The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is asking retailers to participate in the recently launched ARA Morgan Retail Pulse, a weekly monitor of retail confidence and performance which will provide unparalleled insight into the current retail environment directly from those in the industry.
 
ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said members had already started signing up to contribute to and receive the Retail Pulse.
 
“The ARA and Roy Morgan believe the best way to gain an accurate, timely and specific reflection of the current retail environment is to ask those operating at the coal face of the sector, and for the first time ever the Retail Pulse will enable this to happen,” he says.
 
“We also understand retailers are among the busiest business operators and as such have made the sign up and feedback process as easy as possible, with retailers only needing to respond with a one letter answer to a one question SMS.”
 
Every Monday between 10am and noon Roy Morgan will send retailers an SMS asking the question, ‘How were your sales last week compared to the previous week’? All respondents need to SMS back a single letter answer; U=Up D=Down S=Same. Roy Morgan will collate all responses by 4pm EST on Monday afternoon and email a report to participants, Zimmerman explains.
 
“In exchange for answering this one question, retailers will be emailed The Retail Pulse report, which will allow retailers to be at the forefront of the industry they operate in and access tools they need to thrive in the future.
 
“As both a retailer and representative of the ARA, I am excited to be participating in the survey and working with Roy Morgan to ensure retail research is timely, accurate and able to be used to better an industry which contributes $240 billion to Australia’s economy.
 
“Retailers can make their response count and sign up to the Retail Pulse by heading to http://www.roymorganonlinestore.com/retail-pulse.aspx and can also email research@retail.org.au for more information,” Zimmerman said.