies accordingly to maximize returns.
- Trip mission segmentation: Identifying the links between shopper intent and actual purchase patterns has traditionally presented a challenge for 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners, but the 7-Exchange solution demystifies this correlation by classifying every 7-Eleven transaction into one of 10 trip-mission segments. With this insight, 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners can optimize assortment, promotions and other strategies to entice shoppers from each trip-mission segment.
- Affinity purchase analysis: The 7-Exchange solution’s basket-level transaction data provides previously unavailable product cross-purchase information, giving 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners a higher degree of insight into which products sell best together and how to create highly targeted affinity merchandising and promotional communications and campaigns.
- Unparalleled results measurement capabilities: 7-Exchange Next Generation’s granular transaction data (UPC, store, basket, timestamp) is updated weekly, giving 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners an unmatched ability to measure the results of all targeted communications promotions and merchandising activities. The new solution’s frequent data updates enable 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners to build, run and measure specific test and control scenarios without the typical delays associated with other similar solutions.
“7-Exchange Next Generation offers IRI clients faster access and more granular insight to 7-Eleven’s basket-level transaction information than ever before,” said Eric Lang, vice president, Shopper Marketing, IRI. “This access enables a more collaborative, insightful and efficient business strategy and execution process with 7-Eleven’s category management team to further grow category and total store sales.”
The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution is deployed using IRI’s Retail Advantage™ platform, the latest module under the Retail Advantage product portfolio that empowers integrated insights and closed-loop marketing for retailers and their supplier partners. With its transaction-level data, the Retail Advantage platform is a powerful data-analysis tool that delivers improved access to integrated shopper, basket, panel, POS and third-party insights. Additionally, the Advantage platform offers subscribers the flexibility to expand the 7-Exchange service to include “rest of market” and loyalty data.
About 7-Eleven, Inc.
7-Eleven, Inc. is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience retailing industry. Based in Dallas, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 10,000 7-Eleven® stores in North America. Globally, 7-Eleven has some 50,000 stores in 16 countries. During 2011, 7-Eleven stores generated total worldwide sales close to $84.8 billion. 7-Eleven has been honored by a number of companies and organizations recently. Accolades include: #2 on Forbes magazine’s 2011 list of Top Franchises for the Money; #3 spot on Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500 list for 2012, #3 in Forbes magazine’s Top 20 Franchises to Start, and #2 in Franchise Times Top 200 Franchise Companies. 7-Eleven was named No. 3 on Fast Company magazine’s 2013 list of the “World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Retail.” Hispanic Magazine named 7-Eleven among its Hispanic Corporate Top 100 Companies that provide the most opportunities to Hispanics. 7-Eleven received the 2010 Retailer of the Year honor from PL Buyer because of the company's private-label brand initiative. 7-Eleven is franchising its stores in the U.S. and expanding through organic growth, acquisitions and its Business Conversion Program. Find out more online at www.7-Eleven.com.
About IRI
IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing.
Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com.
