Kantar Consulting Launches 'Perfect Category' VR Tool

Recently-established Kantar Consulting has unveiled a new tool offering virtual reality layouts of entire supermarket stores, with the ability to change individual items on shelves, along with display materials, and model the effect on purchasing.

The programme uses the new unit's big data analysis of individual retail locations, and offers 150 different virtual stores and virtual models of 180,000 different products, according to www.retailgazette.co.uk . The software provides users with a yield rating for a particular shelf, enabling them to optimise store layout and predict sales results.

Kantar's RichMix software takes data from individual stores and sales data specific to a brand and item - including preferences based on the geographical location of the store - to assign a rating indicating which items will perform best within a particular category. A measure of 'incrementality' decides - if an item is removed - whether customers will buy something else instead, or look for the same item in another store.

Kantar announced the creation of the new division in January, with Phil Smiley as CEO and more than 1,000 analysts, developers and consultants on board, and just a few days later said it had acquired brand consultancy Mash Strategy for an undisclosed sum.

Web site: www.kantarconsulting.com .