Virtual Store Trials eyes self-service option

UK startup, Virtual Store Trials, which helps FMCG retailers and manufacturer brands test retail scenarios faster, is looking to build out its offering to make it completely self-service. 

In an interview with RTIH, Founder, Nick Theodore, says: “Whilst this brings down the price even further, most importantly it cuts down the time to get virtual trials from under a week to within a couple of days and will allow us to get them seamlessly integrated into our customers’ existing workflows.”

Theodore and Co-founder (Josh Evans) met whilst working in the FMCG industry. “We saw a real problem and equally a really valuable idea. Conventional in-store trials are great in principle but often incredibly expensive, time-consuming and error-prone in practice; why not take this online and get the answers back in days rather than months?” he says.

“So we applied some technology to the problem and built a virtual environment, which allows us to test shelf layouts, signage, pricing, promotions, NPD and packaging that’s no longer dependant on time or budget constraints, or even having physical stores to test in. With consumer behaviours changing quicker than ever, a six-month process to evaluate relatively straight forward ideas is insane - by the time it’s complete you might need to update and start the process all over again.”

The venture has been going for just over a year, working with the likes of Reckitt Benckiser, Sainsbury’s, Birds Eye and Carlsberg. Read the full interview with Theodore here.

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