Research

RETAIL EXCELLENCE IRELAND will continue it’s productivity review of Irish Shopping Centres in 2008 following last year’s successful report. The review will be conducted in June 2008 and will involve the same measurement variables as in 2007, while taking account of rent review scheduling.

Furthermore, RETAIL EXCELLENCE IRELAND will also undertake productivity reports for Ireland’s leading retail parks and high streets.

The high streets report was conducted in late March, while the retail parks review will be conducted in September.

RETAIL EXCELLENCE IRELAND has established a research panel for each of nine major sectors within the Irish retail industry. Each research panel involves a sample of retailers from that sector, each of whom are required to return a simple research questionnaire every three months. The questionnaire is number coded and confidential and tracks key sectoral trends and data.

RETAIL EXCELLENCE IRELAND produces a quarterly retail index for each of the nine sectors and an overall market analysis. Key retail data produced by the panels includes sales trend analysis, turnover per square foot and a cost index. This data enables retail players to better understand how they are performing comparable to their sector and identifies underlining trends, leading to better buying and strategic planning. Furthermore the data offers an excellent guide to current market performance (and an answer to the age old member enquiry – how are things out there?).

The resulting information is disseminated to the participant RETAIL EXCELLENCE IRELAND membership while a summary report will be made available to selected media partners, sponsors and the membership in general.

Research panels have been established for the following sectors:

• Ladies Fashion
• Gents Fashion
• Giftware / Homeware
• Jewellery
• Books
• Toys / Nursery
• Pharmacy
• Grocery
• Footwear