Google partners with BRC for new online retail monitor

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Google have announced plans for a new quarterly report which will quantify the growth of online retail traffic.

John Gillan, Google’s senior industry retail head, announced the plan for the BRC / Google Online Retail Monitor (ORM) at the BRC’s multi-channel retail conference last Thursday.  

The ORM will measure traffic for the online retail sector – the equivalent of footfall for store retailing.

It will report changes and trends in numbers of unique visitors to retail websites, comparing the performance of online-only retailers with multi-channel retailers.

There will be a geographical breakdown of online activity and the growth of smartphone retail traffic will also be measured. A ranking of the most popular retail search terms will show current consumer trends.  

“The launch of the Online Retail Monitor marks a huge step in achieving multi-channel measurability for the online retail sector,” said Gillan.

“The tool will be able to quantify the growing traffic to the fast-changing retail industry, as well as establish key trends and determine retail hot spots for online traffic. As the most advanced e-commerce country in the world, the ORM can further drive the UK retail economy."

Online is the fastest growing sector of UK retailing but online retail data has never been issued in this way before.

The ORM will be published for the first time in mid-April.

Lucy Shaw, 28.03.2011