Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
The North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) is pleased to announce the launch of the NRHA Retail Research Group (RRG), which is dedicated to delivering quality, retailer-driven research to the home improvement channel.
“Helping members and the channel at large gain a better and more in-depth understanding of the home improvement industry is a critical responsibility for our association and the NRHA Retail Research Group will help us fulfill this important duty,” says Bill Lee, NRHA president and CEO.
“The research produced by the RRG will be driven by retailers for the entire channel.”
The NRHA Retail Research Group is committed to providing two keystone research projects to the industry each year focusing on delivering key insights into trends, best practices and the range of forces impacting the home improvement channel. Once completed, this research will be analyzed by the Retail Research Group and translated into white papers, webinars, live conferences and roundtables. The nature, scope and focus of these projects will be completely determined by the NRHA Retail Research Group advisory group, which is comprised of home improvement retailers.
“Because NRHA is the association of home improvement retailers, we wanted to make sure our Research Group is delivering the kind of information these retailers need to run better and more profitable businesses,” says Dan Tratensek, NRHA Vice President of Publishing.
“So, having the direction of the research determined by a group of retailers is really the best way to make sure we are doing this.”
NRHA is currently assembling this advisory group and is looking for retailers who both believe in the value of research for their businesses and who are willing to make an investment of time and resources to be a part of this exciting concept and further advance the home improvement industry. “Throughout my many years in the industry there has always been a need for quality research and analysis,” says Sonya Ruff Jarvis, a consultant with NRHA’s Retail Research Group. “Now, this level of research will be available to retailers of all shapes and as well as the industry as a whole.”
NRHA currently conducts a wide range of research projects that serve the home improvement industry and retailers, including its annual Cost of Doing Business Study, Annual Market Measure Report and various research throughout the year on topics ranging from consumer shopping habits to retail advertising trends. The NRHA Retail Research Group will augment this existing research with high-level keystone research projects that will ultimately benefit the entire channel, says Tratensek.
“The more information we can provide retailers, the better decisions they can make about the direction they want to take their businesses,” he says. “Obviously, the research we perform currently and will be conducting through the Retail Research Group will provide insights not only to retailers but to the broader home improvement channel.”
The NRHA Retail Research Group will be announcing its first keystone research project later this summer and will release the findings of this project in late fall. In addition to the keystone research projects it conducts, the NRHA Retail Research Group will also provide regular updates on pertinent research to the industry through vehicles such as Hardware Retailing magazine, social media and electronic newsletters.
In 2015 the NRHA Retail Research Group will also be hosting a series of webinars and a live conference focused around research and information. For more information about the NRHA Retail Research Group, how to become an advisory group member or about the North American Retail Hardware Association, please contact, Dan Tratensek at (317) 275-9407 or DanT@nrha.org. You can also follow the NRHA Retail Research Group through its Twitter account @NRHARRG or through its LinkedIn group, which can be found as part of the NRHA LinkedIn profile.
