The following will give you a better understanding of the service, and how it can help your business. If you have any other questions, please email retailanalysis@igd.com

What is Retail Analysis? What insight will I find on Retail Analysis? How can I get the most from Retail Analysis? Can I get some training on how to best use Retail Analysis? How does my Retail Analysis subscription work? Some practical tips for using Retail Analysis

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Retail Analysis makes it easier and quicker for you, in a busy commercial environment, to do your job - It’s as simple as that. With Retail Analysis, you'll have access to a wealth of intelligence and analysis on retailers, countries, and formats, gathered directly from the retailers themselves. Many of these retailers are IGD members, and these close relationships give us privileged insights not available to other information providers.

• Retailer Hubpages – Acting as gateways to all the intelligence and analysis that the site has to offer. Select your chosen retailer from "Browse Content" top left, press Go. The Hubpage will take you straight to the latest news, photos, presentations and site updates for that retailer, and will allow you to easily navigate all of the information on offer.

• Retailer Profiles – In two different formats. Full Profiles detail strategy, financial performance, store portfolio, store visits, trading activities, marketing, online and other channels and SWOT. Compact Profiles contribute to an overall understanding of a given marketplace. Typically compact profiles will contain key financial, strategic and store portfolio information plus a SWOT analysis.

• Country Hubpages – Enabling you to quickly identify which operators are active in which markets, and assess the opportunities available to you.

• Format Hubpages – Discounters? Convenience? Hypermarkets? We've got them and more covered in their own dedicated portals.

• Search Engine – Powerful, accurate and effortless access to the information you need - even searches within presentations!

• PowerPoint Presentation – Slides on retailers, countries, formats and much more.

• Store Visit Reports – Providing you with the low-down on retail formats and new store developments.

• Photo Gallery – Containing 35,000 internal and external store shots, fully searchable by retailer, country and category.

• Datacentre – Providing detailed statistical information on a range of financial and operational indicators. Call up all the answers to the questions you have, whether they be ‘top line’ sales queries or more complex sales density comparisons of retailer formats.

• Performance Indicators – This section is packed with macro-level industry data and analysis, which will be updated on a regular basis.

• A weekly Retail Analysis Newsletter – Containing commentary and analysis on the latest developments in UK and International retailing plus debriefs of IGD conferences, trade briefings and store visits. Articles are stored in an extensive searchable archive, with IGD's analysis available exclusively to subscribers.

• Site updates page, making sure you know precisely what content has been added recently.

The ways in which our customers apply the insight on Retail Analysis is limitless. However, here are just a few ways that Retail Analysis could help you achieve your business goals:

1. Meeting a key account? Use the relevant Retailer hub to brush up on their latest initiatives, know what issues are on their agenda, talk their language to maximise your credibility

2. Preparing your business plan? Print out retailer profiles to guide the process

3. Growing the team? Get new joiners up to speed on the accounts they'll be managing

4. Benchmarking key account performance? Interactive charting enables you to compare and contrast retailers

5. Briefing senior management? The Format hubs give you the perfect snapshot of the latest trends in the channels you operate in

6. Looking abroad? Use our global retail and macroeconomic database to understand growth drivers and market prospects in over 150 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

7. Looking to improve Category Management? Use the photo gallery to track in-store execution

8. Information overload? Retail Analysis provides a central store of authoritative, accurate and timely retailer information to use throughout your company

9. Too busy to visit new stores? Use the store visit reports, store layout diagrams and photos to track the latest store developments without leaving your desk

10. Working from home? Log in remotely so 'out of office' doesn't mean 'out of touch'

Certainly. We train hundreds of people each year on how to get the best from our services. We do this in two ways:

• Open courses - held regularly at IGD offices near Watford. Click here for more and to book your place
• Company specific courses - we will gladly come to you offices to train a group of users. Simply email our customer service team

Q. How long does the subscription last?

A. One year from when you confirmed your subscription.

Q. Can I share passwords with my colleagues?

A. No, each user has a separate username and password. If these details are shared, we could block your account. Please let us know if you would like to upgrade your licence to Retail Analysis.

Q. Can we change the users?

A. Certainly - as long as there are enough licences on your account. We regularly monitor usage levels and will suggest changes to the list of users. We will also remove users who have left the company and add those who have just joined (within the limits of the subscription).

Q. Can I login via my company intranet?

A. A selected, but increasing, number of companies with corporate access to Retail Analysis make the site available to users via their intranet without the need to login. This clearly offers a great deal of convenience to users but please note:

     • This feature will only be available in designated company locations only.
     • Users will still need to know passwords for remote access, e.g. via laptops or home working.
     • This service is available only to companies with corporate-level access to Retail Analysis.

To find out if this service is available at your company, please call us on +44(0) 1923 851956

Q. Can I print off the Retailer Profiles to read when I'm away from my desk?

A. Yes - Go to the retailer hubpage of your choice and hit the button at the bottom left of your screen.

You can then print or save the PDF file which is produced in a new window.

Alternatively you can select from a list of Retailer Profiles to print from here.

Q. Can I use the photos in presentations and reports?

A. Yes, provided they are sourced to IGD.

Q. I have downloaded one of your presentations on your featured retailers. Is it possible to access the data which underlies charts?

A. Yes. Open the presentation in Powerpoint and go to the slide which holds a chart of interest. Double click on the chart. If the data does not appear, right click on a blank area of the chart and select "Datasheet". When the datasheet appears, the data can be copied into Excel, Word etc

Q. I have produced a report using the Datacentre, but I want to do my own data manipulation in Excel. Can I do this?

A. Yes. When you have produced the data, look just above the data table at "Data Tools". Click the Excel Spreadsheet icons. When prompted, choose the Open File from Current Location option. This will open the data in an Excel window.

Q. I find it difficult to remember my login password for Retail Analysis. Is there any way I can change it to something more memorable?

A. After login go to 'My Profile' at the top right of the screen where you can change your password, and update us with any changes to your contact details.

If you are struggling to reach this point, every login box on Retail Analysis has a 'forgotten password' function where you can retrieve your password via email.

Some users may be able to login via their company intranet - see this answer.

Q. When I print off a page from a Retailer Profile, it cuts the ends of lines or prints lots of extra pages. Is there a fault with the site?

A. No, this is caused by the way your browser prints web pages. Where you see an icon entitled 'Print Page', pressing this will ensure your selection is reproduced in a 'printer-friendly' format.

Q. I have to give an internal presentation and would like to use a graph from a slide I have downloaded from Retail Analysis. Can I copy and paste it into Powerpoint?

A. Yes, and in most cases you can do even more! The vast majority of the charts in our slides contain the underlying datasheet. Open the IGD slide in Powerpoint, double click the selected chart and the data should appear. This can then be copied and manipulated in your own Powerpoint file.

Q. I want to view an IGD Presentation Slide in Powerpoint, but when I click on "Open file from current location" I get an error. What can I do?

A. This is due to a bug in some browsers. When downloading a slide, please choose the "Save File To Disk" option instead, download, and then open the Powerpoint file from the location where you downloaded it to. The advantage of this is that the file will then be saved for your future use too.