Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to define the directions that should be pursued by retail panel research in the next 6 years. A mini-survey was conducted among the major responsible persons in market research at an international level in the clients' companies (mainly in the SDA sector) and among the most important persons on the part of Research Institutes. This survey had a purely qualitative approach, nevertheless I consider it is useful to determine the most important directions that will be pursued by retail panel research. A hypothetical future picture is drawn in the final part of the paper. The main requirements for the future are an improvement of the quality of the data in terms of higher coverage and of higher accuracy. Computer technology will play also an important role in the future of retail panel research: there is the need a for more client-friendly software. Other kinds of data, for example data by named chain, could become important in future, given that the retail structure is changing rapidly across Europe.