Market Force Information acquires Retail Eyes to drive customer intelligence

Both companies offer a similar range of customer intelligence offerings - from mystery shopping to customer satisfaction and in-store auditing, delivered on an integrated analytics platform. The companies also say there are synergies in terms of visions and cultures. 

Retail Eyes’ Milton Keynes offices will become the Market Force European headquarters. The acquisition will enable Retail Eyes to focus on sustaining growth in the UK and developing the business in European markets, the companies say.

Tim Ogle, CEO of Retail Eyes said that Market Force’s experience and support would give Retail Eyes the financial and experiential resources needed to grow the business further, both here in the UK, as well as throughout Europe. “We have achieved fantastic results since we launched in 2003. In the last financial year alone to March 2011 - and despite challenging economic conditions - we achieved 46 per cent growth with a turnover of £9.6 million.”

Ogle added that the market for customer intelligence solutions was beginning to explode in the UK and Europe, “and we want to be at the forefront. We already have some of the most highly valued brands in the UK as clients. They appreciate how getting the customer experience right with every visit drives their success. The scale, product range and analytics that Market Force offers, in combination with our UK and European expertise, makes us a formidable force together in an expanding international market.”

Market Force has spent the last few years developing propriety technology and patent-pending analytics models that combine, analyse and present multiple customer-related data streams in a platform that makes it easy for executives to understand what has the biggest impact on customer satisfaction and bottom-line performance.

Global demand for products and services to boost customer intelligence is growing strongly, the company says, as retailers, restaurants, and other consumer chains work to bring customers in, and make every experience, in every store, consistently great.

The acquisition of Retail Eyes adds more than 100 clients to Market Force’s portfolio and will double the number of mystery shoppers and retail auditors in the company’s network to over 600,000 across Europe and the Americas. The expected revenue of the expanded company is set to exceed more than $70 million (£45 million) in 2011.

Karl Maier, Market Force’s CEO, said the acquisition would enable Market Force to better serve its multi-national clients, as well as extend services to new markets that have huge potential for growth.“As the world becomes increasingly global, our customers need to drive consistent performance across every store, whether in New York, London, Toronto or Berlin,” Maier said.