Featured Innovator

An Edmonton-based company is dramatically increasing sales for international companies by tracking and analyzing customers in retail stores.

In starting up HeadCount, founder Mark Ryski discovered retail companies were not counting customers who entered their stores and, more importantly, they were not tracking customers’ buying habits or shopping patterns.

HeadCount provides retail companies with the data to track and analyze customers visiting their stores by installing traffic counters. The customer traffic data is analyzed by HeadCount employees to determine how many customers visited the store compared to sales transactions made, advertising campaigns, number of staff and weather conditions.

The idea of HeadCount was born in 1994 when Ryski was a student at the University of Alberta. The original concept was to develop electronic traffic counters and sell them to local retail stores. After graduation, Ryski decided to abandon his business to pursue other career options. Nine years later while shopping at West Edmonton Mall, Ryski discovered retail stores were not using traffic counters and there was still a need for his business.

Ryski realized the majority of retailers do not have the staff to review customer traffic data or to use this data to learn how to cut costs and improve sales performance. Upon reviewing retail operations he decided to further develop his business by offering customer analysis services. HeadCount data analysts review visiting customers versus purchasing customers (customer conversion) to eliminate low sales and improve customer satisfaction. HeadCount was reborn, tracking customers visiting retail stores and analyzing how to convert them into buying customers.

“By measuring traffic and customer conversion, retailers are able to clearly see how stores are performing compared to the traffic opportunity that comes in the door,” said Ryski. “It’s always an eye opener for the retailers, and it’s through these studies that they become clients for our ongoing service.”

Headquartered at the Edmonton Research Park, HeadCount clientele varies from small to large retail organizations in North America. Some of the companies it has successfully helped improve their business include Hallmark, Ashley Furniture and Visions. HeadCount has already expanded its office space and will soon expand into the European market.

The Edmonton Research Park provides a supportive community and environment for start-up technology companies, fostering research innovation, through providing easy access to resources and world-class facilities. “HeadCount is a model of how business incubators work at the Edmonton Research Park. We house start-up companies and, as they become more successful, we graduate them into expanded facilities at the park. Our featured innovator Mark, and his company, have been a great tenant," said Candace Brinsmead, Vice-President of Technology Advancement at the research park. “From the start, being part of the park’s community has enabled us to network with other entrepreneurs, share ideas and experiences,” said Ryski.

For more information on HeadCount, visit www.headcount.com.