• Ad Age, Thursday, May 17, 2007 11:15 AM

Wal-Mart will provide sales data from 1,000 of its more than 3,000 stores in the U.S. to the Nielsen In-Store service, an initiative also backed by the retailer's biggest customer--Procter & Gamble--and the media agency that serves them both, Starcom MediaVest Group.

Wal-Mart will provide the sales data only for use by members of the Nielsen In-Store syndicate and only for that program, not broader applications. It has not released sales data to syndicated market-research firms for six years. The company has claimed it wasn't getting as much out of data it received as it was giving up in the way of competitive intelligence.

The Nielsen In-Store service was launched two weeks ago on a limited basis and plans to roll out nationally in early 2008. It will count traffic in stores that are in "compliance" with a media or promotion program and seek to count only unique impressions -- defined as shoppers who actually walk down a particular aisle and have an opportunity to see the media or promotion in place.

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